Tools to improve learning for students with additional needs or disabilities

The need

Since 2007, Victoria has mandated schools to develop individual learning plans for government-supported students with disabilities. However, the lack of guidance for teachers to assess, use effective strategies, or monitor progress proved to be a hindrance to effective educational improvement.

The University commenced the Students with Additional Needs (SWANs) program to develop a more standardized approach to teaching, making it possible to determine which teaching strategies are most effective. This included an integrated set of assessment, reporting, and tailored intervention strategies to describe and monitor the learning of students with additional needs across foundational skills.

Currently, the tools are used in primary and secondary schools in Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore. Tailored versions of the SWANs tools, called ABLES and Early ABLES, were developed in partnership with the Department of Education and Training in Victoria, Australia.

Since 2011, more than 50,000 students in Australia have been assessed using either the SWANs or ABLES tools. Early ABLES has been used to support the learning of more than 7,000 children aged between two and five years.

Developing the solution

The SWANs program was developed in partnership with the Department of Education and researchers from the Faculty of Education and has undergone successful trials with 700 special education teachers in 77 Victorian schools, leading to improvements based on their feedback and the creation of online versions.

These enhanced materials enabled teachers to personalize teaching programs and were later transformed into a new program linked to the Victorian Curriculum, launched as the Abilities Based Learning and Educational Support (ABLES) program in 2011.

In 2013, the DET introduced the ABLES Professional Learning suite, recommended by the Victorian Government for teachers registered in Victoria. Between 2014 and 2015, researchers collaborated with the DET to develop Early ABLES for early childhood professionals. Additionally, from 2014 to 2017, a second research phase expanded SWANs tools to include numeracy, digital literacy, movement and thinking skills measures.

The SWANs work has had a profound practical impact as the first set of assessment tools developed by and for teachers to support their work with students with additional learning needs. This is evident in its widespread use across Australia and its expansion to other cohorts of students and children globally.

The program has shifted thinking regarding the assessment of students with additional learning needs from a dichotomous can/cannot perception of learning to a developmental model of learning that focuses on what learning looks like for all students no matter their starting point or pace of learning.

Partners

Professor Patrick Griffin and Dr Kerry Woods.

Assessment Research Centre, The University of Melbourne

Department of Education and Training, Victoria

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