Module 3 / Creative situations to develop the communication/social skills
Target group
-Students from 15 to 18 years old with emotional or behavioural disorders
-Students from 15 to 18 years old with learning disabilities
-Students from 15 to 18 years old of different cultures
Introduction
The setting in which we operate belongs to those interventions about the so called Special Educational Needs by the international literature. This area includes different issues: social and cultural disadvantages, specific learning disabilities, difficulties because the language and the culture of the host country are unknown.
Definitions and categories of special educational needs differ on the basis of the country. For instance, in England: “children have special educational needs if they have a learning difficulty which calls for special educational provision to be made for them. Children have a learning difficulty if they: (a) have a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of children of the same age; or (b) have a disability which prevents or hinders them from making use of educational facilities of a kind generally provided for children of the same age in schools within the area of the local education authority (c) are under compulsory school age and fall within the definition at (a) or (b) above or would so do if special educational provision was not made for them. […] Children must not be regarded as having a learning difficulty solely because the language or form of language of their home is different from the language in which they will be taught.” (Education and skills, 2001).
In the Federal Republic of Germany, special education is classified with regard to pupils’ special educational requirements into the following categories: blind, visual impairment, deaf, hearing impairment, intellectual disability, physical disability, learning difficulties, behavioural problems, speech impairment, illness/medical needs. The definition is explained in the KMK’s recommendation from 1994.
In Italy, special educational needs are divided in three macro areas:
- disabilities and physical and cognitive impairments;
- learning disabilities ordevelopmental disorders;
- difficultiesrelated o the cultural, language and socio-economic factors. (MIUR, 2012)
For what concernslearning disabilities, they can be present together with other learning or developmentaldisabilities (speech disorders, impairments in coordinating movements, disturbance in attention)or emotional disabilities and behavioural problems. In this case, the resulting problem is wider than the sum of the single difficulties, as each of the involved problem has a negative influence on the development of complex skills. For different reasons, these young people experienced and often experience failures and frustrations inside and outside school. This leads to a feeling of inadequacythat compromises their autonomy and self-confidence, with implications in daily life. Low self-confidence, supported by negative and counterproductive thoughts, is very common among young people identified as target. Inadequacies also in the social sphere can lead to the consequence of not being accepted by peers (Di Pietro and Ceccarelli, 2016). Critics and refusals have an impact on self-confidence and personal value (Ronan and Kendall, 1997). Consequently, the prompt intervention to overcome these problems is based on learning success.
According to WHO about the diagnostic model ICF, it is important to take into account thebio-psycho-social aspects of theperson as a whole. Each young person, without interruption or just for some periods, can manifest Specific Educational Needs,for physical, biological, physiological or psychological and social reasons. The community that teaches has to give a suitable and personalised answer for this. Therefore, the educational proposal has to be oriented towards inclusion strategies rather than only towards special educational ones.
The most important objective to be pursued in education and training of students with learning disabilities is the “mutual help”. To this end, it is necessary to provide social, emotional and relational tools to them, so they can work together with peers and deal with the labour market. For example, the Italian legislationsuggests the following educational strategies and methodologies (MIUR, 2016):
- increasing the value of communicative languages that are different from the written code (iconographic language, spoken language), using mediators as images, drawings andoral summaries;
- using diagrams and conceptual maps;
- fostering inference, integration and linkages between knowledge and subjects;
- dividing the objectives of a task into sub-objectives;
- fostering learning from experiences and the educational workshops;
- fostering metacognitive processes to favour self-control and self-evaluation during learning processes;
- fosteringlearning in small groups and tutoring;
- supporting collaborative learning.
In the cooperative and also metacognitive learning, educator is not anymore a guide and a source of learning. (S)he becomes a facilitator for learning, a positive model for his/her students, (s)he promotes cooperation and comparison, helps students to exploit their strengths, spreadingconfidence and self-effectiveness (Andrich and Miato, 2003; 2007). For the reasons described, it is believed that the activities exploiting this approach are necessary and extremely effective for the target of the project. In this setting the cooperative teaching and educational workshops represent modalities that allow to realise activities that keep each student in his/her own area of proximal development(Vygotskij, 1980). This is realised suggesting pathways in which the concrete and clear objectives to students represent an “optimal challenge” to everyone. However, negative school experiences suggest to realise learning and training situations that do not replace situations related to the classroom, which generate anxiety andin which students tend to feel inadequate.
A further obstacle for learning for young people with learning disabilities is the access to the task demanded. The only verbal channel is in many cases insufficient and it is not so much significant and evocative from a semantic perspective. Each person has a personal way to learn, so has a privileged way to access information and a privileged channel of access (visual-verbal, visual – non-verbal, auditory, kinesthetic). On the basis of the channel, each individual manifests preferences for different tasks oraids (Mariani, 2000). Even if they prefer a specific channel, individuals are generally able to learn also information received through other channels. For a young person with learning disabilities this is not possible, as (s)he has specific difficulties in some cognitive areas. For this reason, it is important to differentiate as much as possible the sensorial challenge to access the requests and to produce the answer in realising education experiences. As the target is heterogeneous, it is good to offer different workshops that each student can freely choose. It is desirable that an autonomous choice fosters the match between student’s learning style and channels used during the workshop.
Instrument 1 of INDIVERSO project aims at developing personal skills that are very important for the well-being of people with some disadvantages of different nature, in order to increase their opportunities. On the basis of the specific target-students’ profile, it seems important to foster relational and communication skills, in a positive environment and following effective modalities. To this end, a particularly effective tool, for the reasons explained above, is the creative workshop, in which students can be protagonists and managersof their learning, realised through modalities suitable for their specific needs.
Objectives
Different specific and transversal goals are developed from the general objective of Instrument 1:
- encouraging motivation;
- supporting inclusion;
- providing an effective teaching strategy to students with learning difficulties and those refusing educational tasks because of cultural and emotional problems (this is part of the wide group of special educational needs);
- supporting personal autonomy in planning;
- fostering personal autonomy in planning;
- going beyond the class group organisation to create a learning environment that meets problematic students’ needs;
- emphasising each student’s competences in a cooperative pathway and creating a space for teaching activities in favour of inclusion.
The Instrument -The workshop approach
The workshop is a methodological choice in which knowledge and skills, cognitive, social and emotional aspects, planning and workability are effectively integrated: it is the privileged “space” for personalised education. It is a space in which it is possible to make experiences together with others, where it is learnt how to use procedures, educational materials and methods stimulating real learning processes and supporting in “building” knowledge.
The pedagogy of workshop is based on the intersubjective exchange between students and teachers, through equal work and cooperation, connecting teachers and students’ competences. Therefore, the teacher becomes a sort of researcher, planning learning activities for students’ educational and training pathway. This means educator is seen as a facilitator, as a person proposing things, as a resource able to guarantee the learning process for the student and the group.
This educational methodology represents the optimal solution in which linking knowledge and know-how, for concretising the training and educational dimension of learning, where the theoretical knowledge is not distinguished from the experimental one.
In conclusion, the workshop is a place where metacognition can be realised: in fact, it aims to a process influencing not only basic or acquired skills, but also modalities about their comprehension and use. Before being “environment”, it is a “mental equipped space”, a mindset, a way to interact with the reality in order to understand and/or change it. The term workshop has to be interpreted in an extensive way, as any physical, operative and conceptual space, opportunely adapted and equipped to develop a specific training activity.
The Instrument - The choice of workshops
One of the most important objective to help students with learning disabilities is to provide useful tools to develop compensatory strategies in orderto overcome difficulties independently. For this reason, it seems necessary to help them so they can develop their own creativity through educational, and also creative, strategies.
Creative education represents “forms of education that develop young people’s abilities for original ideas and action” (Loveless, 2003). It is possible that creativity is what allows student with learning disabilities, despite their learning difficulty, to develop alternative and compensatory strategies, which lead to the realisation of established goals in their daily and academic activities. The classic way of teaching is not helpful for students with learning disabilities. This is the reason why, in the last decades, there are many multisensory programs and a space for the creative use of ICT (Information Communication Technology) in their education. The multisensory approach refers to any learning activity that provides simultaneous input or output through two or more sensory channels. The bases of a multisensory approach have been an integral part of many programs for remedying and overcoming difficulties (e.g. Palinscar and Brown, 1984; Temple et al., 2003; Trei, 2003; Joyce, 2004). Therefore, the literature suggests the effectiveness of creative educational experiences as those proposed in the project (Write and Image, Music, Cinema and Theatre workshops), realised employinga workshop and multisensory approach.
In particular, for what concerns the proposal about the Write and Imageworkshop, creative writing is gaining importance the life of many people with learning disabilities. This is because it develops communication and self-advocacy skills, allows people to be creative and gives them a sense of achievement and being listened to. It is a great way to help people to understand and give a structure to their thoughts, explore feelings and experiences and, above all, it develops people’s communication skills and confidence. The activities develop verbal, intellectual and imaginative skills, but also can form a part of advocacy work, because creative writing is all about self-expression or self-advocacy.
For what concerns theMusicworkshop, scientific evidence shows that learning music has an influence on different areas: physical ability, cognitive skills, motivation, language and communication skills, non-verbal communication, social skills, decision-making skills and autonomy (Bunt,2014). Some studies (Miles and Westcombe, 2008; Oglethorpe, 2011) show that music, listening and study can modify some brain functions, significantly influencing the mechanism ofbrain plasticityand improving the performance in other cognitive areas.
Turning toCinema, we have to remember how the experience of “film making” is widely used at international level to help young people with learning disabilities.
For example:
- The Lab School, a private day school in Washington D.C. founded by Sally Liberman Smith in 1967, has pioneered in teaching academic skills through the arts to children with severe learning disabilities. It is a school widely known for its innovative curriculum and its uncommon success in unlocking the mysteries of learning for those who learn differently from others. The study program provides for various creative activities: graphic arts, woodwork, music, dance, drama, puppetry, and film making. The student with learning disabilities needs experiences that have a clear beginning, middle and end.
- The community Advocreate (UK). They use drama, film and other creative ways to help to develop self-advocacy.
- Different academies, such as the Film Academy promoted by Jumpcuts (UK) and the Beacon Hill Arts BFI Film Academy (Newcastle). These represent creative film making projects that will enable groups of adults with learning disabilities to become empowered storytellers and filmmakers.
Theatre can help students with learning disabilities:
- promoting a better and conscious view of oneself, which is a protecting factor for self- esteem;
- providing a space for a symbolic expression and re-elaboration of personal experiences;
- supporting the development of socio-affective skills and enriching students’social life;
- improving narrative skills, which are very important during personal evolution;
- providing an ecological setting in which activities can be interpreted as really linked to
In Italy, the theatreworkshops being developed as a tool for intervention and to help young people with learning disabilities. Different experiences have been realised in this field. In general, the literature recognises the theatreworkshop can be interpreted as an operative modality able to stimulate direct experiences. It represents a training intervention and it is playful and meaningful. It emphasises doing, the use of verbal and non-verbal communication, play and cooperation, supporting person’s global development. “Doing together” promotes and enriches socialisation, as it allows to directly test positive interdependence and complementary among people in the group, giving value also to diversity. Relational skills, interpreted as a way tobe in relation to other people,takes into account person’s goals, but also those of other people (Ianes, 2001). In addition, it identifies multiple and concrete opportunities to develop theatrical work, generating wonderful opportunities of mutual help and different forms of cooperation.
Sharing the same project creates favourable conditions, so each person can develop a feeling of belonging to “us”, which is a very important need for each individual (Allport, 1977),together with the need of being recognised as a person. All this contributes to build a positive image of oneself and to develop a personal identity, to positively influence learning, to prevent anxiety, to increase personal confidence and to promote interaction (Totaro, 2013).
The Instrument - The role of the teacher
The workshop approach helps the transition from a methodology where the main actor is the teacher to methodologies where the actors are the young people, and where the teacher becomes more and more the director of the learning pathway. Therefore, it is very important a change in the teaching-learning model, from an individualistic-competitive type to a collaborative-democratic one (Dewey, 1916).
In order to build a suitable environment, the teacher:
a)has to be self-critical and reflective and (s)he has to support interactive communication among young people (ability to discuss), so they can become more active and participative instead of having a passive role as listeners and information consumers;
b)needs good self-esteem, self-control, and (s)he has to optimise and control his/her time, so (s)he has to accept educational challenges, also the most difficult to be realised, and those that need commitment. (S)he has to keep him/herself up to date and analyse the most effective teaching strategies. In addition, (s)he has to organise his/her work as an opportunity to make research-actions;
c)has to know and support different ways to learn and to make experiences; it is necessary to work as a group;
d)has to try to increase the value of young people’s strengths; not underling weaknesses, but starting from valorisation and positive things. (S)he has to support, help, guide and encourage in taking on challenges, face mistakes as resources to better understand the learning process and the effectiveness of used strategies to reach the objective. It is important young people understand their abilities and potential with regard to what they could achieve with diligence and dedication;