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Averil Calver

Mrs Averil Calver (BEd, MA)

Postgraduate Researcher
E: A.Calver1@uni.bsms.ac.uk
Location: Department of Medical Education, 344B Watson Building, University of Brighton, Falmer, BN1 9PH

Area of expertise: Education; Special Educational Needs and Inclusion; Specific Learning Difficulties; Assessment within Education

Research areas: Dyslexia in medical education

BACKGROUND IMAGE FOR PANEL

BIOGRAPHY

Averil is a Doctoral Researcher with Brighton and Sussex Medical School. She is currently living in Northern Ireland and regularly travelling over to Brighton in order to carry out research into how Dyslexic medical students experience the teaching and learning of Prescribing in Medical Education and within clinical settings as Foundation Doctors. She has a Masters degree in Inclusive Education and Special Educational Needs, and a Bachelor of Education (BEd) from Queen’s University Belfast. Her professional experience includes working as an Advisory Teacher for Cognition and Learning with Bury Local Authority, Manchester, and working as a SENCO (Special Educational Needs Coordinator) within a school setting.

Averil is passionate about the development of inclusive learning environments that are accommodating of all learners, particularly those with neurodivergence. She was shortlisted for the annual Vice Chancellor’s Research Scholarship Competition with the University of Ulster in June 2023, for a research proposal into the uses and consequences of Progress in English and Progress in Maths assessments used within primary schools in the UK.

Research

Averil is interested in research from a social science perspective. She is also interested in the use of methodology informed by the social-constructivist paradigm, and using research and participant voice as a way through which to interrupt deeply engrained views of ‘knowledge’ as might be promoted within assessment policies and curriculum in various education settings. She has an interest in how education curriculum and methods of teaching and assessing students might promote a particular framework of being ‘successful’ and the consequences of this for learners with neurodivergence.

Currently, Averil is a PhD student with Brighton and Sussex Medical School. She is carrying out research into the social world of dyslexic doctors in relation to both the learning and undertaking of the prescribing of medicine, using both qualitative and quantitative approaches to research.

BACKGROUND IMAGE FOR PANEL

Teaching

Averil has a Bachelor of Education (BEd, First Class Honours) from Queen’s University Belfast and a Masters' with Distinction from Manchester Metropolitan University in Inclusive Education and Special Educational Needs. She has fifteen years’ experience of teaching within Primary Education, including as an Advisory Teacher for Cognition and Learning with a Local Authority. This role involved writing and delivering training to teachers and SENCOs in subject areas including: Developing Dyslexia Friendly classroom environments, Working Memory and Developing Handwriting and Spelling, as well as teaching and assessing a large caseload of children with Specific Learning Difficulties.