Learn from a learner’s experience

Use a small case inquiry to understand where school tasks support or obstruct participation.

Choose a shared question

Ask a focused question such as: where does this learner lose the thread of instructions, or where can they explain an idea better than they can write it? Include the learner’s perspective and follow the school’s arrangements for observation and access to work.

Gather across contexts

Review a small set of work and observe selected lesson phases in two or three subjects. Record the task, language demand, response, support and participation. Avoid attributing every difficulty to English or treating one lesson as representative of the learner.

Talk with the learner

Use accessible prompts: what helped you know what to do, when was the idea clear, and what would make it easier to show your thinking? Offer a familiar language or visual prompt where useful. Invite strengths and successful moments, not only barriers.

Compare staff interpretations

Bring the learner voice and work samples to a short meeting. Distinguish observed evidence from assumptions. Compare conceptual understanding, language expression, task familiarity and social participation. Ask which barrier the staff can change.

Trial and revisit

Choose one change, such as a visual instruction sequence, oral rehearsal or a clarified paragraph model. Trial it across the relevant lessons and collect a new sample. Ask the learner whether the experience changed, then decide the next step.

Suggested session agenda

Adapt this schedule to the material, team and available time.

Worked example

A learner contributes well during a practical but writes little in the report. The team finds that the sequence from observation to explanation is unclear. They trial a labelled diagram and oral rehearsal before writing, then compare an independent report section and the learner’s account of what helped.

Plan your session or trial