Catering For Learner Diversity

Catering for learner diversity with HEART
Thomas FUNG

According to UNESCO’s Salamanca Statement 1994, inclusive education is the best means of achieving ‘Education for All’. (EMB, 2005) This means that all children should have the right to receive basic education, no matter how weak they are academically and in discipline control. To do so, meeting students’ needs in curriculum planning and classroom teaching is of paramount importance (UNECO, 2005 & EDB, 2010). This article aims at sharing with readers how a group of 25 low achievers of English in a band three secondary school can be better motivated as a result of curriculum and assessment accommodation, multi-sensory approach in teaching and change in teachers’ belief with relevant training in special education.

School-based Hotel and Hospitality English curriculum
When students are promoted to NSS1, it is very normal for them to follow a set NSS English language curriculum targeted for the HKDSE examination. What if students were seriously demotivated in English in the past and are far below the acceptable standard? Is that the set HKDSE curriculum could meet their need, in terms of content, standard and interest? To cater for the needs of my S.4 group who scored between 1 and 23 marks in S.3, I have been assigned to tailor-make a School-based Practical English Curriculum for them.

According to McIntyre et al. (2005) and Rudduck (2007), a powerful voice of students’ own feeling about their learning experience, both written and oral, is a reflective conversation between teacher and students. After studying a survey result where their chosen electives, dream jobs and learning preference are included, it is found that about half of students are taking Tourism and Hospitality Studies and more than half are interested in joining the catering industry. As for learning preference, more than 80% of them want to learn how to serve customers in catering industry. Owing to this, a Hotel and Hospitality English curriculum has been tailor-made for students of this group, as a starting point, with the belief that they can be benefited from learning authentic daily Workplace English, which may result in better learning motivation and career preparation.

Multi-sensory approach in teaching with reasonably high expectation
After the first week teaching in September 2013, it was found that the learner diversity of this group was obvious. Some are intelligent but lazy and inattentive resulting in very poor academic performance while some failed to catch up with lessons because they are dyslexic, hyper active, speech and language impaired and intellectually disabled.

As suggested by MacKay (2012), teachers should ‘teach all learners as if they are dyslexic (p.105)’ and that multi-sensory approach is preferred in classroom teaching to develop learners’ confidence, self-esteem and emotional intelligence. After a year of teaching, I have confirmed that the multi-sensory approach works and is able to cater for learner differences in terms of different styles in learning. These include the use of a bigger font size (at least 16) and a special font ‘Comic Sans MS’ with different images in unit handouts; the use of magnetic letters, makes and breaks, word search game and dictation game on blackboard when teaching vocabulary items. When teaching grammar, songs and video clips are used. To make the classroom as interactive as possible, dialogic teaching (Alexander, 1994) is normally used and students are asked, depending on the teaching focus, to do paired reading, peer tutoring, peer assessment, group discussions and role plays in front of the blackboard so that cooperative learning (EDB 2010) can be experienced. While students of this group are already quite weak at English, three of them are even weaker than the rest. That’s why recordings for different reading units, frequent individualized teaching in class with differentiated materials like colorful dictation worksheets with blending and segmentation and individual consultation after class on progressive expectation, on ways to learn and do revision are given. For those who scored high and those who have shown good progression, public praises and colorful handouts were given as encouragement.

During different casual chats with different students, they find these experiences useful, though tough in some sense, in enhancing their confidence and motivation in English, which is, in fact, reflected in their academic performance in different summative assessments, where the overall percentage increase is about 300%-6600% when compared to their S.3 results. No matter how, students of this group have to sit for the HKDSE (English Language) examination two years later. To prepare them well for the exam progressively, different testing items relevant to the HKDSE level are included in unit handouts, supplementary exercises and summative assessments. Some are even extracted from past papers for HKDSE English exam or AS Use of English exam, with relevant accommodation. While students generally find these exercise challenging, their eagerness to overcome the difficulties is shown. With the sense of achievement in English, one-third of the class asked for a weekly after-school tutorial for the HKDSE exam, which I believe is good as far as integration and peer-tutoring are concerned as all 25 students studying this school-based Practical English course will be integrated with the normal HKDSE curriculum next year.

Teachers’ Attitudes and Teacher Training
According to Avramidis et al. (2000), the right of all children has to be valued equally, treated with respect and provided with equal opportunities with the mainstream system. However, many educators have serious reservations about supporting low-attaining groups and SEN students in mainstream schools. To me, students no matter how weak they are academically and in discipline control are our future pillars and that we should treat every student as our child. With a firm character, love and patience, and of course reasonably high expectation on students, together with the readiness for change in nowadays’ education system, where curriculum accommodation and assessment accommodation to cater for students’ diverse learning needs are definitely required, students should be able to make progress as time goes particularly when they feel they are in the same language community because of less language anxiety, I believe, which is termed Community of Practice (Wenger, 1998) The key is whether we are willing to accept inclusion and integration through whole-hearted changes in attitudes towards different groups of students, in the way to deliver lessons and in curriculum and assessment accommodation based on their needs and differences.

In fact, continuous encouragement and reminders to students, particularly the less performed. As I can recall, I have said this to all the 25 S.4 students in the very first lesson. ‘I don’t know anything about your past. It is totally meaningless for me to do so. Let’s start from ZERO and forget your past. I dare say improvement can surely be made if you work hard! Trust yourself and Trust Mr. FUNG. You all CAN do it! We’re on the same boat. Let’s join hand in hand and strive for a better future and that NO ONE will be able to look down on you!’ Sometimes, I also told the students my tough road leading to the teaching career after S.5 graduation. This helps them understand the importance of NOT GIVING UP but work hard regardless of the past!

According to Avramidis et al. (2000) also, ‘teachers with substantial training in special education held significantly higher positive attitudes than those with little or no training about inclusion’ (p.201). In Hong Kong, just about 27% and 10% of primary and secondary teachers received basic training in how to handle students with specific learning difficulties respectively (Oriental Daily, 2014). The more training in special education you receive, the more ready you will be in dealing with low attaining groups, whether they are SEN or non-SEN types. In the past, I really had no idea in dealing with demotivated or less disciplined students and what I did was just to scold them, to punish them.

Since my first touch in special education during my PDGE years between 2007 and 2009 through a module called ‘Helping students with Special Education Needs’, my interest in the field has grown instead of ceased. Thanks to my lovely students who urged me and thanks of course to the EDB and my serving school who allowed to receive different trainings in special education, including relevant workshops in catering for learner diversity and more importantly, the three award-bearing programmes—Professional Diploma Programmes for Teachers (Catering for Diverse Learning Needs)—Basic and Advanced Level offered by the Hong Kong Institute of Education and Thematic Course on Supporting Students with SEN-Cognition and Learning Needs (Facilitating English Language Teaching) offered by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. These three programmes definitely urge me to do more for less performed students in terms of daily guidance and counselling and classroom teaching. For those who believe teaching is your life-long career, you are strongly recommended to enroll these programmes one after another, which should be good not only to your students, but you, your family and even the society in the long run!

Conclusion
As an American proverb goes ‘When the going gets tough, the tough get going.’ After teaching in a band three secondary school for eight years with the experience of teaching different kinds of students, where the learning difference in each class is wide, it is strongly believed that we, as teaching professionals, have to find ways to cater for learner diversity. Among other things, I believe curriculum and assessment accommodation relevant to student’s needs and interest, and of course the current educational trends in which my serving school has done for years in different subjects and in different forms, multi-sensory approach in daily classroom teaching, differentiated materials for students in need, eagerness to change in attitudes to low achievers, willingness to receive training in special education together with reasonably high expectation on and patience in students are ways to go.

No matter how stubborn, how demotivated or how weak a student is academically and in discipline control at the very beginning, changes should be able to be made one day, with our love and patience, though it takes time (朽木總可雕in Chinese)! Every time when I notice a minor change in students, particularly the less-able groups, I feel proud and satisfied. Without them, I won’t be so eager to undergo different trainings in catering for learner diversity! While I agree very much with Dr. Cherie Chan, Lecturer of The University of Hong Kong specializing in English Language Education and Teacher Education, that learner diversity is the hope for future, I would say a bit further that catering for learner diversity is the hope for the future of not only students, but also educators and the entire society! What do you think?
Reference
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2. Avramidi, E. et al. (2000). A Survey into Mainstream Teachers’ Attitudes Towards the Inclusion of Children with Special Educational Needs in the Ordinary School in one Local Education Authority, Educational Psychology: An International Journal of Experimental Educational Psychology, Volume 20(2), pp.191-211.

3. EDB (2010). Operation Guide on The Whole School Approach to Integrated Education. Education Bureau: HKSAR.

4. EMB (2005). A Study of the Effectiveness of Special Schools. Education and Manpower Bureau: HKSAR.

5. MacKay N. (2012). Removing Dyslexia as a Barrier to Achievement. SEN Marketing. UK

6. McIntyre, D. et al. (2005). Pupil voice: comfortable and uncomfortable learnings for teachers. Research Papers in Education, Volume 20(2), pp.149-168.

7. Oriental Daily. (2014, May 24). ‘With the introduction of Inclusive Education in both HK and Taiwan for 20 years, Little Changes made in Hong Kong but Great Step Forward in Taiwan (Translated from Chinese). Oriental Daily Website: http://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/news/20140524/00176_140.html 8. Rudduck, J. (2007). Student Voice, Student Engagement, and School Reform In Thiessen and Cook-Sather (eds) International Handbook of Student Experience in Elementary and Secondary, pp.587-610. Springer.

9. UNESCO (2005) Getting All Children into School and Helping Them Learn. UNESCO Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education, UNESCO Paris.

10. Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of Practice: Learning, meaning and identity. Cambridge, UK. Cambridge University Press.