Examining the use of adaptive technologies to increase the hands-on participation of students with blindness or low vision in secondary-school chemistry and physics

Abstract

To determine whether a suite of audible adaptive technologies would increase the hands-on participation of high school students with blindness or low vision in chemistry and physics courses, data were examined from a multi-year field study conducted with students in mainstream classrooms at secondary schools across the United States. The students worked with sighted laboratory partners. Four categories of data were analyzed with regard to levels of hands-on participation, including quantitative coding of video-recorded laboratory lessons, qualitative assessment of the same videos, student interviews, and teacher interviews. Evidence in support of the efficacy of the technologies to increase the students' hands-on participation during laboratory lessons was substantial. However, certain factors affected the quantitative interpretation of the data: students with usable low vision experienced similar levels of participation both with and without the adaptations, and students with little usable vision often required more time than did students with full vision to accomplish some laboratory tasks. Additional factors inherent to natural educational environments were also determined to have strong effects on student outcomes.

Investigation of Learning Behaviors and Achievement of Simple Pendulum for Vocational High School Students with Ubiquitous-Physics App

“…The interpreting ability is an essential requirement for expertise in problem-solving (Larkin & Reif, 1979). Researchers showed that graphs could be utilized to help physics and mathematics learning (Supalo et al, 2016;Zebehazy & Wilton, 2014). The ability to interpret, recognize, and work with graphs involves mathematical skill and processes (Friel et al, 2001).…”

“…Graphs understanding means understand experiment results; therefore, students conclude the experiment readily. Besides, the interpreting graphs could also be used to explain physics phenomena to students (Supalo et al, 2016;Zebehazy & Wilton, 2014).…”

“…It is consistent with the results of studies (Lingefjärd & Farahani, 2017;Purba & Hwang, 2017a, 2017b which showed interpreting graphs could help improve better conceptual understanding. The knowledge of interpreting graphs can be very helpful in physics experiment and become an important step towards expertise in problem-solving (Beichner, 1994;Larkin & Reif, 1979;Supalo et al, 2016;Zebehazy & Wilton, 2014). In addition, .000…”

“…Graphs could be utilized to help physics and mathematics learning (Supalo, Humphrey, Mallouk, Wohlers, & Carlsen, 2016;Zebehazy & Wilton, 2014). The ability to interpret, recognize, understand, and work with graphs involves mathematical skills and processes (Friel, Curcio, & Bright, 2001).…”

Analysing the physics learning environment of visually impaired students in high schools

“…The learning environment the student experiences is one of the few factors that can be influenced and optimised, and therefore is the most important factor in developing mathematical skills. Research has shown that tactile materials and audible graphs could be used to aid the teaching of mathematics and physics to visually impaired students (Supalo, Humphrey, Mallouk, David Wohlers, & Carlsen, 2016;Zebehazy & Wilton, 2014).…”