Inclusive Education and Visual Impairment

Author(s):

Sarah Wieckert(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2012

Network:

04. Inclusive Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

04 SES 12 C, Construction of Differences

Parallel Paper Session

Time:

2012-09-21

09:00-10:30

Room:

FFL - Aula 18

Chair:

Inger Assarson

Contribution

The encouragement of the development of a realistic self-concept of the children in their classes is an important challenge for school teachers (Beutel & Hinz, 2008; Kammermeyer & Martschinke, 2003; Krause, Wiesmann & Hannich, 2004; Prücher, 2002). Children who know about their strengths and weaknesses can work on the competences, which need to be improved, more effectively.

The study accompanied first-grade students and their teachers looking at the development of the children’s self-concepts concerning their mathematical competences. Looking at inclusive classes with children who have visual impairments, the aim has been to find out whether there are differences in the self-concept development of the children with and without visual impairment and how teachers cope with the special needs of their students.

The multidimensional self-concept model of Shavelson, Hubner und Stanton (1976) is used as theoretical framework as well as the discourse on inclusive education (Schnell & Sander, 2004) and the “mathe 2000”-project which focuses on effective teaching techniques in math lessons (Wittmann, 2003).

Method

Research has taken place at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of first-grade by interviewing all 94 students of five classes in order to find out how they rate their mathematical competences and their position in class. Furthermore the children attended mathematical tests (Sundermann & Selter, 2006) in order to gain data for comparison of the actual skills with their self-concepts. Interviews with the teachers provided a basis for analysing the teaching methods they use and their overall strategies to meet the heterogeneity in their class. Researcher’s observations of school lessons completed the design of the study.

Expected Outcomes

By using a longitudinal research design as well as a combination of quantitative and qualitative data interpretation techniques interesting results have been found concerning possibilities of fostering realistic self-concepts. The data shows that there is no significant difference in the self-concept development of children with and without visual impairment in the sample. Activities during school lessons which encourage children to rate their competences on their own can help to build a realistic self-concept. Aspects of teaching methods and the children’s view on their school experiences in an inclusive environment are of interest (Walthes, 2005) as children with visual impairment mostly have been taught in special schools in Germany but inclusive schooling will be the choice of the future as the German government claims. Furthermore heterogeneity is found in every school class and therefore one of the challenges for teachers is to cope with the different needs of their students in order to provide helpful teaching surroundings. This work can function as a basis for further research in this field.

References

Beutel, S.-I. & Hinz, R. (2008). Schulanfang im Wandel. Selbstkonzepte der Kinder als pädagogische Aufgabe. Berlin: LIT. Kammermeyer, G. & Martschinke, S. (2003). Schulleistung und Fähigkeitsselbstbild im Anfangsunterricht - Ergebnisse aus dem KILIA-Projekt. Empirische Pädagogik, 17, 486–503. Krause, C., Wiesmann, U. & Hannich, H.-J. (2004). Subjektive Befindlichkeit und Selbstwertgefühl von Grundschulkindern. Lengerich: Pabst Science Publishers. Prücher, F. (2002). Selbstkonzepte von Grundschulkindern. Eine empirische Untersuchung über das Selbstkonzept sozialer Integration und das Selbstkonzept allgemeiner Fähigkeiten von Kindern der ersten Grundschulklasse. Osnabrück: Der Andere Verlag. Schnell, I. & Sander, A. (Eds.) (2004). Inklusive Pädagogik. Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt. Shavelson, R. J., Hubner, J. J. & Stanton, G. C. (1976). Self-concept: Validation of Construct Interpretations. Review of Educational Research, 46, 407–441. Sundermann, B. & Selter, C. (2006). Beurteilen und Fördern im Mathematikunterricht. Gute Aufgaben - Differenzierte Arbeiten - Ermutigende Rückmeldungen. Berlin: Cornelsen Scriptor. Walthes, R. (2005). Einführung in die Blinden- und Sehbehindertenpädagogik. München: Reinhardt. Wittmann, E. Ch. (2003). Design von Lernumgebungen für die mathematische Frühförderung. In: G. Faust, M. Götz, H. Hacker, H. & H.-G. Rossbach (Eds.), Anschlussfähige Bildungsprozesse im Elementar- und Primarbereich (pp. 49-63). Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt.

Author Information

Sarah Wieckert (presenting / submitting)

Technical University of Dortmund

Institute for General Didactics and School Pedagogy (IADS)

Dortmund

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