Enactivism and ethnomethodological conversation analysis as tools for expanding Universal Design for Learning: the case of visually impaired mathematics students

Abstract

Blind and visually impaired mathematics students must rely on accessible materials such as tactile diagrams to learn mathematics. However, these compensatory materials are frequently found to offer students inferior opportunities for engaging in mathematical practice and do not allow sensorily heterogenous students to collaborate. Such prevailing problems of access and interaction are central concerns of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), an engineering paradigm for inclusive participation in cultural praxis like mathematics. Rather than directly adapt existing artifacts for broader usage, UDL process begins by interrogating the praxis these artifacts serve and then radically re-imagining tools and ecologies to optimize usability for all learners. We argue for the utility of two additional frameworks to enhance UDL efforts: (a) enactivism, a cognitive-sciences view of learning, knowing, and reasoning as modal activity; and (b) ethnomethodological conversation analysis (EMCA), which investigates participants' multimodal methods for coordinating action and meaning. Combined, these approaches help frame the design and evaluation of opportunities for heterogeneous students to learn mathematics collaboratively in inclusive classrooms by coordinating perceptuo-motor solutions to joint manipulation problems. We contextualize the thesis with a proposal for a pluralist design for proportions, in which a pair of students jointly operate an interactive technological device.

Visually Impaired Students’ Creative Thinking in Solving a Geometry Problem

“…Visual impairment students in this study refer to children with damage to their visual organs. Visual impairment students learn by non-visual modalities to develop their knowledge [7]. Visually impaired students' ability is no different from normal students.…”

Higher-order emotion identification by children with visual impairment: Developing emotional competence

“…In considering issues related to action and expression, teachers need to think very carefully about what learners will be doing to show they are learning and when and why they might do these things individually, in pairs, in small groups or in whole class activities, as well as what the teacher can learn by observing and engaging with learners during the process (Abrahamson et al 2018). The use of mobile devices as a form of assistive technology, even in resource-limited environments, when combined with the possibilities for building and maintaining communities of practice using such devices, may be one way to assist learners with visual impairment to move from beyond simply accessing educational opportunities towards more active participation in both educational and everyday life contexts (Foley & Masingila 2015).…”

A Systematic Review on Inclusive Education of Students with Visual Impairment

“…A total of 11 reviewed articles pertained to access to academic subjects. Of them, three focused on Physical Education [8,21,33], three on Mathematics [34][35][36], two on Science [37,38], one on Music [39], and two on Braille/literacy [22,40].…”