Developing technology supported instructional activities in a class of middle school students with intellectual disability: An action research

The general purpose of this study is developing and implementing technology supported instructional activities of "Matter" which is a unit of Science and Technology course in a class of middle school students with intellectual disability. The research participants are 11 sixth grade students with mild intellectual disability attending an official special education middle school, their parents, two teachers, validity committee members, dissertation supervisory committee members, and the researcher. The research was designed as an action research carried out in three stages: "Determining the situation", "Implementation", and "Monitoring". In the first stage (i.e. determining the situation), the students' characteristics and needs, the teachers' use of technology in instructional activities, and the challenges faced in use of technology were described. Based on the results obtained in this stage, technologies were integrated into the science and technology curriculum, and technology-supported instructioanal activities were planned and implemented in the second stage (i.e. implementation). In the third stage (i.e. monitoring), the insturctional activities in which the teachers and the students engaged in after the stage of implementation were observed. The research data were obtained from video recordings, field notes, researcher's diaries, daily lesson plans, the meeting records of the validity committee, the decisions made in the reflection and collective planning meetings made with the teachers, semi-structured and unstructured interviews, artifacts, criterion referenced test, check lists, and official documents. The data were collected during and at the end of the research process and analyzed through qualitative data analysis techniques. The obtained data were regularly examined by the validity committee. The themes formed based on the analysis results were also examined by the validity committee. The process of integration of technology was examined on the basis of a unit covered in the science and technology course. The challenges faced and the solutions to them were described. In the process of integration, an interactive board was put in the classroom, and every student was provided with a tablet computer. The most important problem faced was lack of contents designed according to universal design principles that can be used by students with intellectual disability. Accordingly, web-based software which can be used by students with intellectual disability on many tools such as laptop computer, tablet computer, and interactive board was developed. It was found out that creating a positive classroom climate is an important stage in the integration of technology for technology-supported teaching activities. It was seen that technology allowed planning and implementing instructional activities in accordance with the students' levels (i.e. carrying out differentiated instructional activities) in the classrooms involving students with different levels. It was determined that the instruction presented through technology made positive contributions to the learning of subjects by the students. In addition, the students learning through technology made a progress in generalizing the knowledge they acquired and transferring such knowledge to the daily life. It was realized that technology-supported instructional activities increased the students' motivation and participation in class and improved their collaboration with their peers. It was understood that technology contributed to not only the academic skills of the students with intellectual disability but also their acquisition of positive behaviors. In the stage of monitoring, it was observed that the students were able to answer the questions asked by their teacher. In other words, the subject taught in the stage of implementation was learned permanently. The teachers stated that the research was very beneficial to them and they learned the way and in which activities the technological tools put in the classroom would be used. The parents told that their children transferred the knowledge they acquired in the research process to the daily life, which both surprised and made them happy. To conclude, it was seen that technology-supported instructional activities contribute the academic achievement. Besides, teachers and parents indicated that teachnology based instructional acitivities improves social skills and independent living skills of students. Key Words: Intellectual disability, instructional technology, assistive technology, universal design for learning, science education of students with intellectual disability