Teacher Professional Development via a MOOC on Assistive Technology for Visually Impaired Students Learning Mathematics

Abstract

In this paper we describe an Italian MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) for secondary mathematics and support teachers designed specifically to offer different accessibility solutions for visually impaired students of digital curricular resources with STEM content. Different assistive technologies were available in the MOOC from an inclusive perspective (to support the learning of all students, not just those with visual impairments). Using a Meta-Didactical Transposition (MTD) framework, we describe how the contents presented in the MOOC influenced the attending teachers' praxeologies with respect to the implementation of inclusive activities. In particular, we analyzed teachers' lesson designs, proposed in the form of a homework in the MOOC, to detect recurrent elements shaping inclusive didactical praxeologies. We present the result of this coding process and the analysis of four teachers' design as case studies, highlighting how different agents-activated by the MOOC at a microlevel-originated at a macro-level inclusive praxeologies, with respect to choosing assistive technology use in the classroom.