Personal care from the inclusive education perspective

Abstract

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14244/198271991048

One of the goals of inclusion processes is to guarantee qualified education, not only for students with special educational needs, but for all people inside the school or other educational environments. The present study aimed to detail the development of teaching materials, as well as their application under the inclusive education perspective of science teaching, during a 6^th year Elementary School practical activity, in a public school in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. The content definition occurred due to the need to address the topic "pediculosis" in this school, where there was a recurrent head lice infestation. The head louse model was built using different materials for each part of its organism: the invertebrate’s body was built with modeling clay, its legs were assembled with balloons (with three knots on each balloon to simulate its joints), and its claws were made using copper wire. This study was applied during a practical activity where students were divided into different groups and drew the body they had seen through the microscope. Whereas there was a student with poor eyesight in the classroom, she was given the developed model. This proposal’s goal was to stimulate knowledge as something actively built, giving significance to the learning process and having the teacher’s figure as an active mediating agent in the knowledge production process.

Keywords: Didactic material, Inclusive education, Science education, Personal care.