Article Review: Engaging Students with Special Needs in and About Science

Article Review 1

Article Review: Engaging Students with Special Needs in and About Science

Lottie Shaw

Liberty University

Introduction

Curriculum in schools today is arranged so that students can gain a maximum amount of understanding in all content areas. Students are given different methods to help them understand the content. All students are not going to learn content the same as other students. Our students with special needs and students that function on a somewhat low to moderate level of understanding should be able to participate and be active in every project, discussion and activities. Science is an area that can be hard to grasp because of the different aspects of this discipline. A group of researchers conducted a study to find out which method of instruction could be the most beneficial, especially for students with special needs.

Summary

Being able to engage all students in learning and appreciating Science was the focus of the article reviewed.Villanueva and Hand (2011), presented a method that children would be able to “conceptualize phenomena and reason from a scientific epistemology in constructing ideas and arguments in a more consistent manner” (p.234). An individual is supposed to have a certain degree of knowledge when it comes to all content areas. The authors pointed out that in the area of scientific literacy, an individual should be able to identify questions, to acquire knowledge, explain different events, and to draw evidenced-based conclusions about science-related issues. Each and every one of us should have knowledge of science because “it is vital for us as humans to make connections and to understand the natural world” (p. 234). When teaching science, the teacher should first discover how much knowledge a student already has about the content. After that is determined, “the basic level of science should involve teaching science that is relevant and appears in the popular domain” (p. 234). By strengthening a student’s ability to read, write and communicate the sense of science should be the goal of the science teacher; therefore, when a teacher can combine scientificlanguage to everyday experiences students will be able to appreciate the content more. Being aware of the language and communication difficulties that a student with special needs face, there should be a variety in the pedagogical approaches to enable the learner to understand instruction that is given.

The argument that the authors presented in the article were based on how the teacher can use concept maps which would allow students with special needs to be able to have a whole part in “the unifying concepts of science, rather than the students learning a set of vocabulary and discreet facts to memorize” (p. 235). The concept maps provide a visual representation to allow students with learning disabilities a way to organize what they already know about science. The approach that was mentioned is called The Science Writing Heuristic (SWH) method which involves a “type of writing activity”. The term heuristic refers to, aiding or leading on toward discovery; following a teaching method that induces the student to make his own discoveries (The Living Webster Encyclopedic Dictionary of the English Language, 1977). Students would not be focusing on the traditional sections that are so commonly used such as: purpose, methods, observations, results, and conclusions. They would be “focusing more on questions, claims, evidence, description of data, and observations and methods to show changes to their own thinking” (p. 236).

The template that was provided by the authors was the following: (1) Beginning ideas-What are my questions? (2) Tests-What did I do? (3) Observations- What did I see? (4) Claims-What can I claim (5) Evidence- How do I know? Why am I making these claims? (6) Reading- How do my ideas compare with other ideas? (7) Reflection- How have my ideas changed? (p. 236).

The authors stated,“When students with special needs use this type of model, it could promote modeling of socially appropriate behaviors” (p. 236).

Conclusion

This author agrees with what the researchers have found in the area of teaching children with special needs how to learn and appreciate the area of science. Working with children in a 5th grade Science class, and currently in 9th-11th grade classes has really opened this authors eyes up to how the children who have been identified with a learning disability in the inclusion classrooms can benefit from the model that was provided in this article. When science teachers recognize the importance of differentiated teaching methods, all children will be have an opportunity to learn science and enjoy what they have learned.

References

Villanueva, M. G., Hand B. (2011). Science for all: Engaging students with special needs in and about science. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 26(4), 233-240.

The Living Webster Encyclopedic Dictionary of the English Language (1977). Melrose Park, IL.