Teaching the concepts in "systems in our body" unit to visually impaired students in 6th grade

Considering the fact that substantial amount of knowledge acquisition for learning take place through vision, student with visually impairments are at a disadvantage position in science courses where visual materials are at forefront. In order to solve these problems, adaptation in teaching methods, activities and materials need to be made according to the individual needs of students with visual impairments. The aim of this study is to determine the individual learning needs of 6th grade visually impaired students' regarding science course and design an instructional model for the teaching of basic science concepts in the "Systems in Our Body" unit and also investigate the practicality of the designed model and its effects on the concept learning. The study was carried out at three main stages applying the ADDIE instructional model through a Design Based Research method approach. In the first stage, visually impaired students' individual learning needs in learning science and their level of understanding basic science concepts in the 'Systems in our Body' unit have been determined. In the second stage; the design, development and implementation steps of the ADDIE model were followed. In this stage, an instructional model regarding individual needs was designed and implemented to overcome the problems and needs identified during the needs analysis stage. At the last stage, the instructional design model that is developed and applied has been evaluated from various aspects and the effectiveness of the model on the concept learning has been revealed. The study group consists of a total of 15 students with visual impairments who are at the 6th grade in a special school for visually impaired in the center of Erzurum and the need analysis stage was carried out with six students (four low vision, two blind) and nine students (five low vision, four blind) during the implementation stage. Data collected through observations, semi-structured interviews and focus group interviews conducted with teachers and students during the needs analysis and implementation stages were subjected to descriptive analysis. The study results indicated that teaching designed to meet the identified needs of students with visual impairment and to provide effective learning of basic science concepts of 'Systems in our Body' unit, provides positive contributions to academic achievements of the students. The adaptations were made regarding individual needs and the level of disabilities in the teaching process indicated an improvement in learning of the concepts.