The Development of Problem-Solving Rubrics to Define Learning Progressions for Students with Additional Needs

In a changing society with evolving needs and occupations, problem-solving is increasingly seen as an essential skill for success in many contexts, including school and the workplace. However, students with additional learning needs often lack the necessary support to be successful in this skill domain. The aim of the study described in this chapter was to design rubrics for problem-solving that define progressive levels of learning to support the instruction of this cohort of students. A working definition of problem- solving was used to draft observation statements in the form of rubrics that teachers could use to describe their students’ skill development. Workshops were conducted with specialist teachers (n = 13) who critiqued and extended these draft rubrics and mapped them to a learning progression. These materials were then trialed with experienced special education teachers, who reviewed them and generated intervention strategies for students at different skill levels on the derived progression. The outcome of the study was a set of assessment rubrics and level descriptions that teachers could use to support the learning of students with additional needs in a skill domain often dismissed as too demanding to be included in their personal programs

Understanding and Mapping Digital Literacy for Students with Disability

Digital literacy capability is important for all students, particularly for those with disability, as it can enable access to learning. The challenges in understanding what this capability means for students with disability, and how their learning in this area progresses, has created difficulties for teachers in supporting these students to become digitally literate. To address this challenge, this study sought to define the construct of digital literacy for students with primarily intellectual disability, with the aim of developing an assessment of digital literacy capability. By incorporating the knowledge of those with subject matter expertise, such as experienced specialist teachers, and the assessment data from 1,413 students with disability, the study applied partial credit item response modelling (Masters, 1982) to develop a progression of digital literacy for these students. The strong evidence drawn from reliability indices, item and person fit statistics, and differential item functioning support multiple arguments for validity. The results may assist teachers to understand the digital literacy capability of students with disability and what they are likely to be ready to learn next, for the purpose of targeting teaching for learning