Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston University

Thesis advisor: Richard Jackson / Interest in the psychosocial wellbeing of the visually impaired has existed for years as a nebulous and undefined goal of educational programs for children. Yet there is a dearth of systematic inquiry into the influence of teachers on social and emotional development of children and families. The purpose of this study was therefore to develop a foundation of knowledge relating to the role of specialist teachers in addressing the affective adjustment needs of visually impaired children and their families. Drawing upon the theories and intervention practices commonly used in the human service professions, 59 family consultation competencies were identified and grouped into four major knowledge areas, namely affective adjustment to blindness, principles and processes of change, interpersonal communication skills, and specific intervention strategies. This research was exploratory and descriptive in nature, utilizing a semistructured interview format to produce data for both numerical and qualitative analysis. A 3-part questionnaire was administered orally to a sample of 20 certified and fulltime employed teachers of the visually impaired who were working in one of five major service delivery systems found in the Greater Northeast. Participating teachers reported a range of 13.5 to 38.6% of their professional time spent in consultative interactions with teachers, parents, administrators, and related service providers, as compared to a range of 15 to 50% of time given to direct student instruction and assessment. Furthermore, regardless of situational differences in educational and occupational backgrounds, teachers perceived the process skills of interpersonal communication and relationship-building as necessary competencies in their ability to meet vision-specific psychosocial needs of visually impaired children and their families. Variables which were considered by practitioners to influence their proficiency in providing consultative services included the nature and degree of professional preparation, trial and error experience, and interpersonal style or personality. In summary, 49 of the original family consultation competencies presented in this survey were confirmed by participating teachers to be necessary, relevant, and appropriate to their professional responsibilities as educators of the visually impaired. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 1987. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Education.

Magister Artium - MA / The purpose of the study was to investigate the everyday life information seeking behaviour of visually impaired students at Stellenbosch University. The study framed by the Every Day Life information behaviour model of Pamela McKenzie focused on the information behaviour of visually impaired students, how the visually impaired students obtain their information and the role of the Stellenbosch University library. The study was motivated by the vital need to seek out, listen to and act upon the voices of students with disabilities in an attempt to make higher education more inclusive to students with some form of disability or challenge. Twenty-one visually impaired students from various faculties of Stellenbosch University completed a questionnaire consisting of 23 questions administered by Stellenbosch University’s Braille Office. Students with visual impairments at Stellenbosch University will consult friends, family members and lecturers for information. They needed both personal and academic information. Students found it both easy and difficult to obtain needed academic information. The Internet was the major information resource used by all students. Students relied mainly on online full text journal articles and e-books obtained via the Internet, SU Library’s databases, SunScholar and e-journals for academic information. The main reasons for not using the SU library can be attributed to the inability to use printed resources, lack of facilities for visually impaired students, difficulty in navigating the physical library and lack of training in exploiting the library and its services. All students with visual impairment made use of assistive technology and relied heavily on the support and services of the Braille Office for additional academic information. The everyday behaviour of students with visual impairments at Stellenbosch University conform to McKenzie’s Everyday Life Information Behaviour model as these students sought actively to make contact with sources, identified likely sources, made use of serendipitous encounters, were were identified as information seekers and made use of people as gatekeepers to be referred to a source.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T18:23:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 A construcao das identidades sociais.pdf: 1731210 bytes, checksum: 029758c60b24ad8711ac10422f7496f6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005-05-23 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This research aims at investigating the construction of social identities of the visually impaired students when they are talking about texts, focusing three fundamental interrelated aspects which are: 1. How the visually impaired students see themselves; 2. Their interpretation of the way the society sees them; 3. How the visually impaired students see the sighted individuals. To collect the data, a reading group using the verbal protocol method was organized. According to Zanotto (1997), this method is a social-cognitive practice in which the readers share and negotiate the various readings. When these protocols were used, different social identities came up and could be identified through the analysis of the participants´positionings during the discoursive interaction process. This analysis is based on the positioning theory developed by Harré and Langenhove (1999). The different social identities built up by the visually impaired students, which could be identified in this analysis, are anchored in positive and negative evaluation. When the visually impaired students talk about themselves they evaluate themselves positively emphasizing their potencialities such as the capacity, autonomy and independence to accomplish daily tasks. On the other hand, when the visually impaired students interpret the way the society sees them, the former positive evaluation changes into a negative image related to the social stereotypes which contribute to build up their identity. They understand that the society sees them as incompetent and unable to accomplish the social tasks. Moreover, when they talk about the sighted individuals they also have a negative evaluation, since they see them as individuals who discriminate and who do not know their reality. The research concluded that that the social identities of the visual impaired students are built up from the positive and negative evaluations which are emphasized mainly by the social stereotypes that turn into serious learning problems in the reading classes / Esta pesquisa pretende investigar a construção das identidades sociais do aluno deficiente visual, nas conversas sobre textos, partindo de três pontos fundamentais imbricados entre si: 1. como o deficiente visual vê a si próprio; 2. a interpretação que o deficiente visual faz a respeito de como a sociedade o vê; e 3. como o deficiente visual vê o vidente. Para que fosse possível a coleta dos dados, houve a necessidade de organizar um grupo de leitura em que foi empregado o método do protocolo verbal em grupo. De acordo com Zanotto (1997), esse método é uma prática sócio-cognitiva na qual os leitores partilham e negociam as várias leituras. Durante o emprego desses protocolos, diferentes identidades sociais surgiram e puderam ser identificadas por meio da análise dos posicionamentos assumidos pelos participantes durante o processo de interação discursiva. Essa análise encontrou respaldo, principalmente, na teoria dos posicionamentos desenvolvida por Harré e Langenhove (1999). Nessa análise, pôde-se identificar que as diferentes identidades sociais, construídas pelos deficientes visuais, estão ancoradas em valorações positivas e negativas. O deficiente quando fala de si mesmo trabalha com valorações positivas que ressaltam suas potencialidades representadas na sua capacidade, autonomia e independência para a execução de tarefas diárias. Quando interpreta a forma como a sociedade o vê, essa valoração positiva dá lugar a uma imagem construída negativamente onde os estereótipos sociais marcam sua identidade. Ele interpreta que a sociedade o vê como incompetente, e incapaz de realizar tarefas sociais. Ao se referir ao vidente, o faz também a partir de valorações negativas, pois ele vê o vidente como alguém que o descrimina, desconhecendo sua realidade. Chega-se assim à conclusão que as identidades sociais do deficiente visual são construídas a partir de valorações positivas e negativas, marcadas principalmente, pelos estereótipos sociais e esses estereótipos se tornam um grave problema de aprendizagem nas aulas de leitura

<p>I detta examensarbete presenteras olika inriktningar av musikterapi och FMT-metoden (Funktionsinriktad musikterapi) belyses ingående. Här beskrivs arbetssätt och arbetsmaterialet nämns. Ett historiskt perspektiv ges både på människor med funktionshinder genom tiderna och på musikterapins utveckling i världen och i Sverige. Olika musikterapidiscipliner presenteras liksom befintliga utbildningsmöjligheter.</p><p> </p><p>Två elever/adepter presenteras och terapin med dessa beskrivs detaljerat. Arbetet tar upp frågan om FMT-metoden måste ändras eller justeras för att kunna användas i terapin med en synskadad person? Kontentan är att det inte behövs några förändringar av metoden för att fungera för adepter med synskada.</p> / <p>This paper presents, in two case studies, the use of Functionally Oriented Music Therapy (FMT- method) with visually impaired students. The therapy with the students is described in detail, along with FMT methodology. The conclusion is that the FMT method does not need any modification when used with visually impaired students.</p><p> </p><p>The field of music therapy in general and the various disciplines are described, along with its history and development in Sweden and the world, The situation of disabled persons is also presented in an historical framework.</p>

I detta examensarbete presenteras olika inriktningar av musikterapi och FMT-metoden (Funktionsinriktad musikterapi) belyses ingående. Här beskrivs arbetssätt och arbetsmaterialet nämns. Ett historiskt perspektiv ges både på människor med funktionshinder genom tiderna och på musikterapins utveckling i världen och i Sverige. Olika musikterapidiscipliner presenteras liksom befintliga utbildningsmöjligheter.   Två elever/adepter presenteras och terapin med dessa beskrivs detaljerat. Arbetet tar upp frågan om FMT-metoden måste ändras eller justeras för att kunna användas i terapin med en synskadad person? Kontentan är att det inte behövs några förändringar av metoden för att fungera för adepter med synskada. / This paper presents, in two case studies, the use of Functionally Oriented Music Therapy (FMT- method) with visually impaired students. The therapy with the students is described in detail, along with FMT methodology. The conclusion is that the FMT method does not need any modification when used with visually impaired students.   The field of music therapy in general and the various disciplines are described, along with its history and development in Sweden and the world, The situation of disabled persons is also presented in an historical framework.

O presente trabalho parte das premissas de que existem alunos com deficiência visual que estudam línguas estrangeiras, da educação infantil ao ensino superior, e de que os docentes dessa área poderão ser expostos à presença desses alunos em qualquer etapa de sua trajetória profissional. Para demonstrar a veracidade de tais pressupostos, foram cotejados os trabalhos de quatro professores-pesquisadores de língua estrangeira vinculados a esses alunos, a saber: Ramos, 2000; Motta, 2004; Dias, 2008; e Magalhães, 2009. A análise dos relatos de pesquisa demonstrou que os professores de idiomas estrangeiros ingressam e atuam na profissão docente munidos de conhecimentos e competências insuficientes para identificar e trabalhar com tais discentes. Passamos, assim, a abordar os fatores que culminam em tal situação, iniciando pelas condições às quais os licenciandos de línguas estrangeiras estão submetidos durante sua formação acadêmica, e concluindo nossa pesquisa com uma entrevista episódica (FLICK, 2009) com um professor de língua estrangeira cuja biografia está há muito tempo vinculada a indivíduos com deficiência visual. Ao contrapor os relatos dos professores-pesquisadores à entrevista episódica, verificou-se que a presença de momentos formativos sobre deficiência visual durante a formação universitária, oportunidade em que os futuros professores dispõem de condições mais adequadas para a aquisição de conhecimentos sobre esse comprometimento sensorial, contribui para que os futuros professores desenvolvam competências fundamentais para a identificação e gerenciamento da diversidade humana em sala de aula e para a efetiva utilização dos recursos pedagógicos e tecnológicos com potencial para beneficiar tais alunos. / This paper assumes both that one can find visually impaired students focusing on foreign-language learning from kindergarten to higher education, and that foreign-language teachers may be acquainted with those students at any time during their professional career. In order to support those assumptions, we compared pieces of research from four foreign-language teachers: Ramos, 2000; Motta, 2004; Dias, 2008; and Magalhães, 2009. By analyzing their papers, we concluded that foreign-language teachers approach and accomplish teaching/ learning processes involving those pupils with no sufficient knowledge and not having developed competences to act otherwise. Therefore, we studied some factors that may lead to such situation. We initially approached the variables that shape their education in universities, then we performed an episodic interview (FLICK, 2009) with a foreign-language teacher whose life-story has constantly and closely been connected to blind and visually-impaired individuals. When contrasting the research performed by those four teachers with the episodic interview, we noted that when teachers-to-be are given the opportunity to approach visual impairment issues during their education, they are more likely to acquire knowledge and develop competences which may enable them to identify and work with unique individuals in their classroom, as well as to cope with pedagogical and technological resources available for those students.

O presente trabalho parte das premissas de que existem alunos com deficiência visual que estudam línguas estrangeiras, da educação infantil ao ensino superior, e de que os docentes dessa área poderão ser expostos à presença desses alunos em qualquer etapa de sua trajetória profissional. Para demonstrar a veracidade de tais pressupostos, foram cotejados os trabalhos de quatro professores-pesquisadores de língua estrangeira vinculados a esses alunos, a saber: Ramos, 2000; Motta, 2004; Dias, 2008; e Magalhães, 2009. A análise dos relatos de pesquisa demonstrou que os professores de idiomas estrangeiros ingressam e atuam na profissão docente munidos de conhecimentos e competências insuficientes para identificar e trabalhar com tais discentes. Passamos, assim, a abordar os fatores que culminam em tal situação, iniciando pelas condições às quais os licenciandos de línguas estrangeiras estão submetidos durante sua formação acadêmica, e concluindo nossa pesquisa com uma entrevista episódica (FLICK, 2009) com um professor de língua estrangeira cuja biografia está há muito tempo vinculada a indivíduos com deficiência visual. Ao contrapor os relatos dos professores-pesquisadores à entrevista episódica, verificou-se que a presença de momentos formativos sobre deficiência visual durante a formação universitária, oportunidade em que os futuros professores dispõem de condições mais adequadas para a aquisição de conhecimentos sobre esse comprometimento sensorial, contribui para que os futuros professores desenvolvam competências fundamentais para a identificação e gerenciamento da diversidade humana em sala de aula e para a efetiva utilização dos recursos pedagógicos e tecnológicos com potencial para beneficiar tais alunos. / This paper assumes both that one can find visually impaired students focusing on foreign-language learning from kindergarten to higher education, and that foreign-language teachers may be acquainted with those students at any time during their professional career. In order to support those assumptions, we compared pieces of research from four foreign-language teachers: Ramos, 2000; Motta, 2004; Dias, 2008; and Magalhães, 2009. By analyzing their papers, we concluded that foreign-language teachers approach and accomplish teaching/ learning processes involving those pupils with no sufficient knowledge and not having developed competences to act otherwise. Therefore, we studied some factors that may lead to such situation. We initially approached the variables that shape their education in universities, then we performed an episodic interview (FLICK, 2009) with a foreign-language teacher whose life-story has constantly and closely been connected to blind and visually-impaired individuals. When contrasting the research performed by those four teachers with the episodic interview, we noted that when teachers-to-be are given the opportunity to approach visual impairment issues during their education, they are more likely to acquire knowledge and develop competences which may enable them to identify and work with unique individuals in their classroom, as well as to cope with pedagogical and technological resources available for those students.

89 Abstract This examined diploma thesis focuses on the sphere of tertiary education and its aim was especially to examine the study conditions of university students with visual impairment. The basis was to study professional literature and other sources to build a theoretical framework. It was essential to create an image of the student with visual impairment that the visual handicap and thereunder constraints were covered and it was also necessary to describe the young adulthood specifics. An important step was to characterize the environment wherein these student move. To do this I used legislative documents and provisions and tried to delineate any difficulties and implemented solutions. I also introduced research which previously examined this field and provided relevant information, too. This was the foundation for the practical part of this paper. It contained the survey wherein I addressed a few visually impaired students who conveyed their findings regarding their study conditions. I carried out semi-structural interviews with them and analyzed the obtained data with the help of the open coding method. I summarized the resulted findings in the final section and tried to suggest further steps. The first chapter dealt with the definition of the visually impaired individual. At first, visual...

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:46:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 5214.pdf: 3265286 bytes, checksum: 4bc1eefe5e4232321d1b4fe41f5a6d91 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-04-15 / Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos / This research intends to promote collaborative actions between a Chemistry teacher and a Special teacher of a school which is reference in attending visually impaired students from the inner part of the state of São Paulo, taking into account school inclusion and teaching-learning in Chemistry. The field research was developed in a state school of the inner part of the state of São Paulo, in the first year of High School. The research subjects were: a Chemistry teacher, a Special teacher and four students with visual impairment. The research was guided by the collaborative critical action research, which aims to contribute to the continuing education of the professionals in their work context and focus on possible reflections which may emerge in the process of rethinking their teaching practices. The data collection was divided into different steps: semi-structured interviews, in order to know the professional journeys of the Chemistry teacher and the Special teacher and also to know the visually impaired students school careers; coordinated meetings with the Chemistry teacher and the Special teacher, to promote collaborative actions and to develop pedagogical practices for teaching Chemistry to students with visual impairment; classroom observations, to understand the possibilities and tensions in the intervention using inclusive pedagogical practices with the visually impaired students; and classroom intervention, which would allow the teacher to try the pedagogical practices which were proposed in the meetings. The results showed how the Chemistry teacher cared about her students, since she had never taught students with visual impairment before. The partnership between the Chemistry teacher and the Special teacher was positive, culminating in the adaptation of materials for classroom intervention, which made the VI students get better grades in the evaluations. The students were evaluated considering their organization and participation in the School Science Fair and they did a very good job, being praised by the fair visitors. The bimonthly tests were also considered in the evaluation and it was observed that there are some obstacles to be overcome by the school and the students with visual impairment. / Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo geral promover ações colaborativas em contexto entre uma professora de química e uma professora de educação especial de uma escola polo em atendimento a alunos com deficiência visual do interior paulista, tendo em vista a inclusão escolar e o ensino-aprendizagem em química. A pesquisa de campo foi desenvolvida em uma escola estadual do interior paulista, no primeiro ano do ensino médio. Os sujeitos da pesquisa foram: uma professora de química, uma professora de educação especial e quatro alunos com deficiência visual. A pesquisa pautou-se na Pesquisa-ação Colaborativo-crítica, que visa contribuir com a formação continuada dos profissionais em seu contexto de trabalho e tem como foco possíveis reflexões que emergem no processo de repensar suas práticas pedagógicas. A coleta de dados teve várias etapas, sendo estas: entrevistas semiestruturadas, a fim de se conhecer a trajetória profissional da professora de química e da professora de educação especial e também para se conhecer a trajetória escolar dos alunos com deficiência visual; reuniões coordenadas com a professora de química e a professora de educação especial, com o intuito de promover ações colaborativas em contexto e para o desenvolvimento de práticas pedagógicas no ensino de química para os alunos com deficiência visual; observação das aulas para conhecer as possibilidades e tensões na realização da intervenção com práticas pedagógicas inclusivas para os alunos com deficiência visual; e intervenção em sala de aula para que a professora pudesse colocar em prática as práticas pedagógicas propostas nas reuniões. Os resultados mostraram a preocupação da professora de química com seus alunos deficientes visuais, pois ela nunca havia lecionado para esta população. A parceria da professora de química com a professora de educação especial foi positiva, culminando na adaptação de materiais para intervenção em sala de aula, resultando em melhores notas dos alunos DV nas avaliações. A organização e participação na feira de ciências da escola foi um modo de avaliação dos alunos e estes se saíram muito bem, sendo elogiados pelos visitantes da feira. A aplicação das avaliações bimestrais também foi observada e percebeu-se que existem alguns obstáculos a serem transpostos tanto pela escola quanto pelos alunos com deficiência visual.