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Collaboration creates exciting new research
Two primary school teachers have just completed an investigation into a perceived lack of awareness and understanding of Dyslexia and Autism Spectrum Disorder.
The personal experiences of Caroline Bingham and Kirsten Duncan led them to question whether children participating in workshops and assemblies would help to raise awareness of such "hidden" disabilities.
The result, after 18 months of work, is a 20,000-word research report that has been submitted to GTC Scotland.
Caroline and Kirsten were mature students in the same year at Moray House College in Edinburgh when they found they had a common interest in additional support needs in education.
Caroline's son had been diagnosed as Autistic, and Kirsten's daughter was in P5 when she found out she was Dyslexic.
Caroline said: "After we graduated, we kept in touch and it seemed we were always on the phone sharing ideas. Whenever we met up the topic quickly turned to additional support needs. Then Kirsten came up with the idea of us doing research together after reading an article in Teaching Scotland."
She added: "There is a lot of information available about disabilities in general, and about diversity and equality, but very little about hidden disabilities. As many children with hidden disabilities are educated within mainstream schools, we thought peers should have an understanding of a variety of hidden disabilities."
The two approached GTC Scotland Educational Planning and Research Officer Ian Matheson with their application form. He said: "I could see immediately that it was an interesting proposition - and the first time since I joined GTC Scotland that we had received an application from two teachers looking to work on a single piece of research.
"What makes the collaboration even more exciting is that Kirsten works in a local authority school and Caroline teaches in an independent school."
Every part of the project was carried out collaboratively, from the workshop design and delivery right through to the choice of words used in the report.
The feedback was strong - and not just from the children who attended the workshops. "When we asked if the children felt it was important to know about hidden disabilities, one six-year-old said 'Yes - because if I don't know, I won't understand'. We asked class teachers to keep logs afterwards and one told us 'the children want to talk about it' - even in Primary one", said Kirsten.
"And the knowledge stays with them. In my school last week the drama teacher told me the children had been talking about Autism, within a lesson on rights and responsibilities. That's a full year after the workshops were held."
Ian Matheson said: "GTC Scotland has published the work and put it on our website for others to see and use. I encourage Caroline and Kirsten to share the outcomes of their research more widely with teachers."
Caroline and Kirsten are hopeful that their workshops and assemblies approach will also be used more widely during the transition from primary to secondary school to increase pupils' knowledge and understanding of hidden disabilities.
Raising awareness of hidden disabilities (dyslexia and autism spectrum disorders): the impact of awareness-raising workshops and assemblies on primary school children.
The teacher researchers chose to examine the subject using a series of workshops and assemblies involving P4-7 pupils from nine different primary schools, who were given before and after questionnaires to complete. They also produced questionnaires to be distributed to P1-7 children to discover what they had learned from attending the assembly only, and both questionnaires contained a parent/carer section. They developed separate survey forms for the parent members of Dyslexia Scotland and of the Lothian Autistic Society.
Although the researchers tried to minimise the involvement of children with hidden disabilities (to avoid the children feeling uncomfortable when the topic was discussed) they found that one or two did attend.
The two delivered workshops on Dyslexia and on Autism Spectrum Disorder, followed by an assembly delivered on the topics by the workshop participants, which the whole school attended.
For the workshops, groups of 12 pupils were chosen. Afterwards, they came together to plan the assemblies, with each child having a part to play in the presentations.
Caroline said: "We wanted to know what impact participation in the workshops would have on children's awareness and understanding in comparison to attending the assembly alone. It was evident that the children who attended the workshops, and not just the assembly, had a much broader and deeper understanding, and could provide examples when asked."
The questionnaires examined the issue from a child's perspective and from a parent/carer's perspective. Kirsten said: "We wanted to know if the adults learned anything from their children. And we found a high percentage of children who attended the workshops and the assemblies, went home and spoke to their parent/carer about it.
"In my school, almost a year after the workshops and assemblies, children are still talking about hidden disabilities, and for us, that is a very positive outcome."