Learner-centered pedagogy (LCP) is one of the best approaches in developing knowledge, skills, and attitudes of learners to cope with the changing world. Implementation of LCP practices tend to vary from one context to another. It is within this perspective that this study was conducted with the aim of investigating the teachers’ attitudes toward LCP in public primary schools located in Nyarugenge District. A sample size of 165 teachers was selected from 13 public and government-aided primary schools. Simple percentages, and chi-square analysis were used to analyze data, and the findings were triangulated with questionnaire and interview responses. Results show that primary school teachers manifested negative attitude toward LCP. The study also indicates that both institutional and individual factors, such as insufficient and inadequate trainings, lack of clear indicators on LCP, and lack of prior experience on LCP among colleges and university tutors during preservice training, affect the attitude of teachers. It is further revealed that gender does not influence the attitude of teachers; however, training was found to be significant at .05 level. It is therefore important that authorities ensure proper training to head teacher, school subject leaders, and teachers on LCP and avail clear indicators on those methods.
Background
The use of information and communication technologies is transforming the lives of millions of people including children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, the process of developing a user-friendly and effective mobile app needs to follow a complex standard protocol and culture-sensitive customization, and involves multiple sectors. This complex work becomes even more challenging when considering children with ASD in low- and middle-income countries as the users.
Objective
This study aimed to design and develop a more intuitive mobile app to improve numeracy skills of children with ASD in Rwanda and evaluate the usability of the app.
Methods
A participatory design approach was utilized in this study in which 40 children with ASD, 5 teachers, and 10 parents of children with ASD participated in focus group discussions (FGDs) and usability testing. A narrative literature review was performed to explore existing mobile apps and compare previous studies to design the questions for FGD and facilitate a framework for designing the app. The agile methodology was used to develop the mobile app, and the heuristics evaluation method was used to test and evaluate the usability of the initial version of the app to improve its functionalities. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed following the guidelines of the qualitative narrative analysis (QNA) method.
Results
During the FGDs the respondents shared their need for a mobile app in teaching and learning numeracy for children with ASD and pointed to possibilities of integrating the mobile app into existing curriculum. Ten themes emerged from the FGDs and exercise of developing the mobile app. The themes were related to (1) teaching and learning numeracy for children with ASD, (2) planning and development of a mobile app for a person with ASD, (3) testing a mobile app, (4) strength of the developed app against the existing ones, (5) behavioral maintenance and relapse prevention, (6) possibilities to integrate the mobile app into the existing curriculum, (7) data protection for users, (8) social implications, (9) challenges in Rwanda, and (10) focus on future.
Conclusions
The community plays an important role in the planning, development, and evaluation of a mobile app for children with ASD. In this study, inputs from teachers and parents resulted in an optimally designed mobile app that can improve numeracy skills in children diagnosed with ASD to support the implementation of competency-based curriculum in Rwanda.
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