As I embarked on this project, my initial feelings were of excitement around a topic I felt was really interesting, and confidence that it had the potential to drive improvements in teaching and learning by making relatively small changes to both on screen and physical delivered content.
However, as I began to delve into the secondary research, my feelings turned to those of overwhelm, having realised that I had opened Pandora’s Box, and stumbled into the depths of a much more complex issue than I had, at first, realised.
Regardless, believing this to be an important, and potentially experience changing piece of research for our students, particularly those exhibiting neurodiversity, I set about reading as many sources as I could find and making a step by step plan to fulfill the requirements of the brief.
My first breakthrough was in setting up each of the required blog posts, giving it a title, and dropping in relevant research & references to each post as I went. Doing this helped me manage my own expectations of what was required, in the timeframe available. Subsequent workshops and the group tutorials with Andrew and my peer group also really helped me to understand that I was probably overthinking the project in the context of the course and credits available. In essence the emphasis should be on the quality of what I was producing, not necessarily simply how much time I had spent on it!
Having set up the survey, completed the Ethical Action Plan, and identified my interview participants, I began to implement the practical elements of ensuring that these were completed in sufficient time for analysis. With hindsight, there are several aspects of these research methods that I might have carried out differently.
I gained really valuable specific insight into the individual challenges faced by neurodiverse participants from the interviews, so a few more of these would have assisted further. The validity of the survey, although useful, was somewhat hindered by the sample size – if I were to embark on a similar project in the future, I would probably endeavour to encourage some students to complete the survey whilst I was in the classroom with them, and find improved methods of distribution to the wider UAL community.
I continued to build content into each blog post, with further reading and research, adding in the primary research categorisation & analysis over the Christmas break. This allowed me the time to think, re-write and edit each post as necessary, leaving time available to develop the final presentation.
I am very happy with the end result. The research confirmed many of my initial thoughts, and although limited by the number of respondents, the analysis provided enough information to drive out some compelling conclusions and recommendations. It has also made me aware that this is a topic which warrants further consideration and research, incorporating discussion around related issues such as colour blindness, environment & lighting, and the direct impact of colour on reading fluency, recall and attention span. It indicated that the University would need to work closely with 3rd Party contributors such as the Irlen Institute, in order to develop a clear strategy and action plan for incorporating specific tools and techniques into teaching and learning content.
The whole process has inspired me to build my lecture and seminar material in different ways, adding in, not just more colour itself, but more visually creative ways of increasing student engagement, in a more holistic and mindful manner that eliminates cognitive and sensory inequality.
Finally, I would really like to thank all of my tutors, in particular, Andrew Slatter and John O’Reilly, for their support, sharing of knowledge and insight throughout this Action Research Project.
I’d also like to thank many of my fellow students on the course, particularly those in my tutor and workshop groups, those who participated in the original intervention which inspired it, and those who contributed to the interviews and development of the survey, including Kuljeet Sibia, Eva Feld, Ignacia Ruiz, Jasper Zheng, Claire Undy and Ian Holmes.