Transcript Flexing the muscles of flexible learning: HE pedagogy with

Flexing the muscles of flexible learning:
HE pedagogy with deaf learners.
The Northumbria PPA experience
Lucy Currie & Mandy Barker
A credit bearing work based learning
programme run by the Flexible learning
Centre at Northumbria University.
 It provides a qualifications route from
Level 4 to 7.
 Learners are experts in their professional
areas.
 Northumbria provides an academic
framework for HE qualifications

 Deaf
CAMHS established in 2008 - NHS
funded specialist mental health service
for deaf children, young people and
families
 Consists of a multi disciplinary team with
different academic backgrounds
 Deafness and mental health is a very
specialised area of work
 No formal qualification in this field
 Expanding team needed training
 Deaf staff employed for experience with
deaf children & own life experience
 The
SHA set up a pilot course with
Northumbria University (D CAMHS CPD)
 Unfortunately the course was not as relevant to
the specialist team as anticipated
 University credits were not accessible to deaf
staff who hadn’t had the opportunity to access
further/higher education
 Multi-professional team had different CPD
expectations
 PPA route was identified as the solution
This arose from the desire by Deaf
(CAMHS) to enhance their CPD
provision for their staff.
6 staff were involved in the
programme; 3 hearing and 3 deaf.
They were to complete a 60 credit
programme at levels ranging from
4-7
3
Professionally qualified – 2 Social
Workers and 1 Interpreter
 2 held adult education teaching
certificate for British Sign Language
 1 had limited educational background but
was an experienced worker
 Deaf staff were able to use access to
work funding for the interpreters on the
course
 It
was clear from the start that this experience
was going to be different.
 Each preliminary meeting threw up new
questions.
 The learners confused the PPA credit bearing
CPD module with the pilot D CAMHS CPD. We
seemed to be going round and round in circles.
 However, the programme finally started in
March 2011
 The
PPA team had not worked with deaf
students before.
 Working
on the premise of ‘deafness’ we
identified the main barrier as
‘communication’.
Deaf
Hearing
Interpreter
Delivery
• BSL Interpreters
• Note takers
• Tele link for tutorials
Assessment
• BSL presentation of
assessed work
• BSL video recording of
assessed work.
That
deaf learners are just ‘mainstream
people who can’t hear.’
That providing interpreters and note
takers would meet their learning needs.
That the learners would readily embrace
presenting their work in BSL.
That our strategies would be adequate
interventions to facilitate the running of
the programme as a mainstream cohort.
 Society
and institutions view of deaf
people (deaf & dumb)
 Deaf people often miss the foundations of
academic understanding
 Poor academic achievements due to...
 Lack of opportunities
 Low expectations throughout childhood
 Language difficulties
 Proving intelligence through use of
English
 Extra
sessions and tutorials to facilitate 1 to
1 support
 A strong drive for BSL summative assessment
at the rate of 10 minutes of signing to a1000
words
 Structured questions to make learning
outcomes specific
 Deaf CAMHS staff supported their deaf
colleagues
 Learners arranged a peer support workshop
 Deaf CAMHS allocated work time for study
 The
room had to be suitable, the furniture
arranged for visual access
 Talking to students who were looking at someone
else was a bit unnerving
 Traditionally a student is paying attention when
they are looking at you; in this case if they are
looking at you they are certainly NOT paying
attention
 Use of metaphors is confusing
 Examples have to be clearly thought out and
visually based
 In each session there has to be 2 or three
additional people; 2 interpreters and a note taker
 Implications on group activities
•
•
•
•
•
The whole process is slower, so more time
needed
The learners needed support with researching
and incorporating literature into their work
The learners did not readily take to the idea of
presenting work in BSL due to the cumbersome
process
The instructions had to be structured and linked
to literature resources.
When guidelines were given in question format
the students were focused and addressed the
learning outcomes fully
 Deaf
staff and experienced hearing staff
hadn’t realised the full impact of
deafness on academic learning
 Deaf staff felt they had a real peer group
and could discuss the course in detail with
colleagues
 Self awareness for future opportunities
 Good IT support is needed to present in
BSL
• BSL
• English
Interpreter
Interpreter
• Reading
• Academic
content
• Academic
theory
• Academic
writing
Outputs
 Emma’s
clip
 Deaf
aware lecturers
 Trained note taker for the deaf
 Consistent BSL interpreters
 Detailed and timely lecture plans
 Deaf Academic Mentor
 Extended time for lectures and written work
 All
Students successfully gained 60
university credits including 1
university outstanding student
award
 DCAMHS has embraced this staff
development model
 1 Student accepted on
Occupational Therapy Course
 1 Student accepted on a Family
Therapy Course
 Tutor has gained level1 BSL