Science teaching for the visually disabled children
Prasun Kanjilal
Sdilemma over science teaching for the visually disabled children :
While considering teaching-learning of science for the visually disabled students we have to face the following questions:
1) Whether science syllabus for VH and sighted students should materially differ?
2) Whether verbalism or activity should be the pivot for science teaching and learning?
3) Whether science teaching should be for self support only or for the development of society?
4) Whether descriptive learning or concept learning is preferable for teaching of science to the Visually Disabled students?
5) Whether experimental skill or problem solving skill-to be more emphasized?
6) Whether the Teaching Learning should give more emphasis on "habit formation" or "insightful learning"?
7) Whether the science learning should aim at desk oriented job, supervisory job or ny production oriented job?
8) Whether it is better to seek the assistance of a peer/peer group or to work alone particularly for the study science?
9) Whether a few VH students should be taught with modern sophisticated gadgets or a large number of students should be taught science using indigenous methods/local methods?
Some consensus over science teaching for the VH students:
There may be controversy over different questions noted above but there might be agreement on some points:The Science syllabus for the VH students should differ from that of the other
students and moreover this syllabus should
cater to the needs of the VH students.
Peer may be required in science education for cooperation only and not for domination.
Contrived experience may be given when a
direct purposeful experience is not suitable (contrived experience) may be effectively used in this case.
Science education is first for their security, second for self development and self support, and finally for the development of the society of the VH students.
*Objectives of teaching Science to the Visually Handicapped Children :*
Through a course school science visually handicapped children will be able to acquire techincal vocabulary,
acquire the ability to present information through recollection and indentification, will
develop the power of reasoning ,
find relationship among different objects, ideas, statements ,
acquire information through different senses: aided or unaided., can
measure length, area, volume, mass, density, weight, force, can identify different diagrams and figures and bodies of different shapes, can
identify different materials by nonvisual techniques, can
distinguish between different velocities, pitches, intensities and quality of different
sounds, can
distinguish among different solids, liquids and also their physical and chemical changes , can find unity among the observed things, can take precautions against dangerous materials and situations including fire, temperature, height, depth, curves, pointed and sharp objects, concentrated acids etc., can construct relief diagrams and also will
take observations with the help of companions/peers , will interpret observations of experimental results and try to give generalizations .
জ্বলদর্চি হোয়াটসঅ্যাপ গ্রুপে যুক্ত হোন। 👇
Method of teaching science :
"Science Teaching" has three dimensions or wings CONCEPTS, PROCESSES and
APPLICATIONS.
Concept comprises of vocabulary, laws, principles, definitions, diagrams etc. These are provided in a text book as per syllabus of a board or a council of education. It may be equated to knowledge.
Process means the mental and motor activities meaningfully done to acquire the concepts or knowledge in science. The process may involve natural observation, collection of specimens, arranging them, measurement, communication, controlled experiments, collection of data, interpretation of data, establishing relationship etc. Obviously simple lecture can never be sufficient to teach science to the VH students.
*lApplication means application of scientific knowledge in the real life situation to develop the quality of life.
*lTeaching of concepts: Concepts may be classified in different ways. The most important classification comprises two types of concepts: Concrete concepts and Abstract concepts.
Concrete concepts are directly perceptible to ordinary senses and abstract are mainly logically perceived. This nomenclature of concrete and abstract concepts may sometimes reversed in the case of teaching VH students. It is generally known that some effects of light like reflection, refraction, shadow are simple while work. force etc. are the difficult concepts to the sighted students. However the situation is reverse in the case of VH students.
For chemistry teaching to the VH student we should start with organic chemistry (food items, fruits, drinks, soap, detergents, curds, decomposition, fermentation), some inorganic events like results of burning, rusting, properties of hydrogen sulphide gas. chlorine gas, ammonia gas etc. Students should get direct experience from the above substances and events. So the entire gamut of concepts in science requires a new hierarchy in the case of teaching VH students. Some concepts however remain ever abstract to all the students, such as atom, ion, molecule, valency, charge etc. The development of these requires more reasoning than anything else.
Concepts may be taught by lecture in combination with
a) activities and experiments performed by the students in and outside classroom,
b) teaching aids (now called as teaching learning materials or TLM) simple, representative and easy to handle and carry.
These activities also help the students i) acquire psycho motor skill,
ii) increase knowledge, concrete experience and understanding of the VH students who are starved of them.
Stages of cognitive development and development of concepts:
Cognitive development of a child depends on the development of experience and the constant analysis and synthesis of the experiences gained. A visually disabled child may sometimes lag behind an otherwise equivaient sighted child in cognitive processes. So the stages of development of visually disabled children are likely to differ from that of the sighted children. Hence the stages of development of VH students should be standardized under Indian context. The curricular transaction may be determined on the basis of that standardisation. A visually disabled child may come late in formal stage of development but it may not disturb his/her formal or logical operation if the norm of teaching and learning in science is properly followed. For the convenience of teaching science to the VH students deduction may be followed by induction and vice versa.
The students may verify (obviously through Deductive method) Newton's third law of motion, characteristics of acid and alkali (organic & inorganic), laws of falling bodies, Archimedes' principle, law of flotation and other rules as required in our daily life. Similarly they may be asked to develop the principles/generalisation on the basis of the evidences/facts collected (obviously through inductive way). Charactristics of metal, characteristics of a fruit may be developed in this way. It is better if inductive and deductive process of teaching go side by side.
Constructivism and development of concepts, Children's interpretation of a particular observation depends on his experience, culture, expectation etc. When two parallel papers are held vertically and mouth air is blown through the space between them, the paper some close (This experiment can be done in class room by every students under the guidance of teacher). To explain the cause of such observation some students may say that the force of air
increases attractions between the papers. Is it an incorrect answer? Scientifically the answer is incorrect. But from the standpoint of the child's psyche it is not an error. According to him, increased force between two papers brings them closer (as in electrostatics or gravitation). He/she has also experienced that two friends embrace each other due to their mutual attraction. That's why he/she need not be condemned for this peculiar/pseudo scientific answer. His/her reasons should be accepted first and then it should be erased with help of further experiments, reasoning and discussion. Drastically correcting their answer, as it was not scientific, may bring ego problem among the children.
A further example of constructivism:
Children, particularly VH children, think that more massive body falls faster. This misconception of the students may be done away with some experiments performed successively as follows:
1) A coin and small piece of paper are allowed to fall simultaneously but indepedently.
2) The coin with the small paper sitting on it is allowed to fall.
3) Two currency notes alike in denomination and size, one folded and other stretched are allowed to fall simultaneously.
4) Two similar match boxes one full and other half filled, are allowed to fall.
Two hands of the students will be used in the experiment One for releasing and the other for receiving. The teacher or the peer can help setting the experiment, performing experiment, help to find the result.
Inference should drawn by the student himself under guidance of the teacher.
The concept of whole, micro and A macro dimensions:
Concept of whole:
It is not very difficult to teach with isolated objects and materials of ordinary size. Difficulty arises when we try to teach about
assembling the objects to make an integrated whole. So integrated object size should not exceed volume or size or length beyond the capability of a VH student. For example , A VH student has idea of time, height, acceleration etc. When all these are combined to make an experimental set up difficulty may arises. The student wants to prove (only approximately) the law of falling bodies. Suppose the heights are assigned values 0.5m, 1m, 2m 3m & 4m etc. As the first two heights are within the reach of him he participates the experiment and understands. He cannot participate when the heights are beyond his/her manageable limit. Similarly in Life science it is not so difficult to introduce different plants and trees of a garden to a VH student but it is really difficult, though not impossible, to present the comprehensive view of the garden.
Micro-and marco-dimensions : very large or small distances can not be visualized but it A has to be understood by the students. Students may be given a task as follows: Approximately determine and write in centimeter the
Length of a mango, a grape and a seed, thickness of a blade, a leaf, a currency note, thickness of a plastic bag. What distance you could cover over a straight road in 10 minutes?
Suppose you can travel continuously without being tired ,What distance would you cover in an hour, 2hrs, 2days. 2 months, 2 years, in your entire life if you live up 100 years? This logical task helps to understand a very large distance. Following this we may further ask, If it were possible for
you to move up to the Sun how many years would be required? In this way concept of large volume, large force etc. can also be presented. On the similar reasoning a chalk can divided and subdivided continuously to give the idea of micro and molecular dimensions.
Teaching of process: After visual process verbalism might come next for quick interaction with environment. Question. Then should we teach science to the VH students through verbalism only? Never; firstly as the experience and vocabulary of the VH student may not be sufficient to follow long lecture in attaining new scientific concept, secondly without activities and experimentals education in science can not be complete. It is therefore imperative to teach science through scientific process oriented activities along with lecture where applicable. Next question : Should we use sophisticated instruments and formalities while teaching science to the VH students? Considering the number of such students and their socioeconomic condition under Indian context, we can say that, it is better to use immediate environment and the active involvement of the students more and more for science teaching. In teaching 'process' of science to the students,
cooperative learning seems to be suitable as it ensures active and effective cooperation among teacher and the students more emphasis should be given on the development of interest and concepts rather than accuracy and precision.
cheap, easily available and scrap material may be used in the learning science. Experiments done with these materials may be termed as semi quantitative or qualitative experiments. An example : Boyle's law apparatus is costly and sometimes not available in an institution. In this case the law can be verified at least qualitatively by using disposable clinical syringe (available in ambulance).
light probe, colour probe, specially devised thermometers may be used if they are available.
we have to include the activities like observing nature, collecting, arranging, classifying, doing experiment, observing changes, inferring etc. with the active help of the teacher, peers and remaining senses. Students should be encouraged to make assumption/hypothesis.
Some examples of process learning:
a) Gardening, collection of leaves, fruits and plants, classifying them etc. These activities help to get an idea about part and whole relationship, the relation between garden and its different parts.
b) Collection, identification and experimentation with different acids and alkalis, metals and alloys, different non corrosive and nonpoisonous chemicals used in home to get a first hand experience in chemistry.
c) to study the structure and function of simple machines, gadgets, household appliances to understand force, work and other concepts and principles of physics.
d) some measurement on height and depth, observation on fire, concentrated acids, moving objects, their speed and mass, smoothness and roughness of a surface, straight lines and curves velocity and pitch. These are to be done for getting an initial lesson on precaution and security.
Experiments on curricular topics :
Under the secondary and primary education boards of West Bengal there is no formal provision of experiments in science curriculum to be evaluated in the terminal examinations. Still in the formative evaluation it is always encouraged. For better understanding and skill of the VH students, formal experiments are occasionally.
1 Comments
Thanks a ton for reading
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