Teacher/therapist collaboration: a Scottish higher education institution development

Area of Science:

• Speech and Language Therapy
• Education
• Special Education

Background:

• Her Majesty's Inspectorate (HMI) recommended teacher education institutions address postgraduate training needs for professionals supporting pupils with language and communication disorders and autism.
• Official Scottish Executive Education Department (SEED) statements and Higher Education (HE) institution documents informed the module development.
• The module was developed in response to identified needs in in-service and postgraduate training.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the collaborative development and evaluation of a Postgraduate Award Scheme (PGAS) module.
• To address the training needs of professionals working with pupils with language and communication disorders and autism.
• To assess the impact of the module on the thinking and practice of course members.

Main Methods:

• Collaboration between a principal speech and language therapist (SLT) and a college lecturer.
• Analysis of official documents including HMI (1996) reports and SEED statements.
• Review of PGAS handbook and module descriptor from Northern College (1998).

Main Results:

• The module was successfully designed and evaluated.
• Course members reported changes in their thinking and practice.
• The collaborative approach facilitated the development of relevant training.

Conclusions:

• The developed PGAS module effectively addressed the identified training needs.
• The collaborative model proved successful for module creation and evaluation.
• Considerations for future module development were identified based on course member feedback.