A multi-sensory non-threatening learning environment

The Working Men’s College in London serves a wide variety of ethnic communities, plus homeless and refugee’s associations. Many students have English as a second or other language, and retention is problematic.

To support these learners, classroom activities, especially those requiring repetition, are designed to be multisensory: visual, auditory and kinaesthetic. For example, in an ESOL class, individual students write items on the interactive whiteboard, the tutor displays images alongside text questions, the whole class reads the text together. Handheld electronic voting devices for quiz questions allow every student to participate without embarrassment if they select a wrong answer. [Michael McCombe]