Presentations

This month's blog entry discusses presentation skills.


One of the difficulties with doing presentation based assignments is being clear about what the lecturer is looking for. In essays, the marking criteria are very clear, with demarcations between grades, but with presentations, it isn’t as clear. An example of this is if you are doing a presentation on a very complex subject, do you need to keep it simple so the audience will understand, or do you need to include difficult to understand ideas, even though many of your audience will not be able to follow them?  Another issue is delivery versus content, is it better to deliver content or devise an interesting and engaging presentation? Group work can be particularly problematic; with group members having different ideas about what is important. This can lead to decision by committee, where the presentations can often lose any innovation and creativity.


Presentations can  also be difficult because you have one chance to get it right; unlike assignments when you can re-draft until you are happy with it. Because of this anxiety is increased, which for people with dyslexia can lead to stumbling over words, mispronouncing words and getting sentences wrong.  To combat this, students sometimes over research, this leads to them having too much information. This can mean that presentations are rushed, or go over the allocated time.  Another problem is trying to manage the Power Point, the notes and engaging with the audience at the same time.  To compensate for this, students may resort to an over-reliance on notes, or just reading directly off the slides, which means they may get a lower mark for the delivery skills.


I would suggest that students treat presentations in the same way that they would treat an essay. Start with a plan and do drafts until it is how you want it. The same strategy can be used for the delivery; practise delivering the talk and take out any bits that don't work. Another suggestion is to colour the main points of your notes in red and the less important ones in green. That way, if you are running out of time, you can go straight to the main points and avoid missing anything important out.



Tutors can also  help students to improve presentation skills by supporting the development of time management skills and being able to estimate how much time will be needed for each point.  One perspective that a tutor could introduce to the students is to consider practising delivering presentations in the context of writing an assignment. Each practice should be considered in the same way as a draft of an essay would be i.e. something to be reviewed, altered and improved. This would provide students with a procedure by which to work on their presentation, using a process they are already familiar with. (y, law student)

SpLD HEAR Group

Medical student Aimee Gregory with the latest update on an exciting student-led project. 

As part of our new HEAR project, the six of us have been very keen to pull together and share our ideas with regards to specific learning difficulties. We are all very enthusiastic to create a society for Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLDs) as this would be an excellent platform to raise awareness of our potential ideas for the future e.g. workshops! As students ourselves, we each have challenges that we face at University, and we collectively felt that it would be a great idea to tackle some of the issues faced by University students who may have an SpLD. These ideas included learning workshops, study strategies, creating video links, and even a potential buddy scheme! We aim to raise more awareness and understanding of what is meant by a specific learning difficulty, and how to adapt studying to suit individual learning needs.

Here is the transcript from University of Sheffield student Emma Woodrow's recent talk at the Sigma Being Inclusive Conference:

Dyscalculia

I have Dyslexia and Dyscalculia (and a few other neurological differences), they run in my family, inherited from my maternal grandfather but exhibited in different ways by various family members.

I also have a number of strengths in some areas - these also differ between family members. Fortunately as I am able to use these I have succeeded in successful study to post graduate level and worked in education, including teaching IT and special needs teaching.

From my own experience and from working with children and adults who have 'failed' educationally I would say that there are a number of interconnected factors which come in to play in dyscalculia, as in dyslexia. These include core deficits, core strengths, short term or working memory issues, long term memory problems and the emotional effects - caused by teachers, peers and family.

Dyslexia has become fairly socially acceptable and literary correctness has declined in social importance as we approach a 'post literate' society  so that it doesn't automatically link to a stigma implying lack of intelligence however even in this age of calculators and spreadsheets poor levels of numeracy still do. People are very ready to jeer at others who have no idea what the answer to '8x12' is just because they do. Most people have forgotten learning multiplication tables and imagine that they are a mental prowess.

Peoples' dyscalculia varies, just as their dyslexia does. Numeric ability, just like textual ability is not a unified thing - it just seems that way to people who have no areas of deficit. I have observed variations in people I have worked with but I can most clearly tell you how my dyscalculia is manifested and impacts at studying at undergraduate and post graduate level.

I think that there is a timing element to my (and others') neuro-cognitive difficulties which interferes with both learning and recall as well as calculating. If you have ever played with those toys where marbles or ball bearings are moved by a bucket system, or if you have used the Paternoster lift in the Arts Tower you may understand what I mean. If the flow (marbles or people) is not regulated to the speed of the process, in this case the lift system, it will not function efficiently. Some mental processes take too long and overflow the holding capacity of something I will call working memory, because of a failure in rote learning - supply speed and or working memory - carrying capacity. This is why the problem is worse under situations of pressure.

My dyscalculia

1.    Inability to learn number patterns by rote such as times table

2.    Problems with left / right orientation / reading direction - especially with decimals

3.    Difficulty maintaining in mind the arithmetic rule in use

4.    Difficulty remembering place in a number string so poor at transcribing long numbers

5.    Limited 'space' in short term memory - not able to remember number sequences

6.    Limited time for short term memory - if task cannot be completed quickly it just evaporates, especially when there are distractions - that is in a typical class room setting

7.    Difficulty reading numbers and symbols, that is, being slow at working out what is written with confusable items such as 3, Σ, 5, S, & and 8 or '.' and ',' - among others.

8.    Difficulty reading numbers in small boxes or when too widely spaced or irregularly spaced, mixed with words, not justified etc.

9.    Inability to do anything in more than one modality, as for instance when a different thing is presented visually from what a lecturer is saying

10.  Inability to write numbers down when dictated

11.  Emotional issue of fearing looking stupid or being told I am by teachers or lecturers for not getting the answer in the way or time that they demand

12.  As above for getting the answer right by a non conventional means and being accused of cheating.

I think that you will see from the above list that it can be difficult to function in a typical lecture situation without experiencing a good deal of stress. Some problems are related to the dyslexia or shared with it, others are distinct deficits. This is possibly why up to 50% of people with dyslexia have dyscalculia - one or more core number failures plus dyslexia which compounds the problem.

I studied advanced statistics at masters level at another university. Even though I explained my difficulty to the lecturers (there were 3) most of the teaching sessions provoked every area of difficulty listed, (except for 12). I could not keep up during sessions because I couldn't find things or work them out quickly enough as information was given in speech, not writing with different screens flicked between and shifting up and down and different displays to speech. PowerPoint slides were unnumbered so I couldn't find where I was to make notes or refer to my own computer.

If teaching styles are bad for students with dyslexia and Dyscalculia they are probably not good for the rest of the student body. This was apparent from the absentee rate. I tried to prepare for sessions by reading up and working through the material in advance. This failed as the two principal lecturers didn't believe in following the time table.

There was a third lecturer who clearly knew his material well and wanted to share his enthusiasm. Even though he wasn't a native English speaker and had a pronounced accent he was an excellent communicator.  He asked questions to check that people understood him - not to show them up or check that they were listening. He had clearly prepared written materials and worked through PPTs in order, following the hand out and the timetable, presenting one idea at a time in a logical progression. He was a neurologist. Unfortunately most of the teaching was done by the psychologists.

Finally I would like to point out that most issues with dyscalculia, for the majority who have it, seem to relate to arithmetic, especially mental arithmetic and when under time constraint and distraction. There are a good proportion of people with dyscalculia who are advanced mathematicians.  Unfortunately arithmetic is presented as maths initially and many who fail never progress with the subject long enough to get to a level of understanding. They have been so emotionally beaten down. It is quite possible that there is a mathematical ability which is to dyscalculia as hyperlexia is to dyslexia. There is 'advanced' number pattern recognition and learning, as exhibited by people with calendar and other calculator skills. This need not be an idiot savant type special ability but a special cognitive and neurotically attribute. It is a mistake to judge the few by the standards of the many. There are some otherwise neurologically fairly typical people who lack access to mathematical 'module' and clearly others who have problems with time functions. Some dyscalculics, members of my family included, have advanced spatial functions (as long as left / right problem isn't invoked).  

How my one-to-one support from the SpLD service enabled me to gain my Masters in Social Work

I have just finished my Social Work training at The University of Sheffield. It was during the final year of this two year programme that I was diagnosed with dyslexia. 

This diagnosis gave me access to the SpLD service where I was allocated weekly one hour 1:1 tutorials with Harriet. At the time of my referral to the service I had given up on my ambition to fulfil the training through the master’s route, opting instead to graduate with the PG diploma. The reason for this was because I had become overwhelmed with the written work on the course. Although I excelled during my practice placements and enjoyed completing my critical case reflections I found the larger pieces of work much more difficult.

 My dyslexia affects me in a number of ways including what I refer to now as  ‘thinking big and thinking wide’. Prior to seeing Harriet I found this disabled my ability to organise my thinking in a way conducive to breaking large piece of work down into component parts. Harriet enabled me to finally master what had felt like a constant frustration and disability. Whilst it continues to be difficult at times, I now understand it and have tools to manage it and overcome the problems it can cause me. After a few sessions with Harriet I took myself by surprise. I wanted to go for the masters. With her support along the way it felt achievable. She not only offered encouragement but also helped me to develop ways of structuring my thoughts and breaking them down. I began enjoying writing. At last I felt like I was beginning to ‘get it’. I could do it after all. I wasn’t ‘stupid’ or less able than my peers.

 I did it! I achieved my masters with a very good grade. What’s more, writing is now on my list of favourites and I am considering trying to get a piece of my writing published. This story would have been so different if I hadn’t have landed in Harrriet’s office those few months ago feeling defeated, confused and frustrated. The SpLD service is invaluable and I hope I can be an example of the ways in which abit of short term support for a specific learning disability can make all the difference. I will be eternally thankful for the support I received and the doors that opened as a result.

Thankyou.