Course details

This accredited course provides participants with a comprehensive introduction to the use of the Systematic Instruction teaching strategy in disability services. It will equip you with the knowledge, skills and abilities to understand how:

  • People learn
  • To facilitate people with a disability to learn and develop new knowledge and skills
  • This course ensures that practitioners have the tools to provide explicit instruction that supports the person to move towards their vision of a desirable future.

Who Is This Course For?

The course is aimed at front-line staff who have extensive experience providing instruction to people using their service but who do not possess formal qualifications in the area. These include Care Workers, Healthcare Assistants, Family and Home Support Workers, Personal Assistants, job coaches and Community Care Workers.

Learning Objectives

After successfully completing the course you should be able to:

  • Outline what learning is
  • Discuss the most popular theories that have been developed to explain it
  • Identify the difficulties in learning experienced by people with a disability
  • Define meaningful training
  • Explain how practitioners can work with people to achieve a sense of wellbeing and improved quality of life by supporting and facilitating positive learning experiences
  • Describe the key teaching strategies that promote effective learning for people with an intellectual disability
  • Identify and describe the key tools used in effective instruction, including task analysis, prompting, reinforcement, error correction and fading
  • Better understand your role in supporting learning for the people who use their service
  • Discuss Marc Gold’s strategy and explain the value of the strategy in supporting people with disability to acquire meaningful skills

Contents

Topics covered include:

  • Defining learning
  • 3 theories of learning: conditioning, operant conditioning & observational learning
  • Issues faced by people with intellectual disability when learning
  • Medical and social model perspectives
  • Why does learning matter? Increasing independence, enhancing quality of life and extending options
  • Marc Gold’s ‘Try Another Way’ – video and discussion
  • How you can use Systematic Instruction to help people learn
  • What do organisations do to support learning?

Assessment

Successful completion of the course is dependent on completing an assessment. This will involve:

  • Writing a short assignment
  • Demonstrating your skills to facilitate learning using systematic instruction
  • Providing a short document outlining what you feel are the connections between what you’ve learnt and your role as a learning facilitator

Throughout you will have the support of a group of people who are either expect in the field or fellow practitioners who are facing the exact same challenges/opportunities as you.

Qualification

The course is certified by the QQI/FETAC as a Level 5 Award. Successful participants will receive a component certificate:

  • Facilitating Learning (5N1753) (15 credits)

These sit on the Major Level 5 Award: Certificate in Intellectual Disability Practice (5M3782). This component certificate provides credits towards one component of the eight that need to be undertaken to achieve this Level 5 Major Award.

Updated on 08 November, 2015

About Open Training College

The We_They exists to provide accredited training and consultancy services to the human services and non-profit sector. Our knowledge and expertise:

  • Provides people with the skills required to effectively perform their professional roles
  • Directly addresses the operational and strategic challenges experienced by organisations within the sector
  • Makes a constructive contribution to policy and professional practice
  • Offers positive outcomes for service users by encouraging best-practice person-centred processes and competencies
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