Abstract
Speech-language pathology (SLP) students must undertake clinical placements as part of their education. Preliminary research suggests that SLP students from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds, international students (IS) and students speaking English as an Additional Language (EAL) may experience more frequent placement performance difficulties than other students. This study aims to build on previous findings, by investigating whether CALD, EAL or IS predict the outcome of SLP clinical placements.
854 SLP students from three Australian universities consented to include their placement data. In total 2747 placements were included, and placement outcome was categorised into either ‘Pass' or ‘At risk' categories. Multilevel binomial regression analysis was used to determine whether IS, CALD, EAL or combinations of these predict placement outcome.
Multivariate analysis identified that IS and EAL students were more likely to be represented in the ‘At risk' placement group, but CALD students, comprised of domestic and international students, were not. However, ‘At risk' placements were a very small proportion of the overall placements. The effect of the IS and EAL variables on placement outcome was also very small, suggesting that other factors influence placement outcome. This small effect, together with detection of collinearity mean that these results should be treated cautiously. Whilst these results confirm previous literature identifying EAL and IS as factors important for students' success in placement, they also indicate that these are
not solely predictive of ‘At risk' placement outcomes. The implications of these results for SLP
students' learning in clinical placements will be discussed.
854 SLP students from three Australian universities consented to include their placement data. In total 2747 placements were included, and placement outcome was categorised into either ‘Pass' or ‘At risk' categories. Multilevel binomial regression analysis was used to determine whether IS, CALD, EAL or combinations of these predict placement outcome.
Multivariate analysis identified that IS and EAL students were more likely to be represented in the ‘At risk' placement group, but CALD students, comprised of domestic and international students, were not. However, ‘At risk' placements were a very small proportion of the overall placements. The effect of the IS and EAL variables on placement outcome was also very small, suggesting that other factors influence placement outcome. This small effect, together with detection of collinearity mean that these results should be treated cautiously. Whilst these results confirm previous literature identifying EAL and IS as factors important for students' success in placement, they also indicate that these are
not solely predictive of ‘At risk' placement outcomes. The implications of these results for SLP
students' learning in clinical placements will be discussed.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages | 23 |
| Number of pages | 1 |
| Publication status | Published - May 2016 |
| Event | Speech Pathology Australia National Conference: Making Waves - Duration: 16 May 2016 → … |
Conference
| Conference | Speech Pathology Australia National Conference: Making Waves |
|---|---|
| Period | 16/05/16 → … |
Keywords
- Speech pathology
- Clinical placements
- Professional development