This Master level course offers education on the content areas of learning disabilities and remedial teaching. Learning disabilities often go hand in hand with cognitive and social-emotional developmental disorders, and vice versa. In fact, learning disabilities may cause a delay in cognitive development. Conversely, developmental disorders (e.g. a slow intellectual development or ADHD) may impede learning processes and eventually crystallize out into a learning disability. Consequently, developmental psychologists in various institutions should have basic knowledge of the nature, the assessment, and the remediation of learning disabilities. This Master’s course covers practice-based literature and examples, and offers hands-on experience with in-depth process analysis of learning difficulties.
Two topics are emphasized:
Learning to detect learning disabilities through cognitive process diagnosis. This means that first a cognitive task analysis must be performed, through which the prerequisite knowledge and skills for performing the task are identified. Also motivational and social emotional processes must be recognized if they either support or hinder the learning process. The information from this task analysis may be used as a template to compare the student’s learning behavior with in order to detect specific failures in the student’s knowledge and skills, on both the cognitive and affective level.
Remedial teaching pertains to the knowledge of effective intervention methods (for different domains like reading, writing, and math), based on the information that has been gathered from process diagnosis of specific learning disabilities. A second aspect of remedial teaching concerns effect evaluations of interventions with individual students. Therefore, methodological knowledge of, for instance, one-case studies is required.
Coordinator
Dr. M.V.J. Veenman
Monday – Wednesday: room 3B42
Telephone +31 71 5273463
E-mailaddress: veenman@fsw.leidenuniv.nl
Aims
The acquisition of knowledge about learning disabilities and learning problems
the acquisition of elementary, practical skills for process diagnosis of those disabilities and problems
and the acquisition of knowledge about how to undertake remedial intervention and to evaluate the effects of those interventions.
Literature
Shaywitz, S. (2005). Hulpgids dyslexie. Amsterdam: Nieuwezijds.
(or the English version: Shaywitz, S. (2003). Overcoming dyslexia. New York: Vintage Books.)Reader with a broad range of articles.
Examination
Examination with open-ended questions (essay)
Written individual reports
Presentations
From January 1, 2006 the Faculty of Social Sciences has instituted the Ephorus system to be used by instructors for the systematic detection of plagiarism in students’ written work. Please see the Additional Rules and Regulations, section 6.
Requirement(s) for application or advice
This course is complementary to the skills course Advanced Psycho-diagnostics that is predominantly oriented towards a psychometric approach. This course will especially be advantageous to students who intend to be working in a school setting (e.g. schools advisory services).
Education method(s)
The course has the character of a work group. Partly, the instruction will take the format of tutorials with active student interactions. On the other hand, students have to give presentations, have to come up with interesting learning problems from the literature, and have to design intervention programs for resolving the learning problems
Enrolment
Introduction and enrolment for courses of the first semester will take place August 27th 2009. Introduction and enrolment for courses of the second semester will take place in January 2010. More information will be available at the website of the Department of Psychology.
NB: Exam and re-exam registration will take place via U-Twist, and will be open between a month and a week before the (re)exam. Students who don’t register, cannot participate in the (re)exam.
Blackboard
Information available on www.blackboard.leidenuniv.nl
Timetable
Timetable Process Diagnosis of Learning Disabilities and Remedial Teaching [2009-2010]