Neurodiversity - chunking is a simple hack: great for academic skill acquisition - with Dora Roimata Lngsbury - Ara / Te Pūkenga

 Notes from a lunchtime session with Dora Roimata Langsbury, Kaiako Ako - academic learning support. She presented this paper at the recent Neuroability symposium conference in Dunedin. 

Focused on supporting written assessments in this iteration of her presentation. Began by sharing her background - where she was diagnosed with dyslexia when she first started at Teachers College to train as a primary school teacher. Introduced the 8 steps for writing an assessment and then went through each one with strategies at each to support neurodiversity.

Summarised some of the concepts from the book 'Studying with Dyslexia' by Janet Goodwin - 2012. Then shared student perspectives to support these concepts.

Then went through the importance of time management for all students. Need to be clear so students create a doable timetable that includes sufficient study time. Working backwards from assessment targets is also helpful.

Ensure students understand the question, Sometimes learners need help to deconstruct the instructions and to understand the connections between the assessment and the marking rubric. All a lot of text and helping learners break down the larger task into smaller chunks helps learners focus and not be overwhelmed.

Then help students create a writing plan. Help them keep one main idea per paragraph with the structure of topic sentence, supporting ideas, example and then a linking sentence to the next paragraph. 

The next step is to help them bring about a research plan to help them gather the literature and select which parts are relevant.

Then introduced the need to help students attain notetaking/ paraphrasing skills. Students need to understand the role of each sentence, use words from questions to create sentence starters and use keywords from sources to complete the first draft of sentences. This helps build paragraphs and the whole assignment, one sentence at a time.

Reference/cite as you go or APA as you go by using an APA reference guide. There is a need to scaffold learners towards understanding how to use the guide as a way to ensure APA referencing is accurate.

Editing can be undertaken in 3 steps - sentence level, paragraph level and then proofreading and formatting. At sentence level, separate each with white space so that it is easier to 'switch and trim'. Paragraph editing is to check flow and linking and to map these to the marking guide. The proof 'clean' read makes easier to see the small errors. 

Shared the impact on students of using the above framework and also how the 'tuakana teina' or 'older brother/sister with younger brother/sister' peer learning which is framed with attaining the 8 steps have improved engagement, learning and outcomes for learners. 

Q & A followed from an interested audience.

OECD report - Is education losing the race with technology?

 This OECD report makes for interesting and challenging reading. The report surmises that in a few years, AI would be able to surpass most humans if it was to take the OECD Survey of Adult Skills (PIACC). By 2026, AI would be able to solve the literacy and numeracy tests and its results would exceed that of 90% of adults in literacy (gulp) and 57-88% in numeracy. 

At present, literacy and numeracy skills are used daily by large sectors of the workforce. What are the implications, when AI is able to perform these tasks? The usual recommendations are for education systems to strengthen foundations skills for students and to also ensure 'AI' literacy becomes part of the curriculum.

The report is a warning for all educators, to not ignore the increasing capabilities of AI. Instead of avoiding the technology, educators need to become AI savvy, to understand the strengths and limitations of the technology and to be able to help guide their learners, towards using the essential human skills of communication, critical thinking and problem solving to be able to work synergistically with AI.

The foundation for critical thinking

 Preparing resources for research writing workshops and one topic we will be sharing is on the concepts underpinning critical thinking and how to apply this to academic writing.

This site on 'Critical thinking, where to begin'  is provided by the Foundation for Critical Thinking. It is a non-profit US of A organisation which provides resources, workshops/webinars, conferences, online courses etc. to promote the practice of critical thinking. Membership provides access to the entire range of resources but the site itself, provides good overviews and some guides.

The model provided is traditional and 'tried and tested'. The 'elements or reasoning' are defined along with the 'elements of thought'. These provide the 'process' for thinking through challenges and perspectives. 

Supporting researchers

 On returning to work this year in January, I found out that as part of my work team's move into the 'people and capability' section, that there will be better structured and resourced support for our institute's researchers. I take on the role of facilitating this support for half of my time as an educational developer. This role is for one year and will be reviewed at the end of year. In part to take into account the final move into Te Pūkenga, the institute made up of all the existing polytechnics and industry training organisation, which officially begins in 2023. 

I did a brief search to find existing material. All the sites are university based. These include University of Oxford (UK); and University of Bristol (UK); Massey University (Aotearoa-NZ); and Lincoln University (Aotearoa).

In general, the support includes access to various resources including library, research approval, ethics etc. Developmental support for researchers is usually offered in the way of workshops, seminars. Networking features along with mentoring and learning groups. All standard approaches for supporting academic development. 

I have just sent out a survey to our researchers to work out a baseline for interest in various research support initiatives including writing workshops, retreats and networks; assistance with various research processses; and workshops and resources for using digital research tools/platforms. From the survey, I will develop a 'programme' for this semester and after evaluation, a programme for the second semester.