Active-Participatory Methods Used to Make Progress in Educating Students

Neaga Susanu¹

Abstract: Educational policies are based on capitalizing on the principles of education for all, regardless of the special requirements they face, in order to become useful in their families, but also useful to the society in which they manage to integrate. The school must offer as wide a range of educational services as possible to attract children and meet their requirements. In this school there must be first of all communication, understanding, in a word a space dominated by acceptance, tolerance and diversity. Addressing the issue of education content in the conditions of integration of children with SEN in mainstream education must end with the development of a differentiated or adapted curriculum. In the instructive-educational practice we have encountered numerous cases of disabled students who have been integrated into classes of students without disabilities and have had spectacular evolutions in some disciplines. During the lessons, a series of working methods or techniques adapted to the age of the students and their level of performance can be used. I present some methods applied in the lessons, which led to a school progress of children with disabilities.

Keywords: students with disabilities; integration; learning methods; recovery; curriculum; value system

Introduction

In recent years, the issue of students with SEN has become a priority both for the national education system and for educators, teachers and last but not least for parents and sometimes grandparents. We all fight for a normal life for these children. “I am the child! You hold my destiny in your hands. You determine to the greatest extent whether I will succeed or fail in life! Please give me those things that will lead me to happiness. Please educate me so I can be a blessing to the world” (From Child’s Appeal, Mamie Gene Cole).

Educational policies are based on capitalizing on the principles of education for all, regardless of the special requirements they face, in order to become useful in their families, but also useful to the society in which they manage to integrate. Integration focuses on children's requirements, specialized expertise, specialized intervention until the recovery of children. The integration process must be a process of normalizing the lives of people in difficulty. The school must offer as wide a range of educational services as possible to attract children and meet their requirements. In this school there must be first of all communication, understanding, in a word a space dominated by acceptance, tolerance and diversity. It is known that the category of children with special needs includes not only children with disabilities, but also children who, even if they do not have organic or physiological disabilities, have repeated manifestations of maladaptation to the requirements of the school curriculum.

The School for Diversity focuses on the human person as an original, unique and unrepeatable being, emphasizing the idea that in every society there are different people, different groups, different motivations, reasons and points of view (Melero, 1998). Proper training of teachers and other categories of specialists is a fundamental condition for capitalizing on cultural diversity in the field of social and community relations. Addressing the issue of education content in the conditions of integration of children with SEN in mainstream education must end with the development of a differentiated or adapted curriculum. This curriculum must be flexible so that each student progresses at his or her own pace according to his or her learning abilities.

An integrated curriculum should focus on the following areas:

1) Development of personality traits in the emotional, motivational, character and socialization:

• self-image;

• internal and external motivation;

• goals, interests, passions;

• individual and group activities;

• the degree of tolerance and understanding towards those around them and towards their values;

• emotional balance;

• play, leisure activities;

• individual, school, social responsibilities;

• attitude towards work, etc.

2) Development of individual work skills:

• study skills and personal learning style;

• social learning;

• extracurricular learning activities;

• verbal and non-verbal communication, oral and written, reading;

• basic arithmetic operations;

3) Development of moral, religious conduct and aesthetic sense:

• the system of moral values;

• attitude towards religious values;

• attitude towards different events and social phenomena;

• the degree of involvement in different activities with ethical or aesthetic connotations, etc.

4) Harmonious development of psychomotor behaviors:

• basic psychomotor skills (locomotion, gestures, facial expressions);

• dynamic games and physical exercises;

• resistance to physical exertion, etc.

In designing the curriculum, the type and degree of the student's disability must be considered.

In the instructive-educational practice we have encountered numerous cases of disabled students who have been integrated into classes of students without disabilities and have had spectacular evolutions in some disciplines. Within the activities, the active-participatory methods were applied, which stimulate the interest for knowledge, facilitate the interaction with the surrounding reality. Working in pairs or in small groups of students facilitated communication between them, collaboration or mutual support in carrying out their tasks or homework. They were tolerant of each other, made decisions by consulting each other, expressed opinions by actively participating and understanding the surrounding reality.

During the lessons, a series of working methods or techniques adapted to the age of the students and their level of performance can be used. I present some methods applied in the lessons, which led to a school progress of children with disabilities.

1) Predictions in pairs were used in the classes of Romanian Language and Literature, Civic Education or Counseling. This activity involves a list of words in a story or text. Each pair should make a short composition based on a prediction around the word list. Students are encouraged to submit ideas and capitalize on their personal experience.

2) I know -I want to know- I learned is a common method especially in Romanian language classes. Choose a topic / topic, say what the students already know about the topic, then ask questions that are expected to be answered during the lesson, and at the end check what they learned new after the lesson.

3) Brainstorming is a method applied individually or in pairs in which students write on paper all the things about a given topic. For example, I asked the students to write what comes to mind when they hear the word childhood in the lesson of Romanian language and literature “La scăldat” after Ion Creangă. Even students with SEN managed to write many words.

4) Circulation is a graphic method of organizing and integrating information into learning. It can be used at the beginning of the lesson by calling it “initial circle” or after reading the text, calling it “revised circle”. It is a nonlinear brainstorming method that stimulates the finding of connections from ideas, presupposing the following steps:

• if they write a word they have a theme that is to be searched in the middle of the board;

• notices all the ideas that come to mind in connection with the respective theme around it, drawing lines between it and the initial word;

• to the extent that I write words that draw lines between all the ideas that seem to be connected;

• The activity stops when it exhausts all ideas; encourages students to think freely and openly;

It is a search engine technique that allows you to access your own knowledge in order to understand a certain content.

5) Think - work in pairs, communicate and propose learning activities by collaborating by following the steps below:

• each student from a pair writes about a certain ѕubjеct;

• the two partners read each other's answers and agree on a common one;

• The teacher puts two - three parts to summarize the content of the discussions and the conclusions reached by the partners of the common agreement.

It is simple and quick to learn by collaborating with groups. When asked in advance by the teacher, the students can find more possible answers.

Example: What qualities did Cuza have? “Cuza lui Cuzaˮ after Dumitru Аlmaş

Related to the issues of persecution:

• honest - devoted;

• kind- right;

• dignified - deceitful;

• correct – dishonest;

• arrogant - evil.

By confronting the answers in the peers and in the peers, it is necessary to organize the information accumulated in the cognitive structures by realizing the context of the good and the good.

6) R.Α.I. Method “Round-” round-Interrogate “is a method of fixing and systematizing knowledge, but also of verification. It is based on stimulating and developing the skills of the sisters to communicate (through questions and answers) that they have learned. Follow the feed-back in a low-throwing ball. The coil throws the ball must formulate a question from the acquired knowledge, the coil throws it. The one who raises the ball answers the question, then throws it to another colleague, asking a new question. The coil does not know the answer comes out of the bottom, just as it is disjointed and does not sound the answer to the first question.

The students are delighted by this method - a game of mutual finding of the obtained results, a way that is constituted at the same time as a learning strategy that combines cooperation with competition. It is a method to achieve a fast feedback, in a pleasant, energizing and less stressful way than the classic evaluation methods. It is carried out for ascertaining - ameliorating purposes and not for the purpose of sanctioning by grade or qualification.

Trained in this ball game, even the timidest students feel encouraged, communicate easily, and gladly participate in an activity that involves both learning and assessment. There is also some suspense that maintains interest in the R.A.I. The tension is given by the fact that you do not know what questions to expect from your colleagues and by the fact that you do not know if the ball will be addressed to you or not. This method is also an exercise in promptness, the participants' attention must remain permanently awake and distributive.

The teacher oversees the development of the game and finally explains the problems that the participants did not find.

Another direction towards achieving the school progress of children with SEN is the occupational therapy which is a discipline that capitalizes on information in the fields of anatomy, physiology, pedagogy, psychology, sociology, anthropology, sciences that study human behavior, making an information synthesis between knowledge from various particular sciences. Emil Verza shows that occupational therapies are of several kinds, but for people with the most significant deficiencies it refers to game therapy, music therapy, dance therapy and occupational therapy.

Specialists who apply different forms of occupational therapy are mainly concerned with the following issues:

- to realize the acquisition by the subject of a lost skill or with a low level of functioning;

- to contribute to the learning of new skills and abilities meant to compensate those that have disappeared for various reasons.

The game, as a way of relationship between the individual and the world of objects, is the primary formula of human action, a form of organization of cognition, a form of organization of knowledge. Song, music games, text and song games, music auditions, modeling, drawing, painting, sculpture or other activities in the field of occupational therapies contribute to increasing attention, developing memory, thinking, imagination of all mental processes involved in school learning. H. Gardner's theory of “multiple intelligences” recognizes that people learn in different ways and make school progress in different ways.

Children like these active-participatory methods and even if sometimes children with SEN do not fully understand them, they ask to participate in large numbers in the lesson. The list of methods and techniques is very extensive and can be used and enriched depending on the imagination and creativity of the teacher and depending on the level of the class he teaches.

School progress is gradually achieved through hard work and effort made by both teachers and students. The learning ability of students with SEN, the atmosphere and the support of the family and society in general, greatly influences the achievement of real school progress.

References

Alois, Gherguț (2016). Inclusive Education and Pedagogy of Diversity. Iasi: Polirom.

Alois, Gherguț (2001). Psychopedagogy of People with Special Needs. Iasi: Polirom.

Oprea, Crenguta (2006). Interactive Didactic Strategies - Theoretical and Practical Landmarks. Bucharest: Didactic and Pedagogical Publishing House.