Dyslexia and study skills in higher education : learning and teaching

• Purpose: To investigate how dyslexia affects university students' ability to benefit from higher education, to describe the strategies that students with these problems use, and to examine the higher education institutions' support for these students. Method: Structured and semi-structured interviews, self-reports and testing of 36 university students and interviewes with 30 lecturers from 3 Swedish higher education institutions (teacher training and nursing). Results: The students with dyslexia were found to have problems with a number of skills and academic tasks, e.g. note taking and expressing ideas in writing. Many of them described that their difficulties were long-standing and had been experienced already in elementary school, but the nature of their problems often change over time. The students seemed to make use of resources available to them, including additional time for examinations, access to dyslexia tutors and support with information technology. Conclusions: The results suggest that there are significant knowledge gaps in the educational institutions regarding people who have dyslexia, especially for students not identified formally and explicitly in the compulsory school. Such students may have a very different educational background compared to the traditional group with dyslexia and may be in need for a special type of support. It is suggested that knowledge about students with dyslexia is of great importance for the design of higher education in order to cope with new groups of students.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Psykologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Psychology (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Lärande (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Learning (hsv//eng)

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