I am Dr Lila Kossyvaki and I am the lead for the programme in Severe,
Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties at the School of Education,
at the University of Birmingham. Severe Profound and Multiple Learning
Difficulties is what we call in other parts of the world
mental retardation, intellectual disabilities. So in a nutshell, it is working
with children or others who are the most disabled people in our society.
The idea behind the course is to improve your own practice and it is addressed to a wide
range of professionals working in the education of children and others with
Severe, Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties. Meaning teachers, teaching
assistants, professionals from the
NHS or even parents. So this is a blended learning, part time course, meaning that
it's a combination of face-to-face sessions, here at the university and online study
which you do at your own pace, from your home. We offer a range of courses from undergraduate
to post-graduate level and students are geared towards the level that suits best
their academic qualifications and experience. The most significant entry
requirement is that while you're doing this course you need to have access to at
least one learner with Severe, Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties because
as part of the course you are expected to collect data to do
intervention and then see the impact of this intervention on the learner. So you
really need to have access to a person, at least a person with SPMLD.
A strength of this course is the online platform we provide our students with called CANVAS
and there students can access a wide range of materials like
book chapters, presentations, activities, even videos which help you to
learn because it's not a linear process like you open a book and you read a journal
paper it's very interactive, they can talk to each other as well on this platform and
through it they can have access to many ebooks through their home which I think is
another great thing about the course that you don't have to physically come
and visit the library at the University you can do it at your own pace at your
own time from your home. Whilst doing this course you will have the chance to be
taught,
reminded of the biggest pedagogical developmental psychology theories and how
this can be translated to improve your practice at your school or home setting.
So there's no exam, so students submit assignments at the end of the
term and the only difference between undergraduate and postgraduate level is
that the length of the assignment is different and as a postgraduate
student you are expected to be more critical in the way you write and do
further reading. Students really enjoy the fact that during the study weekends they
meet with colleagues from other schools or educational settings across the UK and they share
their experience, they build a network of professionals which I think is very
significant because then you develop a community of practice and community of
professionals working in the field who will be hopefully able to support each
other even after the end of the course. We hope to see many of you in one of our
courses
and if you want more information please view our website at the University of
Birmingham.