DIDACTIC MATERIAL FOR THE INCLUSION OF STUDENTS WITH VISUAL IMPAIRMENT IN THE CLASSES OF SCIENCES AND BIOLOGY ON THE PHYLA MOLLUSCA AND ECHINODERMATA

Abstract

The inclusion of impaired students in the primary and secondary schools is a wide concept that has been discussed in the last decades. Most school subjects focus a large portion of their contents on expository figures and images. For that reason, didactic resources are fundamental to the education of students with visual impairments, especially in Science and Biology. Among contents are the phyla Mollusca and Echinodermata, which, for having mostly marine representatives, are fairly unknown by students in areas too distant to the coast. In such context, it is possible to hypothesise that these students – chiefly the visually impaired ones – are less benefitted by the presentation of those contents. In order to promote an equitable learning experience to both visually impaired and non-impaired students in several schools in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, the efficiency of didactic materials made for teaching Science and Biology was assessed regarding both students and teachers’ views on their quality. These evaluations were conducted in three state public institutions and the results show that the use of the didactic materials specifically made for those classes, when paired with the necessary resources, allowed all students to actively participate and to perform better in the classes.