Paired associates: a workshop model for effecting change

Abstract

A series of workshops for staff working with profoundly handicapped children was organized, the main concern of which was to improve the teaching approaches with such a population. The workshops were the result of an innovative attempt by the British Psychological Society's Standing Committee on Handicap to apply current knowledge of the real life problems of work settings in schools or hospitals where children are educated. The workshops covered a period of 3 months with approximately one term between the first and second. Participants attended in pairs, one member of each pair being either a clinical or educational psychologist, and a variety of problems presented by the children were tackled. This paper attempts to describe the structure and operation of the workshops, to evaluate their outcome, and to suggest ideas for the future of such an approach.