VOLUMEN 33, NÚMERO 2 | Número especial | PP. 27-35

ISSN: 2250-6101

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Aprendizagem significativa com

materiais educativos no ensino

inclusivo de física

Meaningful learning with instructional materials in

physics inclusive teaching

João J. S. Alves

Secretaria de Estado de Educação do Rio de Janeiro, Av. Prof. Pereira Reis, 119 - Santo Cristo, Rio de Janeiro - RJ,

20220-800, Brasil.

This paper presents a didactic sequence with Multisensory Kits that can serve as potentially meaningful materials according to the

molds of David Ausubel's Meaningful Learning Theory. Authors look forward to turning Physics more and more into an Inclusive

Discipline.

I. INTRODUCTION

In this profusion of questions that arise in this context, the difficulties of assimilation of content by students are

highlighted, and which has been the object of study by different authors.

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Axt (1988) warns of the fact that concepts approached in schools, and which should have supposedly been

assimilated by teachers throughout their academic training, have a deficient or incomplete learning. This fact can lead

to erroneous concepts, to deformed knowledge, which prevents a good teaching and school learning, since the

this student is present. On the other hand, the curricular deficit of undergraduate courses in Physics in offering

mandatory subjects on the theme of Inclusive Education, specifically visual impairment, has serious consequences for

teacher training as well as in the preparation of classes, since many teachers make use an educational method called

by Camargo (2016) model “40 + 1”. In this model, the class is prepared for the average of forty visionary students, and

another is rethought for the visually impaired student. By following this pattern, according to Souza and Ferreira

(2019), it is possible to notice that this visually impaired student is not adequately included in Physics classes, since

most students in the classroom, the visionaries, are prioritized. On the other hand, the teacher's activities tend to

increase due to the need to prepare two different classes on the same subject. The authors draw attention to the fact

that the integration of the student in the class via the educational system does not always mean inclusion in the

pedagogical process.

increase in enrollments for Special Education between the years 2015 and 2019. When compared to the same years

for High School, growth jumps to 104%. Unfortunately, these increases do not follow the structure of the Brazilian

educational system, because if we select the age group of 4 to 17 years old who are enrolled in common classes and

without access to specialized care, between 2015 and 2019, there was an increase of 4% of these students. For those

who have access to specialized education, the increase was only 3.3%. These data indicate the challenges to be faced

by the bodies responsible for educational policies, especially by teachers who occupy a prominent position in the

educational process.

Inserted in the scope of a monograph work concluding a degree course in Physics and concomitantly being one of

the central focuses of a research group at UFRRJ focused on Physics Teaching in High School, it was possible to glimpse

this educational framework, where several aspects and situations, especially with regard to the visually impaired, are

(Flores-Espejo, 2013; Moreira, 2012), in addition to valuing and defending Inclusiveness. According to SLT, the

apprentice constitutes the fundamental part in the teaching-learning process insofar as he must actively participate

in the knowledge construction process and his predisposition to relate the new knowledge to his cognitive structure

in a non-arbitrary and non literal way. The teacher is responsible for assuming a teaching methodology based on the

use of Potentially Significant Learning Materials (PSLM) to generate new meanings, promoting the anchoring of new

information in the student's cognitive structure. One of the first kits to be made is a Sensory Tactile Material (STM),

which addresses the study of Newtonian Mechanics Free Body Diagram, constructed with low cost material and where

the information will be printed in braille and in high relief characters that can be used by both visually impaired

students and visionaries. We hope that at the end of the project, the kits produced and the Potentially Significant

Teaching Units (PSTU) proposed in this work will help teachers and students in a classroom, and serve as inspiration

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II. EDUCATIONAL HISTORY OF VISUALLY IMPAIRED PEOPLE IN BRAZIL

Formal education for visually impaired people in Brazil began on December 14, 1850 with the return of José Alvares

de Azevedo to Brazil. According to Cerqueira et al. (2014), Azevedo was a blind boy who, at the age of ten, traveled to

France to study at the Royal Institute for the Young Blind in Paris. In 1844, after six years of study at this institute, he

returned to Brazil where he began to apply all the knowledge acquired. He taught private classes, lectured at Brazilian

courts, wrote articles, activities that took him to Emperor D. Pedro II, to whom he explained his knowledge, his dreams

and desires, as well as defending the importance of the braille system. He also proposed the creation of a Brazilian

school that resembled the institute at which he had studied in Paris. According to Almeida (2014, p. 9), D. Pedro

adopted the bold proposal which led to the inauguration of the Imperial Institute for Blind Children in 1854, currently

Pereira Gomes, the Instituto de Cegos Padre Chico was created in 1928. On the other hand, it was thanks to the

pioneering spirit and the realization of the dream of Alvares de Azevedo, today considered a Patron of Education for

the Blind in Brazil, that the struggle of visually impaired people in search of legal and educational rights in society

began.

III. PROJECTS WITH SENSORY TACTILE MATERIALS IN RIO DE JANEIRO

The inspiration for the construction of Sensory Tact Materials (STM) as materials to support the learning of visually

impaired students comes from the observations of high school classrooms, from inquiries related to the difficulties of

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reproduction of the figures found in the textbooks of Physics, as in the example of the Figure 1.

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Based on the analyzes made and following the same pattern as the making of the force vectors, a software (Paint

3D) was used for digital construction of the cubes, as shown in the Figure 3, so that the initial project takes shape.

With the use of the software, we can modify sizes of force vectors, colors and other details, as many times as necessary

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V. SIGNIFICANT LEARNING THEORY

assimilation of knowledge. It is necessary that the student is willing to learn in a meaningful way, because “the attitude

of meaningful learning is a necessary and influential condition in the process of construction of meanings.” Flores-

Espejo (2018, p. 20).

In general, being an active student and learning knowledge through SLT, regardless of its specificity. However, new

demands and methodologies of teaching and learning that are inclusive are necessary for students with visual

impairment to reach their academic goals, achieving an apprenticeship in Physics in an autonomous, didactic, inclusive

and meaningful way. Because of these demands and taking as a principle an inclusive Physics class based on ausubelian

aspects, it is necessary to explore the important components for the elaboration of a robust methodology that serves

all students. In this way, we highlight the seven elements described by Flores-Espejo (2018) as being practical criteria

that help the teacher in the elaboration of teaching and evaluation strategies in meaningful learning. With this, we

in cognitive structure according to meaningful learning. Theoretical examples are integrative reconciliation and

progressive differentiation that together can be interpreted “as instructional programmatic principles that potentially

facilitate meaningful learning.” Moreira et al. (1997, p. 37). The fourth element is the Learning Criteria, which are the

sources belonging to the learning variables that undergo progressive changes and serve to indicate the best path to

follow along the learning process according to the SLT. The fifth domain, the Learning Indicators, reveals through

evaluative methods how significant the student's learning is. The sixth element, the Learning Items focus on the

practical way of data collection made either through dialogue between student and teacher, using SPLM, or through

the teacher's observations, among other means that materialize meaningful learning and that points out the

indicators. Finally, we have the Evaluation Formats, which are the instruments used to assess whether the anchoring

of new concepts was done in a meaningful way. In this topic there are no restrictions on how the assessment should

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use of STM, and “they are theoretically grounded teaching sequences, focused on meaningful, non-mechanical

learning, which can stimulate applied research in teaching, the one directed directly to the classroom ”(Moreira, 2011,

p. 2). In addition, we intend to use the elements described above in order to monitor and assess whether significant

VI. SCRIPT FOR SENSORY TACTICAL MATERIALS (TEACHING KIT)

Below we describe the basic script model that can serve as guidance to the teacher regarding the contextualization

and the use of an MTS in the classroom. Possible changes and adaptations are at the discretion of the teacher. The

script was developed from the MTS proposed above, where the theme focuses on FBD, for a total of 3 to 6 class hours:

1. Initial situation: survey of the students' initial subsumer through conversations and the exploration and analysis

of sensory tactile experiments with objects that may fall, which suffer displacements due to pushes, examples from

3. Teach an Expository-Dialogued class; Contextualize the phenomenology of the concept of Force and its

relationship with the movement (describing in detail the representations and schemes used relating to the Previous

Organizers); Introduce Newton's Laws. Raise pertinent questions for students about what has just been taught;

4. Present the STM (didactic kit) as a significant complement to the theme; Kit Title (STM): Name the material used;

Make students aware of the composition of the material; Procedure: Describe in detail the operation of the material

allowing students to handle the kit; Practice: Stimulate student participation through questioning and physical

hypotheses that involve actions between bodies through the use of material;

5. To lead the visually impaired to understand the abstract concept of vector, its meaning and intensity through

the representation of tactile arrows made of cardboard. The sighted student can help the visually impaired by

simulating small pushes or pulls of small objects on the table by applying different intensities of forces, either by the

7. Expository class with final integrative dialogue: Guide the discussions between students asking them to present

their opinions on the practice performed; to remedy the difficulties, to reinforce the use of the scientific terms of

forces, their actions;

8. Assessment of Learning at SPTU: From the materials delivered by the students, from the observations made,

from the summative assessment;

9. Conclusion and Evaluation of the SPTU: Pay attention to possible changes in alternative conceptions and initial

subsumers. From this stage, add or rethink the next activities.

VII. DISCUSSION

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creation of tactile materials made in different ways, but with the same objective that it is to teach, to visually impaired

students, subjects that were previously inseparable from visual representation.

In our work, we aim to build an STM in which we follow all the necessary adaptations and make use of multisensory,

classroom as a methodological support.

VIII. CONCLUSION

In this work, we proposed a didactic unit (DU) that bets on the use of STM, built with low-cost and easy-to-handle

material, and that uses braille language to facilitate communication with these students, especially non-seers. We

believe that this Didactic Unit with the STM, being potentially significant, will assist both the visionary student and the

multisensory and the use of braille, as it is a powerful teaching tool. Therefore, and according to Souza and Ferreira

(2019, pp. 15-16), we will approach the contents proposed by the discipline in a broader and dissociable way visually,

generating discussions among students and contributing to the enrichment and construction of their knowledge. We

hope that the future results involving these STM will reflect on the changes in the curricular structures and that there

will be relevant transformations in the subjects of the Physics degree courses, in the formation of this teacher, turning

Physics increasingly into an Inclusive Discipline.

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