I serve on the general education council and we have been addressing issues similar to yours. One currently under discussion is a student who has a math disability and cannot pass any of the courses designated as our math knowledge foundations regardless of the accommodations made for this student. The disability has been clearly (and legally) documented. The question we are struggling with is whether this student should be given his/her degree if he/she cannot complete the math requirement. We are currently waiting to have a meeting with the equivalent to your DSS director and the person who is legally responsible for implementing the disability act. Your case is even more drastic than ours. Without having the details of the disorder it appears that your student doesn't have difficulty with multiple choice tests, he/she appears to have problems retaining the required information. To me that is a no brainer. If he/she can't learn the material then you are right, college is not the appropriate choice for him/her. On the other hand, if it is a problem with the method of demonstrating his/her knowledge, then some accommodation should be made. I certainly appreciate the difficulty you are facing in determining the appropriate response.
Gary J. Klatsky, Ph. D. Director, Human Computer Interaction M.A. Program Department of Psychology [EMAIL PROTECTED] Oswego State University (SUNY) http://www.oswego.edu/~klatsky 7060 State Hwy 104W Voice: (315) 312-3474 Oswego, NY 13126 Fax: (315) 312-6330 -----Original Message----- From: Marte Fallshore [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, November 13, 2003 2:20 PM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences Subject: update on here's a new one (for me anyway) I just sent the message below. I should have talked with the DSS director first, b/c he says he may have suggested the student ask me about using notes, but that he would not suggest it as an accomodation. I think it says a lot about our pc times that we (at least some of us) believed that DSS would make that suggestion. I do still wonder what others think of someone with that sort of brain disorder being in college in the first place. Are we doing him a service or should he be getting some other training? Marte Fallshore >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 11/13/03 10:27AM >>> Fellow Tipsters: Earlier this quarter, I had a student come to me and tell me that he was working with disabilities support services (DSS) because he has limited short-term memory. My first thought was, "college is gonna be really hard for you". I also admire his persistence and willingness to try. However, yesterday he came to me and asked to be able to use his notes during tests, something no one else is allowed to do. This request was supposedly instigated by the director of DSS. This is an intro psych class, and I use multiple-choice tests as it is a large class. Has anyone else ever run into this type of issue? How did you handle it? Not to sound like an intellectual snob, but it seems to me college may not be the best place for a student with this type of brain injury. Thanks in advance for the thoughtful responses I expect to get, Marte Fallshore ************************************************ Marte Fallshore Department of Psychology Room 462 Central Washington University Ellensburg, WA 98926-7575 509/963-3670 509/963-2307 (fax) I teach for free; they pay me to grade. (anon) ************************************************ --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
