Country Studied: Cyprus
Area of Focus: Primary school teachers can boost the learning of students with difficulties and how leaders can support their efforts.
Types of learning difficulties the Best Practice is supporting:
- Reading and writing difficulties.
- Social or emotional difficulties.
Aims and objectives of Best Practice
This article aims to explore what changes two Cypriot primary school teachers brought in their teaching in order to help students with learning difficulties improve in their classes. The practice was qualitative and used non-participant observation in two primary classrooms in different primary schools and semi-structured interviews with the main teachers of these classes. In addition, the teachers boosted the learning of students with learning difficulties by focusing on essentials, using process-oriented praise, peer tutoring, and regular communication with parents. The article concludes with suggestions about how Cypriot primary school teachers can boost the learning of students with difficulties and how leaders can support their efforts.
The practice aims to explore what changes two primary school teachers brought in their teaching in order to help students with learning difficulties progress within Cypriot primary classrooms. In order to fulfil the above aim, it will investigate the following questions:
- What elements in these two teachers’ practice allowed pupils with learning difficulties improve?
- What kind of training could enhance the primary teachers’ ability and knowledge to boost learning opportunities for students with learning difficulties in Cypriot primary classrooms?
- How can primary management teams support teachers’ efforts to help pupils with learning difficulties improve?
Short description of Best Practice
The implementation of multisensory philosophy in teaching:
The teacher of this class (teacher 2) used this philosophy in order to make learning more interesting for all students, and also improve the learning of four students, aged between eight and nine years, with difficulties in processing information and a short attention span. These students found it hard to participate in the lesson and had difficulty in understanding or producing spoken language. Consequently, they could not take part in classroom discussions or respond to simple instructions (e.g. Open your books at page 5!). They were very slow to complete school work and had a poor recall of facts.
Although they came from middle-class families, their parents did not show much interest in their school work. Teacher 2 had 21 years of experience, a master’s degree in teaching English to speakers of other languages and an MPhil regarding written language improvement. She educated herself in multisensory methodology through her own study.
3 Key learning Principles that were used in this Best Practice to support learners with LD
- Multisensory philosophy aims to help children learn by using more than one sense. In this way, difficulties with processing information because of one of the senses (e.g. auditory processing or visual processing) can be addressed with the opportunity to process information with the use of more than one senses (e.g. vision, hearing, touch and movement). Consequently, the children can develop in their brains various kinds of memories to hang on to such as visual, auditory, tactile or kinetic. In this way, all the children are given the opportunity to use their personal areas of strength to learn.
- The above multisensory programs aim to help children overcome the difficulties in learning the letter (grapheme)–sound (phoneme) correspondence, a usual difficulty faced by children with reading difficulties.
- Neuroimaging techniques (they provide images of brain activity while individuals perform an activity, in this case phonological processing), has confirmed that areas of the brain (parietal and fusiform cortex) responsible for decoding letters (orthography) into language sounds (phonology) of children with reading difficulties present atypical activation patterns.
- Cypriot universities offer future primary teachers knowledge regarding learning difficulties characteristics, in bachelor degrees, so that the teachers will be able to identify these children. More specialisation about how to treat children with learning difficulties is provided in master’s degrees. At the moment educational psychologists from the MOEC examine children, after request from the school, in order to confirm whether they have learning difficulties. Children identified with learning difficulties have lessons with a special education teacher in addition to their classroom lessons. Special education teachers are either primary teachers with a master’s or higher degree in special education or educators with specialisation in special educational needs teaching.
Strategies used as part of Best Practice
- Adapting instruction to various learning styles.
- Strategies for modifying or creating teaching materials to suit different abilities.
Results and impact
- What elements in these two teachers’ practice allowed pupils with learning difficulties improve?
- What kind of training could enhance the primary teachers’ ability and knowledge to boost learning opportunities for students with learning difficulties in Cypriot primary classrooms?
- How can primary management teams support teachers’ efforts to help pupils with learning difficulties improve?
Why can this Best Practice be useful for the project research?
It provides a variety of best practices & compares and contrasts 2 different approaches. The teachers in this practice developed professionally, either through personal study or the school educational psychologist, in order to help students with learning difficulties. These teachers enriched knowledge regarding learning difficulties characteristics gained in initial training with knowledge about how to address specific needs of pupils with difficulties in their classes. This shows that these teachers or other teachers who might have students with learning difficulties in their classes could be benefited from a scheme of mentors who could collaborate with them about how to meet the needs of particular students with difficulties.
Transferability
The material provided can be adapted on teaching foreign languages and key themes in supporting the teachers employing multisensory approaches to impart knowledge to students with learning difficulties sees no boundaries in terms of school subjects.
Critical issues
- The teachers in this study developed professionally, either through personal study or the school educational psychologist, in order to help students with learning difficulties.
- In both cases instruction remained of high quality and targeted skills which are essential in the knowledge society of the twenty-first century. In the first case, skills referred to literacy and numeracy which are basic for further learning. In the second case, the aim was the development of skills with which students could comprehend information, work with it and complete tasks.
- Peer interaction was an important element in both cases. The use of classmates as mentors allowed student A to receive help with her study and establish a good relationship.
- The teachers used process-oriented praise. Teacher 1 encouraged student A to overcome difficulties by praising her effort to learn. Teacher 2 praised team efforts so that the students with difficulties would feel part of an achieving group. As an outcome the students, especially those with learning difficulties, could feel positive about their efforts, even when these were not completed or excellent. This allowed them to carry on their efforts and improve. Research confirmed that process-oriented praise leads to the development of a growth mindset.
Any additional learning that we can take from this Best Practice, example:
- Mentoring & supporting teachers.
- Creating empathy and a positive environment through process-praising both on an individual and a group level.
- Including teaching foreign languages to students with learning difficulties as part of the university curriculum.
