Enhancing the quality and outcomes of disabled students’
learning in higher education
Main aim
To understand how disabled students' academic performance and experience
of teaching, learning and assessment varies by disability, subject studied and
by type of institution, how this experience develops during their course and
how their learning outcomes compare with those of non-disabled students.
Significance and relevance
1. Contribute to developing a theoretical framework for understanding the
implementation of disability equality policies in teaching, learning and
assessment in higher education. This will focus on the nature of subject
and institutional barriers rather than individual student deficits
2. Provide knowledge about the effectiveness of legislation (Part 4 DDA) as a
trigger for change in teaching, learning and assessment policies and
practices in higher education
3. Enhance the quality and outcomes of learning of disabled students in
higher education
4. Inform the development of disability policies in teaching, learning and
assessment to enhance the educational outcomes of disabled students.
Description of work to be done
Our research will compare policy and procedures over four years and obtain
statistics on the performance of all disabled students in four UK universities
during the course of their degree programme. The performance of disabled
and non-disabled students in particular institutions will be compared, taking
account of social class, gender and ethnicity, enabling us to examine any
differences between disabled and non-disabled students in terms of class of
degree obtained or failure to complete a degree.
Key informants will be interviewed in each university, such as:
 senior managers with a variety of responsibilities for teaching, learning
and assessment and for students, including disabled students.
 disabled students’ adviser
 head of student welfare
 head of the teaching development and learning support service
 selected heads of academic departments and course leaders
Surveys of both disabled students and of teaching staff at the beginning of the
project will provide baseline information about practices and policies for
teaching, learning and assessment in each university.
Students with different disabilities and studying a range of subjects will be
selected in each university. Throughout their course they will be observed at
their studies for a week each year, that is, while taking part in timetabled
teaching and learning sessions and in self-directed learning and assessment
tasks. During these weeks selected lecturers who teach the disabled students
will be interviewed about teaching and assessment issues raised for them and
other students by the presence of disabled students in a variety of teaching
and learning environments (e.g. mass lectures, groupwork, seminars,
workshops, fieldwork, laboratory sessions). This material will be used to
identify the nature of barriers in teaching, learning and assessment policies
and practices as well as those policies and practices which are enabling.
Each university will designate a Project Action Committee (PAC) whose
members will include key personnel with institutional responsibility for
teaching, learning and assessment and for disability issues. One person from
each group will serve as an advisor to the research team. The team will make
regular reports to the PAC and will receive information about policy and
practice changes within the university. This sets up a two-way exchange of
information about action, so that as well as locating barriers, we shall also
document universities’ efforts to remove them and to embed practices that
enhance students’ learning. Implications of the findings for the new legal
requirements to make anticipatory ‘reasonable adjustments’ will be drawn out.
Schedule: Project Milestones
Year
2004
Months
Activities
Key informant
interviews
1-6
Key institutional
documents
√
Survey disabled
students
√
2005
7-12
13-18
2006
19-24
25-30
2007
31-36
37-42
43-48
√
√
√
√
Write report
√
√
√
√
Lecturer
interviews re tla
Dissemination
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
only
Disabled student
interviews re tla
Glasgow
only
√
Glasgow
Performance data
√
√
√
Articles
Team meetings
√
Analysis
Web-site
Prepare datasets
for archive
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
The Team
Mary Fuller: Professor of Education, University of Gloucestershire
Has been a researcher at Bath and Bristol universites and taught at
Bulmershe College of Higher Education and Reading and Oxford universities.
Previous research projects include the impact of traditional and sandwich
courses on career choices of science and engineering students; development
of adolescent ethnic and gender identities; development of multiracial
education policies in Canada; teaching science in areas of social deprivation;
and gifted pupils. Her PhD on social justice and education involved a year’s
ethnographic fieldwork in a multiracial school in Brent.
Mick Healey: Professor of Geography, University of Gloucestershire
Director of the Geography Discipline Network and Senior Advisor to the LTSN
National Subject Centre for Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences
(GEES). Taught at Coventry University for 20 years. He has written about
economic geography and learning and teaching in higher education. He has
directed 12 teaching and learning research project, including two on disability.
He was an Advisor to the HEFCE Mapping Disability project. Current research
interests are: developing the scholarship of learning and teaching; linking
research and teaching; an international study of Kolb's learning styles and
concepts of learning among geographers; developing an inclusive curriculum
for disabled students; and raising pedagogic research capacity.
Alan Hurst: Professor of Education, University of Central Lancashire
His teaching focuses on special education, disability and the sociology of
education. He is a trustee and past Chair of Skill: National Bureau for
Students with Disabilities and has convened its Higher Education Working
Party for many years. He has worked with the funding councils in England
and Wales, the QAA for Higher Education, the ILT and the Learning and
Teaching Subject Network (LTSN) Generic Centre to develop policy and
provision for disabled students, including a close involvement with the
Teachability project sponsored by the Scottish HEFC. Current interests:
promoting inclusive learning and teaching; evaluating the quality of policy and
provision.
Sheila Riddell: Professor of Social Policy (Disability Studies), Glasgow
University
Was as an English teacher in a comprehensive school before doing a PhD in
gender and subject choice at Bristol University. Worked on projects on special
educational needs; disability; and gender and education policy, including an
investigation of the transitional experiences of young people with recorded
special educational needs. Has a remit to develop teaching and research in
social aspects of disability. The Strathclyde Centre for Disability Research
(SCDR), established in 1997, undertakes inter-disciplinary research in the
field of disability, with particular focus on education and training, employment
and health and social care.
Terry Wareham: Director, Centre for the Enhancement of Learning and
Teaching, Lancaster University
Lectured on post-compulsory teaching development programmes and was
staff development officer at Milton Keynes College before moving to
Lancaster. Leads and supports developments in student learning, teaching
development, learning technologies and wider staff development; responsible
for co-ordinating Lancaster’s learning, teaching and assessment strategy;
member of its committee on Equal Opportunities and Teaching and Learning.
She has contributed to the Geography Development Network projects in the
areas of small group teaching, key skills for students and a web resource for
fieldwork with disabled students. She wrote and co-edited Failing Students in
Higher Education. Has interests in how higher education teachers develop
understanding and skills in teaching their students, particularly how they
respond to students’ barriers to learning.
Contact details
Professor Mary Fuller
School of Education
University of Gloucestershire
Francis Close Hall Campus
Cheltenham GL50 4AZ
Phone
+44 (0)1242 532212 (direct)
Fax
+44 (0)1242 536262
Email
mfuller@glos.ac.uk