This article reviews 24 years of research focused on science education for students with learning and other disabilities. Our results are based on 53 articles from 2 relevant databases. We hereby present and discuss the results of the most popular topics investigated, which include: constructivism, exploratory learning, hands-on activities, cross-curricular projects, multiple means of representation, cognitive and social skills, group and peer learning, coursebooks, reading strategies, readability and students' assessment. Our results suggest that topics like teacher education, teacher/researcher co-operation, education policy, school administration and curriculum structure are scatteredly investigated. These experimental approaches and interventions may provide insight into teacher training in higher education and can explain controversial concepts regarding the question of "full inclusion, selective inclusion or excellency".
Special education is a challenging area of education, as traditional instruction strategies need to be appropriately adjusted to match the individuals' needs resulting from various types of learning and other disabilities (LD). Among a range of subjects, the paper focuses on science education for LD students and it elaborates on two groups of adaptations frequently discussed in the literature, which involve materials alternative to textbook. We have carried out a literature review by using a pool of review articles from the "Bibliography Observatory" database developed by the University of Thessaly, Greece. We herein present the sum of the research activity primarily from the past decades (post 1980s), pertaining to technology assisted adaptations and hands-on activities/laboratory instruction. This analysis has shown that there is an increasing research interest in such adaptations both chronologically and most importantly provides evidence of the advantages these adaptations offer to LD students.
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