creating value for students with learning difficulties

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This article was downloaded by: [University of Birmingham] On: 19 November 2014, At: 10:28 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Journal of Educational Television Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cjem18 Creating Value for Students with Learning Difficulties Sylvia Hines a a Director, Mental Health Media Council Published online: 03 Aug 2006. To cite this article: Sylvia Hines (1994) Creating Value for Students with Learning Difficulties, Journal of Educational Television, 20:2, 79-91, DOI: 10.1080/0260741940200203 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0260741940200203 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/ terms-and-conditions

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Page 1: Creating Value for Students with Learning Difficulties

This article was downloaded by: [University of Birmingham]On: 19 November 2014, At: 10:28Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

Journal of Educational TelevisionPublication details, including instructions for authors andsubscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cjem18

Creating Value for Students withLearning DifficultiesSylvia Hines aa Director, Mental Health Media CouncilPublished online: 03 Aug 2006.

To cite this article: Sylvia Hines (1994) Creating Value for Students with Learning Difficulties,Journal of Educational Television, 20:2, 79-91, DOI: 10.1080/0260741940200203

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0260741940200203

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the“Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis,our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoeveras to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Anyopinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of theauthors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of theContent should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primarysources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions,claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilitieswhatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, inrelation to or arising out of the use of the Content.

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Anysubstantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing,systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms& Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

Page 2: Creating Value for Students with Learning Difficulties

Journal of Educational Television, Vol. 20, No. 2, 1994 79

Creating Value for Students withLearning DifficultiesSYLVIA HINESDirector, Mental Health Media Council

Sylvia Hines is Director of the Mental Health Media Council andcarried out the research on behalf of BBC Education.

Initial outlineThis research project, carried out for BBC Education in 1993, looked atthe needs of teachers and students in severe learning difficulty (SLD) schools.It formed the first stage of a major project to produce programming forchildren with severe learning difficulties. Channel 4 may join this project in1995/6.

Research method

The research used three methods:

(1) A questionnaire to headteachers in all SLD schools in England and Wales. Thisasked for information about the amount to which television was used, thedifficulties teachers had with existing materials, the curriculum areas they feltthat television could best support and general information about their experi-ences in using television.

(2) Qualitative research looking at the quality and extent of students' learning fromten extracts from existing schools programmes. Teachers were given the oppor-tunity to choose television material relevant to their programme of work and todevise a lesson around it. The extracts, chosen to represent different formalstyles and approaches, ranged in length from 1-6 minutes and had 'animals' asa common theme. The students participating in the research ranged from age9-19.

(3) A viewing diary completed by students participating in the qualitative research.Students, with their parents assistance, were asked to keep a record of theirtelevision viewing over a two-week period.

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80 5. Hines

Findings

1. A clear need for targeted programming

While teachers in SLD schools do make use of existing programmes, they do so farless than those in mainstream schools and have to look much further afield for theirmaterial. The main problems they find are that the programmes are too complex andthat they convey too much information.

2. Particular benefits of television for students with SLD

The richness of television makes it a particularly valuable medium for these studentsin a number of ways.

3. Developing new programming

The research looked at the ideal formal characteristics for programmes aimed atthese students. Findings included the following:

• that presenters' explanations need to be signed (using a version of sign supportedEnglish) as well as spoken,

• that filmed footage should have very limited commentary,• that the important information must be shown visually,• that objects are shown first in a full shot and that close-ups follow logically from

that, going back to a wide shot to keep the context clear,• slow motion is particularly helpful; time lapses are not,• that 5-15 minutes is an optimum length, but that programmes must allow for

further segmentation,• that the main idea needs to be repeated and reinforced consistently throughout

the programme. Illustrative examples can be detrimental to the students' under-standing of the main point,

• all programmes must encourage students to discuss and comment

4. Teacher/student support

The research also showed that teachers had had little opportunity to develop skillsin using television/video and that ideas about how any materials could mosteffectively be used in a cross-curriculum context, with students with a wide range ofabilities are essential.

The future project

This research formed part of a five-year plan for broadcasting, initiated by BBCEducation. The first programmes—mixture of new material and edited footage fromprevious programmes—were transmitted in 1994. They were accompanied byteachers notes, student worksheets and symbol software.

They will then be evaluated and further original programming will be developedfor 1995/6, possibly in collaboration with Channel 4.

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Page 4: Creating Value for Students with Learning Difficulties

Students with Learning Difficulties 81

Conference presentation

Paper presented on behalf of BBC Education, UK by Sylvia Hines

Television has addressed the needs of children with learning difficulties before, buthas never specifically focused on the needs of those with severe learning difficulties,a population receiving different schooling and for whom curriculum resources arehardest to find. They have formed the central focus of a five year 'Access toLearning' initiative developed by BBC Education in partnership with Special NeedsJoint Education Initiative for Training (SENJIT) and the National Council forEducational Technology (NCET). Channel 4 will join the initiative in 1995.

Given that this was a new and largely unknown audience for broadcasters,research was crucial to establish:

• a profile of the target audience,• teachers' curriculum support needs,• an understanding of students' experience as television viewers,• appropriate formal characteristics for the programmes.

This paper briefly describes the research process and gives some examples of thequalitative work undertaken. The main emphasis, however, is on the findings withregard to formal characteristics and how these informed the first programmes,transmitted in March 1994.

Research design

The research was commissioned from the Mental Health Media Council and tookplace during the summer term of 1993. It had three components:

(1) A questionnaire, sent to headteachers in all SLD schools in England and Wales.This asked for information about the amount to which television was used, thedifficulties teachers had with existing materials, the curriculum areas they feltthat television could best support and general information about their experi-ences in using television.

(2) Qualitative research, evaluating students' learning from extracts from existingschools programmes. Seven schools in the south-east participated and a total of32 lessons were observed. Participating teachers were given a videotape contain-ing ten different extracts and asked to choose two or three relevant to theirprogramme of work and to devise lessons around them.

(3) Students participating in the qualitative research were also asked, with theirparents' assistance, to keep a record of their television viewing over a two-weekperiod.

The television materials

The extracts were chosen to represent different formal styles and levels of con-ceptual difficulty. They ranged in length from one to six minutes, with 'animals'

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Page 5: Creating Value for Students with Learning Difficulties

82 5. Hines

as a common theme. The intention was that teachers would be able to find anextract that seemed at an appropriate level for their students. The extracts weretaken from: Watch, 'Skeletons and Spring'; Good Health, 'Kieran'; Zig-zag, 'Conser-vation' parts 1 and 3; Words and Pictures, 'Noses', 'Thomas the Tortoise' and'Supermoo'.

We also said we would like to watch any lessons which regularly used tele-vision programmes and were able to observe literacy work using Words andPictures; a news/current affairs lesson using Newsround; and a PSE lesson usingNeighbours.

Summary of findings

1. The target audience

There are approximately 24,000 schoolchildren in the UK with severe and profoundlearning difficulties [1], defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO) aschildren with an IQ of less than 35.

School provision for these children is separate from that for children with mildto moderate learning difficulties (defined by WHO has having an IQ between35-70). Most SLD schools cater for children from the ages of 2-19 years, althoughthis pattern is currently changing, with many schools separating into narrower ageranges in line with mainstream provision. A variable proportion of these children willhave profound and multiple learning difficulties, often with associated physical,auditory or visual impairments. In general the likelihood of other disabilities in-creases in relation to the severity of the handicap. Integration with mainstream orMLD schools is very rare, so the educational experience of most children with severelearning difficulties is profoundly segregated.

Sign and symbol systems are used with many of these students as an aid todeveloping speech. The system most used in schools is Makaton, which takes a basicvocabulary from British Sign Language (a complex language used by the deaf), butdoes not have a grammar as BSL does. It is therefore always used in conjunctionwith speech. Many students face the additional challenge of speaking English as asecond language.

2. Teachers' needs

The National Curriculum applies to SLD schools as well as to mainstream schools.On the whole it has been received favourably by SLD teachers, who see it as a wayto ensure that the children get access to a broad and balanced curriculum and asoffering a point of contact with their peers. To a teacher, however, it can present asubstantial challenge: subjects such as history and geography in particular aredifficult to teach to children with limited cognitive skills. Most students will spendthe whole of their school careers working towards Level 1, at least in some subjectareas [2]. This means that finding curriculum resources appropriate to the children'schronological age is a major difficulty: there are almost no appropriate resources forolder children with severe learning difficulties.

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Students with Learning Difficulties 83

Television has huge potential for these teachers, particularly with regard to areasof the curriculum which are difficult to access in other ways. However the researchshowed that SLD teachers make less use of television than do their mainstreamcolleagues. The reason is that they feel existing material to be inappropriate anddifficult to use with these students. 81% of the teachers said that the level ofcomplexity presented a problem; 78% said that the amount of information inprogrammes was a problem and 61% said that the programmes did not relate to thestudents' curriculum needs.

The curriculum areas which they felt could best be supported by televisionresources were Lifeskills and Personal and Social Education (PSE), followed byEnglish, (language, access to stories). Music, Geography and History were lesspopular but still significant: news/current affairs and modern foreign languages werenot considered relevant.

Teachers were also asked about the types of programme they would be mostlikely to use with their students, assuming that they had been made with childrenwith severe learning difficulties in mind. The results are represented in figure 1 andshow that environmental topics and discussion of personal relationships are particu-larly popular.

Television resources need skilled facilitation for their full potential to be realised.The classroom observation revealed some excellent examples of this. However, italso showed that most teachers have no training or experience in using television toits full potential. The more experienced teachers, for example, would repeat theextract as necessary to illustrate the educational point they were making and woulduse the pause facility while assisting the more profoundly disabled students to comeup and point to things on the screen. Less experienced teachers would tend to showthe programmes straight through and ask students afterwards what they hadthought. The questionnaires also revealed that almost a third of teachers are stillwatching programmes at the time they are broadcast and only just over half theteachers watched the material themselves before showing it to the class.

Students with profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD). Teachers felt thattelevision had equal value for children with profound learning difficulties as for therest of the SLD school population. However, only two of the observed sessionseffectively included these students: in most of the others they were simply present.Support materials produced therefore need to recognise the wide range of abilitieswithin every SLD class and suggest activities that will be appropriate for all students:they also need to recognise the broad cross-curricular context in which teachers willbe working.

3. Students' viewing experience

The students' viewing diaries revealed them to be very experienced televisionwatchers, with soap operas as their favoured viewing—this was more than confirmedby listening to conversations with their peers. One of the lessons observed

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84 5. Hines

Illustrating environmental topics

D , lOefinltelY/probabl^Jse^^^^H

0% 50%

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ • N o t sure/^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ H n o t use/no^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ H response

91% 100%

Illustrating historical topics

Adaptations of well-known stories

. 10%

MBDefinitely probably u s e ^ ^ B•

50% 56%

Not sure/notuse/ no

response

100%

Not sure/ notuse/ no

response

Magazine -

D f ^ H

•' E

0%

news, discussion,

LHH£ntely/probabl^JSE

quizzes with learning disabled people taking

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ H Not sure/not use/ no response

45% 60%

part

100%

Games

D f 1

" ' 1

0%

to

1stimulate problem-solving, thinking

•5 0 %

skills

• ^ • N O

75%

sure/not use/noresponse

100%

Drama and discussion of feelings, personal relationships

50% 86% 100%

FIG. 1. What kinds of programme would you and your students be most likely to watch, assumingthat the material had been selected with the needs of pupils with severe learning difficulties in mind?

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Students with Learning Difficulties 85

made excellent use of Neighbours for the PSE curriculum of a school-leaversgroup and this emphasised how this experience of television could be used to goodeffect, either by producing resouces to help teachers make use of programmessuch as Neighbours, or to use the stylistic features of soaps in new programming. Itis worth drawing attention to some of these features which make soaps particularlyvaluable for students with learning difficulties:

Characterisation: the characters are present over a period of years, during which timethey become familiar and known. This meant that students could remember quitecomplex patterns of relationships as well as key moments in each character's history.This is helped by the way in which motives and feelings are usually made explicit—acharacter will say 'I feel sad because ...' Finally, in Neighbours, the most popularsoap, the main characters are young people.

Repetition: there is a high degree of repetition within the programmes as well as thatafforded by the on-going nature of the soap.

Setting: soaps' settings are broadly familiar; the home, the cafe, the school. Thesubjects concern human issues on an individual rather than a social level.

Drama: despite this, the happenings are dramatic and tangible. The two episodes ofNeighbours observed with students featured a young man recovering from being shotand an argument about a boy who has run away from home because he doesn't wantto go to boarding school.

Style: soap has a limited repertoire of techniques, usually sticking to straightforwardshots and editing. The episodic nature breaks it up into small segments which areindividually a good length for students to comprehend.

Social status: soaps are watched by a large proportion of the population, so itgives the students the opportunity to connect with a broader social experience.Teachers are probably one of the least likely groups of people to see and appreciatethem.

4. Assisting students' learning

This qualitative work yielded rich information about visual styles and particularstructures that students found difficult to comprehend, as well as ones which wereparticularly helpful. Two brief samples are given below, chosen to illustrate strengthsand weaknesses of the medium.

'Noses' (Watch). The extract begins with the presenter putting clown's make-up onher nose. She then begins an up-beat song about noses, accompanied by a fastmontage of shots of different animals' noses.

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86 5. Hines

One of the classes observed (with students aged 9-12) used the clip as part of amaths lesson. The session began with the teacher introducing words which coulddescribe shape—'long', 'thin' etc.—and then texture—'rough', 'smooth', 'bumpy'.These were illustrated with objects around the classroom, together with some otherswhich the teacher had brought in especially, such as a pineapple.

The children then moved to another area of the classroom to watch the extract,with the teacher stressing that they should pay attention to the animals' noses. Thesequence was shown through once, to the students' evident enjoyment. Manyspontaneously made signs for the animals shown. The teacher then froze the videoon particular animals and asked the students to describe the nose. Those who wouldnot have been able to manage this were encouraged to get up and point to theanimal or the nose on the screen. Here is a taster of the dialogue:

Teacher: 'What's that?'St: 'Rabbit'Teacher: 'Is its nose long?'St: 'No, flat'Teacher: 'Is it big or little?'St: 'Little'

Teacher: 'Is it a square or a circle?'St: 'Circle'Teacher: 'A, tell me about the monkey's nose'A: 'Little, flat'Teacher: 'And look, a warthog—is its nose little or long?'St: 'Long, flat'Teacher: 'Very flat and very....'A: 'Round'[A gets up to point spontaneously. They all laugh at the animal.]

The teacher had had to work extremely hard in the early part of the lesson to enablestudents to use these adjectives at all, and they were now volunteering them freelyand appropriately. This lesson was exemplary in its structure, the clarity of itseducational aims, and the way the teacher involved all the students by encouragingthe least able to come and point to things on the screen.

'Birth of a lamb' (Watch: spring). The sequence opens with the presenter standing ina pen full of recently born lambs. Holding one, she points out the number writtenon its side and explains that the farmer uses this to match it to its mother, the ewe.She then moves to watch a ewe giving birth. The programme cuts to a close-up ofthe ewe—showing first the face then the rear. The ewe is held in steady shot with thepresenter describing what's happening. She helps to pull the lamb out, cleans it, andgives it to the ewe. Music (up-beat) comes on, then the programme cuts to twentyminutes later when the lambs are standing already—the presenter comments that ittakes a human baby months to be able to do this.

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Students with Learning Difficulties 87

This was a popular extract and used by several classes. The one described herewas a group of six 16-18 year olds. In their lesson they were shown two extracts andasked to compare and evaluate them. Encouraging the students to evaluate was amajor target for the teacher and they are asked to fill out evaluation forms after everyactivity.

One student reacted very strongly against the extract, repeating throughout thelesson: 'it's disgusting, isn't it?' This transcript gives a flavour of the dialogue of therest of the students when asked what they thought the extract was about.

K: 'Sheep pregnant, got a little baby lamb'D: 'Baby lamb'J: 'I think I learned I saw how it was born, when baby had legs out and timeto give it one more push and head popped out'R: 'Lamb dying'Teacher: 'When can the lambs walk?'S: 'No, because it takes them time'Teacher: 'Would it take them a year to learn to walk?'J: 'Yes, I think it would'K: 'She said they can walk'Teacher: 'What have you learned?'R: 'I think it was a bit cruel because it's sad news'Teacher: 'No it's not, it's happy'

What is interesting here is that R, one of the more able students, had assumed thatthe sheep was dying: not in itself an unreasonable fear. Although the event waspresented as joyous by the lively music and by the presenter's words, one canpresume that the students only reference point for the image—which showed thebirth in full—was the iconography of the thriller/horror programme. Other studentsunderstood the programme very well (and all were mesmerised by it), but there isa lesson here about how explicit programmes need to be to prevent misunderstand-ings by these students. Most students found the concept of 'twenty minutes later'too abstract to understand.

From the 32 lessons observed, it was possible to draw out various conclusionswhich are summarised here.

1. Programme structure and style

The students observed were mostly eager to participate, yet their contributions oftenseemed off the point, even when they had shown previous signs of understanding thecontext. This may be because the organising principle of the lesson and of thetelevision programme was not clear to them.

A story or narrative sequence will have a conceptual coherence, but can also beread as a series of linked elements: this happened, then this, then this. This was howmany students perceived the programmes. This was illustrated by the classes thatsaw Thomas Tortoise, one of the most simple and repetitive extracts. Thomas asksmany different types of animals (dog, bird, etc.) to be his friend: all reply that they

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88 S. Hines

will not because he is too slow. Finally he meets a snail who is happy to be his friend,because she also carries her house on her back and moves slowly. All the studentshad a good recall of what had happened, but only the most able perceived theorganising structure of difference and similarity.

A structure where certain elements are subsets of others, as opposed to simplybeing linked together, is known as a hypotactic structure. The 'noses' clip, forexample, has two organising principles: animals and noses. The actual animals wesee—the rabbit, dog and so on—are there only as examples. For someone withoutan ability to understand hypotactic structures, the different examples will be all theyperceive. Given that children generally only develop an understanding of hypotacticstructures around the age of 10 or 11, they are likely to be extremely difficult forthese developmentally delayed students. The very strength of television's images cantherefore be a problem, leading to a focus on the particular and a difficulty in seeingthe general point. All programmes need to reinforce the organisational structure andthis then needs to be doubly and triply reinforced by the teacher and the context ofthe lesson.

Length: The extracts shown in the classroom observation ranged from one to sixminutes in length and this was an appropriate range. The 'noses' extract lasted onlyone minute yet the work related to it took a whole lesson. In the most successfullessons, the longer pieces were broken into much shorter segments, so that theteacher could pause to elaborate or to undertake related activities. A structure whichallows easy segmentation is therefore essential.

Repetition/reinforcement within the programme: Repetition is important for recall andunderstanding, but is not sufficient. For example a group watching Words andPictures were completely unable to join in the familiar refrain ('that's what we saw,when we were out and about') of a poem. A simpler refrain may have worked muchbetter.

Visual information versus soundtrack: For most students, the image is the main sourceof information. Care needs to be taken that the visual and auditory information donot compete and confuse the students. The clearest way of doing this is to explainwhat is going to happen in a very uncluttered setting (such as the studio) and thenpresent illustrative footage with a minimum of explanation. Teachers will often beproviding their own commentary at this point. Explanations need to be signed aswell as spoken.

Commentary: Most teachers felt that it was appropriate for a programme to havesome vocabulary that students wouldn't understand, so long as the general level waswithin their grasp and specialist words were explained. Some constructions, such asverbs in the passive tense, are particularly difficult and these should be avoided. TheBirth of a Lamb clip frequently used the word 'ewe', confusing when 'you' is a muchmore common usage.

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Students with Learning Difficulties 89

Film techniques: Some techniques can be extremely effective as an aid to understand-ing. Slow motion, for example, can highlight what is happening at a speed easier forchildren to take in. One extract (Watch: skeletons) used the device of superimposinga shot of an animal over its skeleton and this worked very well.

Generally, shots need to be held longer than one would normally. All objectsshould be shown first in a full shot, with close-ups following logically from it, andalways returning to the wider shot to keep the context clear.

Some film techniques may be positively confusing. One extract used a point-of-view shot to show a toad searching for its pond. Although there was no directevidence as to whether children understood this convention, this extract was onewhere there was a high degree of confusion. Students could be taught an under-standing of different elements of film language (many of them have experience ofphotography work or work with a video camera), but it is probably better forprogrammes to avoid this type of device.

Age-appropriateness: Programmes need to present information in a manner that isappropriate for the chronological not the intellectual age of the students. This wasstressed by almost all the teachers. Presenters therefore need to have 'street cred'and any children featured need to be of a similar age. Generally, children prefer tosee children older than themselves in programmes.

Children with disabilities: Many teachers felt that it was important for the students tohave positive role models of other people with disabilities. At the same time, thereseems to be a lack of confidence about discussing disability per se: one extract(Skeletons) used children with learning difficulties, without comment, to demon-strate particular skills and this was very much appreciated.

2. Students' language and communication

Teachers perceive a particular strength of television to be in developing students'communication skills and number commented on the quality of the language thatthe work had generated. One student, for example, on seeing (with great excite-ment) a skeleton of a horse, didn't just name it but said 'Horse I ride on', a verycomplicated sentence for her. Some extracts, such as the Birth of a Lamb, generatedmany spontaneous comments. For most students these comments were a process ofrecognising and naming (in words or in signs) what was on the screen and this wasalways a much-enjoyed activity. More able students tended to describe action,questioning what is going on and fixing it in their mind.

Given that everyone communicates most effectively when there is something tosay, programmes need to contain information and ideas that students will want totalk about for teachers to be able to take the language development further. Somelessons provided excellent examples of this (such as one of the lessons usingNeighbours, and one of the lessons on skeletons). The process is helped when imagesare not simply 'illustrative', but throw up surprises and contradictions.

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90 5. Hines

However, although teachers had identified language development as a curricu-lum priority, few focused on it in their lessons. The questions asked of the studentswere usually within a very limited range of naming; exceptional examples were whenthe students were invited to problem-solve (e.g. Neighbours) or imagine (e.g. Super-moo). No one asked students to predict what was going to happen. Supportingmaterials could therefore offer guidance as to how television material can be used inthis way.

Finally, the group working with Words and Pictures, (for whom it was a valuedand enjoyable whole group activity) illustrated how a structured weekly viewing canenhance the experience. The words accompanying the magic pencil were shoutedout with enthusiasm, as was the naming of the objects (for those able to keep up).This was noticeably less so with the elements that vary from week to week, whereresponses were only offered by the most confident students and then very tenta-tively.

Conclusion

The first programmes produced were six ten-minute programmes, entitled transmit-ted at the end of March 1994. The production team used the research extensively,both to inform their filming and editing styles as well as to determine the areas theyshould cover. The research was also valuable in planning the support materials,which include ideas for using the programmes in different curriculum contexts andfor developing students' language. Symbol worksheets have been prepared forstudents to use and NCET are developing symbol software so that students can goon to generate their own work. The notes also include guidance for teachers on howto use television effectively and a staff development programme, run by SENJIT,NCET and the BBC will take this further.

There is clearly a place for more detailed research and the opportunity toevaluate the first programmes and improve upon them subsequently is a major valueof the five-year span of the Access to Learning initiative.

Notes

[1] 'Learning difficulty' or 'learning disability' has now largely replaced the term 'mentalhandicap'. This has caused lengthy and bitter debate in some organisations, who feel thatlearning difficulty (the term preferred by most people with learning difficulties who canexpress a preference) is confusing, suggesting dyslexia or other relatively mild difficulties. Itis precisely for this reason that it is preferred by many, who see it as relatively non-stigmatis-ing, and part of a continuum of learning abilities.

[2] Children with learning difficulties may well have an uneven pattern of skill development. Inone school for example, a child who was only able to communicate in single words was doingcomplicated long-division tasks.

Correspondence: c/o Julie Cogill, Education Policy Unit, BBC Education, Rm 2300White City, 201 Wood Lane, London W12 7TS, UK.

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Page 14: Creating Value for Students with Learning Difficulties

Students with Learning Difficulties 91

Notes on responses from group discussionThe group welcomed the findings of the research paper from Sylvia Hines on'Creating value for students with Learning Difficulties', commissioned by the BBCfrom the Mental Health Media Council.

It was noted that some elements contained in the findings of this research werebroadly similar to findings in the case study by Jaana Jylha-Laide, in that the use ofclear, simple, images and a story line, allied to a basic vocabulary, appeared tofacilitate the process of learning from a television programme.

Reasons for the popularity of soap operas, such as Neighbours, with students withlearning difficulties were discussed. One member questioned whether programmeswith such a complex structure could be assimilated by such students, bearing inmind Sylvia's research findings in relation to attention span ([i] programme struc-ture and style, para 4). However, it was thought that a technique involving a seriesof short scenes created a 'segmentation', which seemed to hold viewing interest.Another response suggested that the 'pace' of Neighbours and the variety of treat-ment of the different characters, could be seen as an exciting contrast to theheavily-structured environment of a special school, and thus stimulate interest.

A programme maker in the group expressed the view that Neighbours was ratherlike a comic without the text 'bubbles' and people given lines to say instead; thesecharacteristics are similar to the style aspect, highlighted in Section 3. of Sylvia'sreport (students' viewing experience).

Several of the group who had some current or previous interest in, or experienceof the provision for children with special needs endorsed Sylvia's (spoken) view thatprogramme makers of such material needed to 'throw away the rule book', andapposite to the function of the research session—that Sylvia's research highlightedsome important practical issues relating to pace, programme style, length of pro-grammes, segmentation, etc., which would greatly assist the programme makers. Inthis connection, the group expressed satisfaction that the transmitted programmeswould be subject to review throughout the five year span of the Access to Learninginitiative, and that Sylvia Hines would continue her involvement as a member of thereview group.

MICHAEL PATERSON

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