Specialist teacher educators, interpreters and online technologists have used British Sign Language (BSL) to create innovative video resources to support a pre-service Award in Education and Training and an in-service Certificate in Education and Training. The resources are part of a research project funded by the former Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS^definition) to produce blended learning resources for Initial Teacher Education.

"Although several organisations in the UK run deaf awareness, BSL and lip-reading courses, there are only a few filmed resources for Deaf teacher education and these tend to focus on practical tips and hints for teaching. The team at City Lit wanted to produce good quality videos in BSL which would encourage a deeper understanding of theories of learning and how these can be integrated into the teaching practice of deaf teacher trainees...

It was important to use practical examples from teaching. Although Olga Lamb works with Deaf teacher trainees who want to teach BSL, the teacher education department at City Lit also has Deaf teacher trainees in hearing classes who teach IT and Art, not just BSL. So the examples used related to SMART^definition (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timed) learning objectives, thus matching several different levels of Bloom's taxonomy and linking to Bloom's concepts of 'mastery' and developmental tasks.

Pitfalls abound in this kind of work: for example, tutors and interpreters had to find an alternative to the standard BSL representation of 'mastery' (having masterful skills or knowledge) and find an alternative to represent Bloom's definition of 'mastery' (the notion that students must be able to grasp basic concepts or skills before they can learn more sophisticated topics or skills). Otherwise, one would be signing the exact opposite of the meaning one wanted to convey.

Teacher training co-ordinator Olga Lamb, who is Deaf herself, had already developed home-made videos in BSL to help her trainees. Initially, she had created short videos based on a revision pack which teacher educators Sandie Alden and Wendy Moss had written for an introductory course to teaching (Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector – PTLLS^definition). The course had been adapted to allow Deaf students to present their assignments in BSL, following fruitful discussions with the awarding body..."

Source story FE^definition News 25.2.14  at:  http://www.fenews.co.uk/fe-news/signs-of-the-times-for-learning-theories