Constructivism-led assistive technology: An experiment at a Namibian special primary school

Abstract

Background: The study focused on children with hearing disabilities, which was significant as almost 9 million children in sub-Saharan Africa, including Namibia, had hearing disabilities. The problem was the lack of prior research on the effects of assistive technology (AT) in primary education for the Deaf in Namibia, for guiding Namibian special primary schools and educators.Aim: The aim was to investigate the effects of Constructivism-led AT on the teaching and learning of learners who were deaf, in a mathematics class at a rural special primary school.Setting: The study involved Grade three children who were deaf. Grade 3 is where children learn to build and understand foundational and basic mathematical concepts, such as counting, which they require for subsequent mathematics learning and practice.Methods: The study was a mixed-methods study comprising a quantitative experiment and qualitative interviews.Results: The findings suggested that the Constructivism-led AT may have had a positive effect on the children’s multiplication and division achievement, but not on their addition and subtraction achievement. The teachers were positive about the Constructivism-led AT and indicated that it supported collaborating, cooperating, exploring, self-assessing, learning from errors, seeking knowledge independently, self-regulating, self-reflecting, metacognitive thinking and being self-aware.Conclusion: For school management and teachers of children who are deaf, the study offered an intervention for potentially improving teaching and their learners’ mathematics achievement. In addition, the study provided valuable evidence for policymakers about integrating technology for effective learning environments.

Tecnologias de Aprendizagem Colaborativa com Suporte Computacional Inclusivas ao Surdo: Um Mapeamento Sistemático de Literatura

“…Houve 8 (28,6%) apropriações de alguma tecnologia já existente, em [Weiserbs 2001], [Beaton 2006], [Wu et al 2009], [Apolonio et al 2011], [Soeiro et al 2011], [Soeiro et al 2012], [Schley and Stinson 2016], e [Abiatal and Howard 2020].…”

“…A argumentação colaborativa em [Liu et al 2007]. A resolução de problemas em pares em [Abiatal and Howard 2020]. Entrevista de três etapas e verificação por pares em [Al-Jarrah 2019], e o método invariante em [Cano et al 2018].…”

Assistive Technologies: Saviour of Mathematics in Higher Education

“…The unprecedented challenges presented by COVID-19 have changed the world of learning, causing disruptions to the delivery of learning strategies leading most countries to rethink education services and pedagogies to ensure equitable access to inclusive and quality learning. Not surprisingly, an immediate or emergency response from the education institutes was a shift to Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) using online platforms that have become the new reality and norm of global learning in the current crisis of COVID-19 [1]. According to [2], ERT is a temporary shift of instructional delivery to an alternate delivery model due to crisis circumstances that involve fully remote teaching solutions for learning.…”

“…The authors also mention that ERT needs to be thoughtfully designed using dimensions such as modality, pacing, student-instructor ratio, pedagogy, instructor role, student role, communication synchrony, the role and type of assessments, and source of feedback. The Internet and assistive technologies (ATs) are mandatory for courses offered in ERT and online mode [1,2]. The ATs can also be referred to as key tools or devices that enable students to access ERT courseware, participate actively in the education process, and support inclusive education [3], for example, remembering lectures, solving problems, aligning tasks, writing, and managing, storing, and retrieving information [4,5].…”

“…One of the initiatives at the University of the South Pacific (USP) is the Online Mathematics Diagnostic Tool (OMDT) to bridge the mathematics knowledge gaps in students' transition from secondary to tertiary education [7,8], which has been made mandatory for all freshmen entering into the degree programs. Significantly, the current COVID-19 pandemic demands students to adopt the available AT to facilitate communication, data acquisition, research, and administration to remain academically productive [1].…”