Equipping teachers with insights into the learning needs of students

Teachers looking to advance their approach to student learning can delve into the new postgraduate unit offered by the Faculty of Education at Morling College - Neurodiversity and the Nature of Learning.

"The new unit in which teachers learn about neuroscience, autism, memory, and learning, will help teachers formulate a fresh approach to learning, taking into account the unique cognitive profile of students with autism."

Firsthand accounts of people with autism are considered as these narratives provide greater insight into the nature of learning and neurodiversity than was previously available, particularly in the light of findings from neuroscience.

“This new postgraduate unit will equip teachers with the insight needed to understand the learning needs of students with diverse cognitive profiles. It will help teachers to build on learners’ strengths and assist them to use those strengths to tackle their social, emotional, and academic challenges."

Topics covered in the unit include neurodiversity, neuromyths, emotion, memory and learning, cognitive load, executive function, and autism.

The Faculty of Education at Morling College offers internationally recognised postgraduate degrees that are taught from a Christian perspective. Teachers and educational leaders are encouraged to think deeply about how their work as educators integrates with a Christian worldview.

Opportunities are provided to learn from great thinkers and practitioners about the intersection of education and Christian beliefs and to consider how this relates to the daily life of teachers and school leaders. Courses are fully online. Neurodiversity and the Nature of Learning can be studied as a single unit or as part of a full Master’s degree.

The new unit will be offered alongside 24 other postgraduate units in Semester 2, 2020 at Morling College.

For more information, please email Lyndel Chardon, Education Administrator, education@morling.edu.au

Written by Nola Norris

Nola is the Education Research Coordinator in the Faculty of Education at Morling. Her interests include learning and teaching, cognition and metacognition, teacher professional development, giftedness, twice-exceptionality, and autism/Asperger's syndrome. After a varied career working in K-12 schools and at university, Nola completed her PhD in 2014. Her thesis title is "A new perspective on thinking, memory and learning in gifted adults with Asperger syndrome: Five phenomenological case studies". Her research utilised neuroscience and autism research to interpret findings from in-depth interviews with gifted adults with Asperger syndrome. Nola's research led to the development of a conceptual framework for professional development of pre-service and practising teachers to transform understanding of the unique learning needs and strengths of gifted students who have Asperger syndrome. Prior to working full-time on her doctoral research, Nola was ICT Integration Coordinator at a K-12 independent co-educational school on the outskirts of Sydney, where her role was to work in professional development of teachers across the curriculum in the sound, innovative use of information technologies in the classroom.

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