The Perception of Basic Science Concepts by Blind and Sighted Children

Children’s who are Blind Voices Concerning Science

“…This age range was used by another study [10] which examined science teaching of mainstream school children. The same age range was used by reference [1]. These researchers [1] investigated how blind and sighted children understand the basic physics that they experience in their everyday lives.…”

“…Teaching blind child ren about natural phenomenon requires a different approach and methodology to the one used for sighted children. Such methods have to take into account that, by definition, sighted and visually impaired children experience physical phenomenon in different ways [1]. As a result specific equip ment such as assistive technology, accessible instruments, tactile graphics materials and strategies that could help children meets those challenges in order to acquire equivalent pro ficiencies as their sighted peers are needed [2].Taking into consideration the above mention challenges children who are blind were interviewed to find out the way they viewed science.…”

“…These exp lanat ions are very o ft en deficient or incorrect. That is why school and teachers have enormous responsibility to design learning opportunities and experiences in order to relate the scient ific knowledge to children's experience and mo reover to change ch ild ren's deficient interpretations ( [1]). …”

“…There is a growing literature on mainstream school children's education about science ( [7], [3], [4], and [5]) but there have been only a few systematic studies of children who are visually impaired and the teaching of science ( [1], [2]). As a starting point to address this issue and to elicit views about basic aspects of children's who are blind perceptions and knowledge of science we carried out pilot qualitative interv iews with four boys aged 10 to 13 years attending two schools for the children who are b lind -t wo boys fro m a p rimary school and two boys fro m a secondary school.…”

Alternative ideas about concepts of physics, a timelessly valuable tool for physics education

“…Therefore, the research question is created on how a student with disabilities (blind) perceives concepts for which another sighted student has a wrong perception shaped by his vision. In this field, research has been carried out (Andreou & Kotsis, 2005a) on blind students, which has shown that blind students have formed, for some simple concepts of physics, perceptions closer to the scientific standard compared to the counterparts of the sighted (Andreou & Kotsis, 2005b). In the same field, similar research (Kotsis, 2005b) finds the need to research more on learning and teaching these concepts to blind students because they are led to better understandings.…”