The difficulties encountered in science courses by visually impaired middle school students

This study aims to determine the difficulties encountered in science courses by the visually impaired middle school students and their science teachers. The study was carried out through a decriptive case study method. The study group is composed of 13 visually impaired students attending Yakutiye Special School for Visually Impaired in the center of Erzurum and their science teacher. The sample was selected on the basis of purposive sampling method. Observation and interviews were utilized as the data collection techniques. The interviews were guided by a semi-structured interview protocol and the observations were done through unstructured observations. In total of 18 hours classroom observations of science courses were carried out. All observations were recorded with the help of a video camera. Interviews were recorded with a voice recorder. interview data were transcribed verbatim while observation data were watcehd and subjected to descriptive analysis. Interview data were subjected to content analysis. The results are presented in tables and figures. The results indicated that there are several different difficulties encountered by the visually impaired students and science teachers in science teaching at the special school for visually impaired students. Key Words: Science Education, Visually impaired students, interview, observation,Students' difficulties.