Lucy Currie & Mandy Barker The Northumbria PPA experience Flexing the muscles of flexible learning: HE pedagogy with deaf learners.

 A credit bearing work based learning programme run by the Flexible learning Centre at Northumbria University.  It provides a qualifications route from Level 4 to 7.  Learners are experts in their professional areas.  Northumbria provides an academic framework for HE qualifications

 Deaf CAMHS established in NHS funded specialist mental health service for deaf children, young people and families  Consists of a multi disciplinary team with different academic backgrounds  Deafness and mental health is a very specialised area of work  No formal qualification in this field  Expanding team needed training  Deaf staff employed for experience with deaf children & own life experience

 The SHA set up a pilot course with Northumbria University (D CAMHS CPD)  Unfortunately the course was not as relevant to the specialist team as anticipated  University credits were not accessible to deaf staff who hadn’t had the opportunity to access further/higher education  Multi-professional team had different CPD expectations  PPA route was identified as the solution

This arose from the desire by Deaf (CAMHS) to enhance their CPD provision for their staff.  6 staff were involved in the programme; 3 hearing and 3 deaf.  They were to complete a 60 credit programme at levels ranging from 4-7

 3 Professionally qualified – 2 Social Workers and 1 Interpreter  2 held adult education teaching certificate for British Sign Language  1 had limited educational background but was an experienced worker  Deaf staff were able to use access to work funding for the interpreters on the course

 It was clear from the start that this experience was going to be different.  Each preliminary meeting threw up new questions.  The learners confused the PPA credit bearing CPD module with the pilot D CAMHS CPD. We seemed to be going round and round in circles.  However, the programme finally started in March 2011

 The PPA team had not worked with deaf students before.  Working on the premise of ‘deafness’ we identified the main barrier as ‘communication’.

DeafInterpreter Hearing

BSL Interpreters Note takers Tele link for tutorials Delivery BSL presentation of assessed work BSL video recording of assessed work. Assessment

 That deaf learners are just ‘mainstream people who can’t hear.’  That providing interpreters and note takers would meet their learning needs.  That the learners would readily embrace presenting their work in BSL.  That our strategies would be adequate interventions to facilitate the running of the programme as a mainstream cohort.

 Society and institutions view of deaf people (deaf & dumb)  Deaf people often miss the foundations of academic understanding  Poor academic achievements due to...  Lack of opportunities  Low expectations throughout childhood  Language difficulties  Proving intelligence through use of English

 Extra sessions and tutorials to facilitate 1 to 1 support  A strong drive for BSL summative assessment at the rate of 10 minutes of signing to a1000 words  Structured questions to make learning outcomes specific  Deaf CAMHS staff supported their deaf colleagues  Learners arranged a peer support workshop  Deaf CAMHS allocated work time for study

 The room had to be suitable, the furniture arranged for visual access  Talking to students who were looking at someone else was a bit unnerving  Traditionally a student is paying attention when they are looking at you; in this case if they are looking at you they are certainly NOT paying attention  Use of metaphors is confusing  Examples have to be clearly thought out and visually based  In each session there has to be 2 or three additional people; 2 interpreters and a note taker  Implications on group activities

The whole process is slower, so more time needed The learners needed support with researching and incorporating literature into their work The learners did not readily take to the idea of presenting work in BSL due to the cumbersome process The instructions had to be structured and linked to literature resources. When guidelines were given in question format the students were focused and addressed the learning outcomes fully

 Deaf staff and experienced hearing staff hadn’t realised the full impact of deafness on academic learning  Deaf staff felt they had a real peer group and could discuss the course in detail with colleagues  Self awareness for future opportunities  Good IT support is needed to present in BSL

BSL English Interpreter Reading Academic content Interpreter Academic theory Academic writing Outputs

 Emma’s clip

 Deaf aware lecturers  Trained note taker for the deaf  Consistent BSL interpreters  Detailed and timely lecture plans  Deaf Academic Mentor  Extended time for lectures and written work

 All Students successfully gained 60 university credits including 1 university outstanding student award  DCAMHS has embraced this staff development model  1 Student accepted on Occupational Therapy Course  1 Student accepted on a Family Therapy Course  Tutor has gained level1 BSL