ABSTRACT

The number of students reporting dyslexia in HE institutions is increasing year on year, mirroring institutional inclusivity agendas. This article investigates the potential for a universal (but not sole) approach to teaching dyslexic learners across disciplines, institutions and academic content. The article discusses a largely unexplored nexus between commonly compromised working memory in many dyslexic learners, on the one hand; on the other, the scientifically validated capacity of multimedia learning (MML) methods to ease pressure on working memory by exploiting visual processing capacity. It advances this literature in two areas. First, MML’s focus on cognitive engagement neglects the affective and behavioural dimensions of engagement. Second, MML methods have not been tested coherently with dyslexic learners. A speculative hypothesis, therefore, asks how the use of MML methods might affect each dimension of engagement for dyslexic learners. A replicable mixed methods longitudinal randomised control group trial was devised, with the subjects being dyslexic learners in nine disciplines at a UK university. The resulting data confirms that MML enhances engagement across each dimension to varying degrees, and that the key increases were not in the domain of cognitive engagement. Further, it shows that dyslexic learners’ engagement across the spectrum is greater when exposed to multimedia methods than monomedia.

摘要

在高等教育机构中报告阅读障碍的学生人数逐年增加，反映了机构包容性议程。本文探讨了一种通用（但不是唯一）方法来教授跨学科、机构和学术内容的阅读障碍学习者的潜力。一方面，这篇文章讨论了许多阅读障碍学习者普遍受损的工作记忆之间的一个很大程度上未被探索的联系；另一方面，经过科学验证的多媒体学习 (MML) 方法通过利用视觉处理能力来缓解工作记忆压力。它在两个方面推进了这一文献。首先，MML 对认知参与的关注忽略了情感和行为参与的维度。其次，MML 方法尚未与阅读障碍学习者进行一致的测试。因此，一个推测性假设询问 MML 方法的使用如何影响阅读障碍学习者参与的各个维度。设计了一项可复制的混合方法纵向随机对照组试验，受试者是英国大学九个学科的阅读障碍学习者。结果数据证实，MML 在不同程度上增强了各个维度的参与度，并且关键的增长不在认知参与度领域。此外，它表明，当接触多媒体方法时，阅读障碍学习者在整个频谱中的参与度高于单一媒体。