Module: EDU5101-20 Supporting Learners with Additional Needs

Level: 5

Credit Value: 20

Module Tutor: Ben Simmons

Module Tutor Contact Details: b.simmons@bathspa.ac.uk

1. Brief description and aims of module:

This module focuses on the inclusion of learners with additional educational needs in a range of education settings. Recent guidance and legislation suggests that more children and students with additional educational needs will be learning within mainstream education. As a result all education professionals need to know more about organizing learning environments and working in teams. This means that you will need to be familiar with the range of needs you might encounter in your professional practice, and the best ways to support learners with additional educational needs.

In any school or educational setting you are likely to meet students with many kinds of additional educational needs and varying levels of severity of needs. This module will introduce you to some key areas frequently encountered in educational settings. Some examples of special educational needs are: Hearing Impairment and Specific Learning Difficulties such as Dyslexia. Broader areas of additional needs of children in the care system will be used to model for you how teachers, practitioners and specialist professionals work as teams supporting education settings and pupils. Tutors and visiting lecturers will introduce you to the intellectual and practical skills that you will need to learn and apply in order to support students with additional educational needs.

The aims of the module are to:

1. Explore current legislation about including learners with additional needs

2. Consider the needs of individual pupils who require extra support to access the curriculum and access the educational opportunities to which they are entitled

3. Learn about different ways in which professionals and specialists work with pupils with additional educational needs

4. Look critically at research based literature in this field with a view to applying models of good practice

5. Develop skills of presenting your ideas by exploring educational needs in depth through active participation in workshops with and for your peers and colleagues.

2.Outline syllabus

The syllabus problematizes complex ideas about inclusion by questioning the medical and social model of disability. Main theories are interrogated in two ways, firstly during the first term through the experiences of professionals who are invited to share their personal experiences. Depending on their availability, these are a head teacher, social worker, speech therapist, behaviour management experts. The policies and theories are examined and explored further in the second and third terms through research based documents.

The module is divided into three sections

1. Professional Perspectives on SEN, Disability and Additional Support Needs

2. Current Issues and New Directions: Policy, Legislation and provision of services

3. Developing a Personal and Professional Perspective on SEN and Additional Needs

3.Teaching and learning activities

The sessions are delivered as lectures and seminars. Some sessions also use workshops. All students have access to further tutorial support. Role play and workshop activities help to consolidate a deeper understanding of theoretical and practical issues facing teachers. All the learning activities help with assessed tasks such as writing annotated bibliographies, reflecting on how each one of us learns from personal and professional experience, and working in teams to provide a training session/ workshop at the end of the year.

Assessment Item 1:

• Assessment Type: Course Work

• Description: Essay (2,500 words)

• % Weighting: 50%

Assessment Item 2:

• Assessment Type: Course Work

• Description: Workshop (2,500 words equivalent)

• % Weighting: 50%