Graduate Certificate in Education (Learning Difficulties): Surf Coast Secondary College

https://player.vimeo.com/video/1023787450

[GENTLE MUSIC]

[Kate Griffin, Classroom Teacher, Surf Coast Secondary College]

I did the Graduate Certificate in Education with Learning Difficulties. I really wanted to learn about how I can include these students who may have different learning abilities.

[Jacqueline Damen, Classroom Teacher, Surf Coast Secondary College]

I wanted to feel as though I was trying the strategies that could best connect them with what I was teaching.

[On-screen text: Graduate Certificate in Education (Learning Difficulties) University of Melbourne / Enhance your inclusive practice]

The Learning Foundations subject was wonderful because it considered all the theory behind how students learn, how students’ brains develop, and how do they access everything around them in the world. We learned the basics of the right questions to ask, or the right assessments to do, and that Learning Foundations subject gave us a good overview so that we could start being on the lookout for those sorts of things in our classrooms.

[Shane Elevato, Acting Principal, Surf Coast Secondary College]

Jacquie and Kate were really able to sit down with those students, understand their learning journey so far, and then they had a skill set where they could start tuning into the specific needs of the child, and then developing strategies to help those students moving forward.

[Kate Griffin]

Using the Universal Design for Learning framework has changed how I think about my lessons. You can remove all the superfluous things. You can remove all these barriers and really just focus on the one important thing that you want these students to be able to do.

[Jacqueline Damen]

The numeracy component opened my eyes to how students learn skills along a trajectory. It was so insightful and really enlightening for me, understanding that they must usually master one skill before they can move on to another one. And I could see it happening in my class. I could see the skills that students had, and I could see what they needed to learn before they could move on to the next step.

[Shane Elevato]

We’ve always had Individual Education Plans as part of our supports for young people.

[Kate Griffin]

But since doing this course, we’ve been able to set more specific goals and more measurable goals figuring out what is this specific outcome that we need and how are we going to measure that?

[Shane Elevato]

What it means I think for those students, is that they’re really drilling deeply into what each individual student’s needs are. [Kate Griffin]

So I’m really excited to step outside of the classroom and start working with the whole staff in implementing some strategies across the school.

[Jacqueline Damen]

Being able to share what we’ve learned is so important, because it means that there’s more awareness of student needs.

[Shane Elevato]

They’re now real go-to people for a lot of their colleagues. Raising the bar for us with our teaching practice to say, well, we’ve got these sort of universals that we know work for all students now. And that has been enhanced because of the expertise that Jacquie and Kate have brought in.

[On-screen text: Disability Inclusion Education for All / The Education State / Victoria State Government / Department of Education / Victoria State Government – Authorised by the Victorian Government, Melbourne]

[END TRANSCRIPT]

Updated 27 December 2024

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Graduate Certificate in Education (Learning Difficulties): Surf Coast Secondary College

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