Teaching Strategies for Third Level Science Students with Dyslexia and/or Dyspraxia

Teaching strategies at third level institutions are traditionally based on visual and verbalmeans. These methods can disadvantage students who have difficulty with reading andwriting (Department of Education and Science, 2001). A survey of first year sciencestudents in the Institute of Technology in Tallaght (ITT) Dublin by the National LearningNetwork in November 2007 estimated that 10% of students have a specific learningdifficulty such as dyslexia or dyspraxia. This is in line with national and internationalsurveys conducted by associations such as the Association for Higher Education andAccess (AHEAD, 2004) in Ireland and the Irish Association for Dyslexia.In this paper, modes of lecture delivery of three scientific modules taught at level 7 andlevel 8 were critically evaluated and modified to ensure students with dyslexia and/ordyspraxia are accommodated. Feedback and conclusions were summarized andrecommendations made.