Hi Kim and all,
We are working on a dedicated area on the ALDinHE website for access to professional development training materials - it would be very good to have a repository for these.
In the interim, the training materials from the ALDinHE professional development days are available from the ALDinHE Professional Development Blog here:
http://aldinheprofdev.wordpress.com/2011/02/07/leeds-professional-development-day-january-2011/
I hope this helps - please let me know if anyone has trouble accessing these.
Best wishes
Michelle
Dr Michelle Reid
Study Adviser, Study Advice & Maths Support
1st Floor Carrington Building, Whiteknights, University of Reading, RG6 6UA
0118 378 4218
www.reading.ac.uk/studyadvice www.reading.ac.uk/mathssupport
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From: learning development in higher education network [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Kim Shahabudin [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 23 February 2011 10:34
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Learning development and inclusivity
At Reading, Judy Turner is the university specialist on SpLDs and also team leader of the Study Advice team. Assessments for SpLDs are carried out as part of our service, and we certainly see a lot of students with SpLDs and some with ASD (fewer since we lost our team specialist, Angela Taylor) for individual advice sessions. We also have specialist dyslexia tutors for dedicated support paid for through the DSA and mentors for students with SpLDs and ASD. These are managed by the Disability Advisory Service, but we have regular contacts.
Our overall philosophy is that most of the strategies we suggest to students with SpLDs and ASD are the same as those we suggest to all of our students - they may just need to be made more explicit and broken down into smaller steps. So good learning practices for SpLD and ASD students are just good learning practices. The difference is in the delivery of advice and guidance - the notion of 'engagement' is quite different with students with ASD for instance, and there is often the need to put more work into building academic confidence.
I certainly found the prospect of working with students with SpLDs and ASD daunting when I first started work as a learning developer, and would welcome professional training.
Side issue - could we have a section of the ALDinHe website for professional training resources? The training events so far have been great, but not everyone can get there and new staff could really benefit from access to training materials...
Kim
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Dr Kim Shahabudin, FHEA, Study Adviser, Study Advice & Maths Support
1st floor Carrington Building, Whiteknights, University of Reading, RG6 6UA
• 0118 378 4236/4218 • www.reading.ac.uk/studyadvice<http://www.reading.ac.uk/studyadvice>
Winner of Student Nominated Award for Outstanding Contribution to Teaching and Learning, 2010
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From: learning development in higher education network [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of John Hilsdon [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 22 February 2011 21:40
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Learning development and inclusivity
Dear all
As some of you know, despite my great age, I have embarked upon a professional doctorate in Education. My overall theme is what we (can/might) mean by learning development and the implications of our work for HE generally ...
One of the things I am wondering about at the moment in relation to this overall theme is the extent to which learning developers usually see their work as being guided by principles of inclusivity and good practice in learning for all – e.g. see the LearnHigher resources at http://learnhigher.ac.uk/Staff/Learning-for-all.html ...
More specifically, are staff with specialised qualifications and experience in teaching and working with students with disabilities -such as dyslexia, autism and hearing impairments - working as part of your teams or alongside learning developers in your institution? Do we work sufficiently closely with such specialists – and do we have relevant professional development in the area of inclusivity for ourselves ... and should we be the ones offering development work to other HE colleagues around learning for all? I’d welcome thoughts, comments, links to reading or any other responses!
All the best
John
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