Interaction between teachers and students with intellectual disability during computer-based activities: The role of human mediation

Abstract

Project @pple (Access & Participation for People with intellectual disability in Learning Environments) was about exploring the terms for access and participation in e-learning and the World Wide Web. The current study aimed to explore the role of human mediation in student use of information and communication technology (ICT) in the special needs classroom. Video ethnography was employed to capture user engagement with ICT in a special secondary school for children with severe intellectual disability in the U.K. Five single cases were identified and the data were sampled, transcribed and evaluated for interactional structure and modes of communication. Statistical analysis revealed significant differences between teacher and student communication on all the measures. Teachers occupied significantly more turns than students. There were relatively few opportunities for the student to make a contribution to the interaction process with requests from teachers dominating the dialogues. The teachers communicated through speech mainly, with some gestural support towards aspects of the computer-based activity. This small scale study is illustrative of characteristics found in teacher-talk in other studies of classroom discourse. Engagement in computer-based activities appears to be inseparable from the communication context determined by the type of linguistic support given by the teacher.

Examination of the communication interface between students with severe to profound and multiple intellectual disability and educational staff during structured teaching sessions

“…The teachers generally favoured ‘speech’, which is perhaps to be expected in its place at the top of the human communication hierarchy (Flewitt 2006). However, their use of ‘touch’, ‘singing’, ‘objects’ and ‘scripted’ reveal adaptations to the range of presenting sensory and cognitive needs of the students resonant of other studies (Bunning & Ellis 2010; Bunning et al . 2010).…”

“…The role of communication partner has been identified as key to the interactional process involving people with S‐PMID (see Olsson 2005). Bunning et al . (2010) observed the mediating role played by teaching staff in student engagement with computer‐based activities, affecting attention and supporting task activation.…”

“…Lee & Eke 2004; Hardman et al . 2005; Berry 2006; Bruce & Vargas 2007; Bunning & Ellis 2010; Bunning et al . 2010).…”

Educators’ engagement with children with autism spectrum disorder in a learning environment with multiple technologies in Finland and China

“…The findings resonate with the results of previous studies (Guldberg, Parsons, Porayska-Pomsta, & Keay-Bright, 2017;McKnight et al, 2016) that indicate that technology influences teachers' pedagogical activities in the classroom. As Jacklin and Farr (2005) and Bunning et al (2010) have noted, children's (inter)actions cannot be examined independently of the interactional context provided by their co-participants, in this case, educators. Our findings add to the previous research by showing that the complexity of technology-based solutions can affect children and educators in various ways, which Jacklin and Farr (2005) have described as a triangle-like relationship between a child, an educator, and technology.…”

Application of Flipped Classroom in the Era of Big Data: What Factors Influence the Effect of Teacher‐Student Interaction in Oral English Teaching

“…As an important part of teaching for college teachers, teacher-student interaction has a significant impact on the teaching quality of teachers and the leaning efficiency of students [1]. Appropriate and high-level teacher-student interaction can mobilize students' enthusiasm in class and guide students to think and express their views better.…”