Full course description
Date and time
Day 1: Tuesday 20 May 2025 11.00 am to 1.00 pm
Day 2: Thursday 5 June 2025, 10.00 pm to 12.00 pm
Day 3: Friday 20 June 2025, 9.00 am to 11.00 am
Delivery mode
Online – a Zoom link will be provided 24 hours prior to the event
Audience
Primary and secondary classroom teachers, Learning Support Officers, Learning Support Assistants
Description
Session 1: Understanding working memory and the impact of working memory deficits on learning
In this webinar, participants will learn about how working memory works, the reasons for individual differences in working memory and the impact of working memory deficits. They will explore a number of tools for assessing working memory, including a checklist for identifying students with poor working memory. Disabilities that include poor working memory as a characteristic will be discussed. This webinar will be interactive, with participants finding out about their own working memory.
Session 2: Structuring the learning environment and tasks to support students with working memory deficits
This webinar will identify strategies and resources that teachers can employ to support students with low working memory. Strategies include evaluating the working memory demands of tasks and redesigning them where necessary, monitoring students carefully and looking for signs of working memory failure, reducing the amount of material to be stored in a task, and reducing the difficulty of processing (which may necessitate modifications to the learning environment). The importance of reducing complexity, providing greater structure for task completion and repeating important information will also be discussed.
Session 3: Teaching cognitive strategies and training the brain to minimise the impact of a working memory deficit
This webinar will address the explicit cognitive strategy instruction that teachers can, and should, provide to help students with low working memory to learn more effectively. It will also identify ways in which the brain can be supported to function optimally. Participants will be given the opportunity to look at some ‘brain training’ programs and to design tasks that exercise working memory in a positive way.
Key takeaways
- an understanding of working memory
- strategies which can be used to assist a student with poor working memory
- an understanding of how to train the brain to minimise the impact of a working memory deficit.
Presenter information
Shirley Houston
Shirley Houston is an educational consultant with over 35 years of teaching experience and a Masters degree in Special Education. She is a long-standing Board member of The Dyslexia-SPELD Foundation of Western Australia. Shirley has established a reputation as a caring, dynamic and innovative educator whose programs reflect both current research and a deep understanding of the needs of students with learning difficulties and disabilities. She has taught students in years K-12 at government, Catholic and Independent schools, in Australia and in America.
Link(s) to relevant VRQA Standards
- Curriculum and Student Learning – Student learning outcomes
- Curriculum and Student Learning – Monitoring and reporting on students’ performance