Last week, Robert
Wickham and I led a workshop on “Creating an Inclusive Classroom: Diverse
Learning Styles and Disabilities.” One of the questions that this workshop
addressed was: how can students with learning and sensory disabilities be
empowered to actively participate in classroom discussions and activities? We
considered a variety of tools and practices that can be utilized to accommodate
students who have processing challenges, visual impairments, or hearing
impairments that impact their learning experience in the classroom.
The theme of
disabilities in education is familiar to many elementary and middle school
teachers, but may get less attention in the training of college and university
teachers. One study found that the percentage of teachers who felt adequately
prepared to teach students with learning disabilities dropped from 44% of
elementary school teachers, to 10.9% of university science teachers.[1]
A recent study
from researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology, funded by the Research
in Disabilities Education program of the National Science Foundation, noted a
particularly striking statistic: when college freshman entered a required
remedial math course, only 15% of students with hearing impairments achieved or
exceeded their recommended performance level, leading to gaps between these
students and their peers. However, when appropriate learning interventions were
implemented, the percentage of students with hearing impairments who exceeded
their performance levels jumped to 68%.[2]
More research
needs to be done to determine if these kinds of results are typical, but it
should nonetheless prompt university educators to consider the sorts of habits
they can adopt in ordinary classroom practices to improve the learning
experience of students with disabilities. While colleges have programs
dedicated to helping individuals with disabilities, such as Yale’s excellent
Resource Office on Disabilities (http://yalecollege.yale.edu/student-services/resource-office-disabilities),
accommodating diverse learning needs is a team effort. It requires that
teachers both create space for individual students to articulate their needs,
and that teachers become aware of how their own verbal and nonverbal habits
might present additional challenges for students with disabilities.
Here are some
examples of the types of things to be aware of in your preparation and in the
classroom:
·
Always
include information for students with disabilities on your syllabus. A school’s
disability resources office can provide information on school policies and
services, but also indicate how a student can contact you confidentially if
they so desire.
·
For
people who are visually impaired, make sure to read aloud what you write on the
board. Say “this painting by Rembrandt,” or “that glass jar” instead of just
the words “this” or “that.”
·
For
people who are hearing-impaired and need to read lips, be sure not to stand
where you are backlit.
·
Treat
students as individuals first. Two people with the same type of disability can
have different accommodation needs and different levels of functioning. If you
aren’t sure what language to use when talking about a disability, take a cue
from how a student talks about him- or herself.
·
Provide
multiple modes of instructional communication: if you give verbal instructions
for an activity, repeat the instructions on a handout or on a visual aid; or,
provide information through both text and graphics or images.
·
Consider
sharing your lecture notes with students in advance, as this can be very
helpful to students who need extra preparation time.
·
Be
on the lookout for “trigger phrases.” Suggestions that students who need
accommodation just need to “work harder” or that they are getting “special
treatment” can marginalize students with accommodation needs. Students with
disabilities encounter misunderstanding and negative attitudes about their
learning abilities and teachers also have a responsibility to support their
social inclusion in the classroom.
If you want more
information on Yale’s policies and services, check out this Faculty Guidebook (http://yalecollege.yale.edu/student-services/resource-office-disabilities/faculty-and-instructor-guidebook#learningdisabilities).
[1]
Norman, K., Caseau, D., and Stefanich, G. (1998). Teaching students with
disabilities in inclusive science classrooms: Survey results. Science Education
82(2): 127-146.
[2]
Moon et al., (2012). “Accommodating students with disabilities in science,
technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM),” SciTrain: 37 (http://www.catea.gatech.edu/scitrain/accommodating.pdf).
