Teaching Strategies for Learners with Visual Impairment: A case of Mporokoso and Munali Secondary Schools

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to find out the teaching strategies for visual impairment and their benefits . A case study research design was used in this study. To collect and analyse data, a qualitative research approach was used. Learners with visual impairments and special education teachers who work with them were the target population. The sample size was 35 respondents. Data was gathered through the use of questionnaires and interviews. The descriptive statistics were generated using the Excel 2013 software in the form of frequency tables and percentages. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data from the interviews. The study reported that teachers use individual education plan, inclusive education, audio device, recording of lessons, adaptation of lessons, materials written in high contrast and use of magnifiers in teaching of learners with visual impairment. The visual impairment teaching strategies provides a diversified learning among learners as they also encourage participatory learning. It is important to make mention that the participatory teaching strategy is used used in any physical setting, interpreting and fun. Therefore, helping to involve the VI learners in the subjects. It helps learners to learn about themselves. Through the participatory learning, the VI learners are able to analyse their own situation, rather than have it analysed by others. In other words, participatory learning helps the VI learners build self confidence. These teaching strategies help learners learn on their own. This makes it possible for the VI learners not to easily forget the learnt concepts. It therefore makes learning permanent among the VI learners. Visually impaired learners rely on self-exploration to learn about the world. The amount of information that learners can access with visual impairments is limited in this manner. Overall, these modalities cannot successfully compensate for visual inputs; they are only present to mitigate the effects of vision loss on learning , visually impaired students rely on self-exploration to learn about the world.