“I am in the world of social relations” is the supporting educational   program                           for visually impaired pupils

School Years: Research

Svetlana Gaidukevich

Docent

Department of Special Pedagogics

Belorussian State Pedagogical University

Minsk, 33-58 Fizkuturnaya Str.

Belarus, 220028

ortika@open.by 

Introduction

Preparing of visually impaired children for independent life is the main purpose of the theory and practice of their education. There are several approaches to achieve of this purpose. One of them is to create conditions for development of personal structures helping person to realize and strengthen himself as a subject of the vital activity. During several years we have been investigating this problem, we have been working out programs of the development of the personal  structure as valuable orientations system. We are carring out these investigations because modern scientific data point to valuable orientations system is the collection of strategic purposes and plays a leading role in personal behaviour control. One of the results of our scientific-practical research is supporting educational program “I am in the world of social relations” for visually impaired pupils.

The conception of the program

When we created these program we are directed by following scientific statements.

1. Valuable orientations is the valuable attitude to objective values. This program provide for active accustoming of  children to social values, absorbing them in the valuable analysis of various social relations.
2. The most actively the development of valuable orientations and forming them in the system proceed in the age of 15 – 17 years, therefore the program address to senior pupils (X and XI classes).
3. Personal new formations are the result of man’s own experience. The program is realized by including of visually impaired pupils in various aspects of activity, among them the leading one is the confidential intercourse with children the same age, adult people and himself. It is common knowledge, that the intercourse with adult people both enriches the experience of pupils and provides them with deeper understanding and more circumstantial estimation of values, which he learned among children the same age.
4. The social situation of the development in the senior school age stimulates the process of personal and social self-determination. Therefore we market out in the program two blocs. The first bloc helps pupils to answer on the question: “Who am I? What can I?”. The second bloc bring to the answer on the question: “What place do I want to engage in the society? What do I want to enrich?”.
5. The choice of valuable orientations, building of them in the hierarchical system is the independent solution of each person. The program shows the wide spectrum of possible vital orientations and create conditions for forming personal views, estimations, valuable attitudes.
6. Potential possibilities of the development of the valuable orientations system of visually impaired pupils are not limited. But using of identical approaches to forming of the this personal structure for normal senior pupils and visually impaired senior pupils is not rightful. Therefore the program provides the special support of visually impaired senior pupils. This support presupposes:
7. the organization of the various work with information about objective values (the recognition of object-values, the estimation of their social and personal importance, the choice of important for himself values, planing of the behavior of his own choice);
8. the development for senior pupils of special skills (cognitive, estimating, predictive), which  provide the successful learning and processing of information about objective values.

The purpose and tasks of program

The program stimulates the development of valuable orientations of visually impaired senior pupils and promotes forming them into system. Realization of this program presupposes solution of following tasks.

1. enlarge the knowledge about norms of attitudes to himself, other people, spheres and conditions of the people vital activity;
2. enlarge the knowledge about person as the subject of the vital activity;
3. provide pupils with means of self- knowledge and building of model of the personal individuality.
4. help in building of vital plans;
5. Promote the development of motives of self-education and self-development;
6. strengthen the sense of personal dignity, develop skills of confident behavior.

The maintenance of the program

The program is continued two years. It consist of two bloc. Each bloc includes topics and is learned 40 hours (20 lessons). The maintenance of blocs are shown on fig.1.

	I am in the world of social relations

The relations to other people and himself

The relations to spheres and conditions of vital activity

Fig. 1. The maintenance of the program

The first bloc presupposes the immersion in the system of relations “person and surrounding people”. Senior pupils join to such values as respect, friendship, love, social recognition e.t.c. They analyse their system of social relations, the experience of other people basing on these values. The analyse of the personal system of  attitudes is going simultaneously  the stimulation of personal qualities, which necessary for realization of valuable attitudes (kindness, honesty, faithfulness, disinterestedness,  gratitude, tolerance, confidence, responsibility, initiative). The second bloc presupposes the immersion in the system of relations “spheres and conditions of vital activity of person”. Senior pupils work with such values as health, nature, creation, labour, cognition, intercourse and other, also they establish the connection between values and personal qualities, which necessary for their realization (industry, inquisitiveness, accuracy, exactingness, independence, confidence, initiative and others). The work in every bloc allows senior pupils to discover and specify the common social-significant sense and the value of  learning objects and to create their  personal sense and value. 

The maintenance of every topic of both the first bloc and the second one includes 5 parts:

1. the emotional-valuable component – the material provoking the emotional attitude to analysing facts and phenomena;
2. the critical component - the material demanding of active understanding of facts and phenomena;
3. the reflection component  - the material demanding address to self-experience;
4. the creative component - the material presupposing the transformation of pupils into experts;
5. the regulating component - the material stimulating the manifestation of self-regulation of behaviour.

Every component of the maintenance of the topic accent attention of a teacher on new possibilities of learning material: provide the organization of various work with information and create conditions for the development of special skills.

The technology of the realization of the program

The work on the program is made in the group (6-8 pupils), lessons are conducted once a week. The first part of the realization of program is diagnostic. Valuable orientations of every participant of the group are learned by special methods. Valuable orientational maps are done for every participant and an group. This information is used for the correction of the maintenance of some topics of the program and organization of the individual work. The work forming the motivation to coming lessons is made on the diagnostic part. Main arguments of the joint future work are: the possibility to know himself and surrounding people better, to learn to raise the purpose and use the strongest aspects of the personality for achievement of purposes. Participants of the group make the series of exercises, which help them  to do small discoveries and make sure that exist many interesting things, and they did not thing about them seriously or did not thing about them at all (for example, why is love arised? What does friendship give of a person?).

Learning of the maintenance of program on lessons is realized by organization of interaction between two flatnesses: between participants and between participants and adult-teacher. This interaction is built on principles  of the spatial equality, the dialogue, the polylog and the respect of the personal autonomy. The spatial equality supposes that the position of every participant in the space, in which the group work, presupposes him the access to information and contacts. The dialogue demand skills not only say ideas, but also to hear other people, and to obtain for himself the useful experience. The polylog presupposes the possibility to express an opinion of every participant. The respect to personal autonomy gives the right of every participant of the group not to take part in discussion, if he does not want to do it.

The main character of joint activity of participants of the group is the active idea-creation. Prepared answers and solutions are non given for participants, they are stimulated to search for this purpose. Special means for showing information are used: the show of the change ability and the variety of phenomena, the demonstration their positive and negative aspects, the suggestion to find in the negative phenomenon positive aspects, but in positive one to look for negative aspects, the presentation of incomplete information about facts and the creation conditions for their addition by the personal sense, the transmission by teacher of personal attitudes to surrounding world and others. The idea-creation of participants of the group is activated by various forms of the organization of their activity: discussion, debate, role plays, intellectual plays, creative tastes, competitions of creative works, conducting of diaries. The result of  the personal idea-creation is acquisition of two types of knowledge about himself: 1) knowledge-description, they enlarge presentation about himself, allow to compare him  self with others, give the explanation of facts of the personal behaviour, stimulate of questions directed at further self- knowledge; 2) knowledge-regulator   of activity, they provide realizing of latent mental building, which manage behaviour of people.

Senior pupils receive the support of teacher in the process of activity. Means of the support include two groups. The first group is the common support. It directs on all pupils and provides favourable emotional background in the group, mutual uderstanding and cooperation. Means of the common support are the attentive attitude to pupils, the faith to them, attracting them to joint planning of the activity, the creation of the situation of mutual learning. The second group is the individual support. It direct on the increase of the significance of personal contributions of participants of the group in the solution of common tasks and the increase of the status of them. Means of the individual support are the calculation of personal problems, the creation of the situation of the success, the creation of conditions for self realization.

Results

The participation of visually impaired senior pupils in the program is show, that this program is interesting and productive. Every participant of the program receive the possibility to make personal self-determination and to prepare to social self-determination basing on appropriative values. Senior pupils, which learn the course, have more realizive behaviour,  real vital plans, with succession and persistence of their achievement.

Conclusion

Values are assumed in results of spiritual efforts of personality. The program offered is one of the variant of the answer how we can help of personality: where direct its efforts, how organize these efforts and provide them by the maintenance and methods in conditions of the educational establishment.