Testing Context Based, Self Learning Material with a Blind Student:
a Wisdom Box
M. Sahin Bulbul1, Belkis Garip2, Dilber Demirtas3
1,2,3
Middle East Technical University, Ankara (Turkey)
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
Abstract
Recent studies point out that students conceptualize better when they are actively engaged in the
learning process. Students become active when they enter the process of education composed of
learning by doing, not just being told about the laws and the theories. Physics is appropriate field for
learning by doing, since physics is all around us; it is about people, and their lives. It explains how
everything works, how the world works.
To enable actively engaged learning process for physics, the researchers of this study suggest a tool
called as Wisdom Box which relies on context-based approach and is suitable for self learning. This
material is based on three main dimensions: Context-based approach, Self-learning, Concept
Learning. Context based approach is important for students to understand the relationship between
the physics and real life. If it is important for physics education, it is logical to expect that context
should be accessible for all students including disabled. Self-learning dimension gives opportunity to
students to study independently, without any help of the teacher or peers. This does not mean that
students are isolated from the peer interaction. Students can work together on Wisdom Box; and
demand help from the teacher if necessary. At the end, they can present their results to the teacher
and get feedback. Concept learning dimension implies that the tools in the Wisdom Box is not just for
play but has a focus on scientific concept.
In the light of all above, researchers developed a sample Wisdom Box. Playground was chosen as a
context for this Wisdom Box. This context is composed of some sub-contexts such as slide, swing,
seesaw, ferris wheel, pogo stick, jogging track, sticks and a rode with holes which were made from
wood. Wisdom Box can be used for self learning since students can study with Wisdom Box by own
selves by using a manual. For concept learning dimension, motion concept was selected as a focus.
Inertia is explained with slide, swing, seesaw, ferris wheel and pogo stick. Displacement and distance,
velocity and speed are explained with jogging track and sticks. Motion with constant velocity and
motion with constant acceleration are explained with the rode with holes. Whole material is tactile, that
is to say, it is suitable for blind students.
There are two main aims of this study. The first aim is to design and improve a Wisdom Box in terms
of determined dimensions. The second aim is to test the developed Wisdom Box with a blind student
and get feedback on usability by blind students, suitability for learning target concepts.
1. Introduction
Learning best occurs when students are actively engaged with the process. According to DuFour,
DuFour, Eaker and Many [1], for experiential learning, students should be involved in authentic hands
on activities. Therefore, Wisdom Box is designed with the aim of making students actively engaged in
the learning process by doing hands on activities. Students become active learners when they enter
the process of education based on learning by doing, not just being told about the laws and the
theories. Physics is appropriate field for learning by doing, since physics is all around us; it is about
people, and their lives. It explains how everything works, how the world works. By using Wisdom Box,
students can understand a physics concept within a real life context by themselves. Based on that
aim, three main dimensions are defined for Wisdom Box; namely, Context-based approach, Selflearning and Concept Learning. Regardless of chosen concept, Wisdom Box should be based on an
appropriate context for the target concept, should enable personal study and should provide concept
learning. After choosing a target concept, a Wisdom Box can be developed by considering these three
dimensions. Understanding the scope and the requirements of each dimension is necessary to be
able to develop a Wisdom Box. Therefore, the scope and the requirements of each dimension will be
explained in the next section.
2. Wisdom Box
As explained above, Wisdom Box is a self-learning context based material. It is a box that consists of
User Guide, Online Support, Online Certificate and Context based Materials as shown in figure 1. User
guide includes introduction with explanation about how it is used and then have activities with
directions for each target concept. User Guide should be relevant with the context based learning
materials and both user guide and learning material should be designed according to dimensions of
Wisdom Box. Online Support will be provided to users to give feedback during learning process when
they need. When students finish the planned activities in the user guide and finished the expected
processes they will ask for an online exam. If they will be successful in the exam, they will get a
certificate.
Fig.1. Wisdom Box
2.1 Dimensions of a Wisdom Box
First of all, context based learning dimension is defined for a Wisdom Box since it helps students to
make connection between real world and learned subject. According to E.B.Jhonson [2], contextbased learning is an educational approach that aims to help students to see meaning in the content
(academic material) they are studying by connecting that content with the context of their daily lives, in
other words with the context of their personal, social and cultural circumstances. As cited in Kortlans,
when teaching with context based approach students would experience the content taught as more
relevant, and they would be better able to connect the concepts learned to their out-of-school world
[3]. Besides, this approach motivates students and makes them feel more positive about science by
helping them see the importance of what they are studying [4]. Considering these advantages of
context based approach, it was defined as one of the dimensions of Wisdom Box. A chosen context
should hold some criteria as listed in Table 1. To begin with, it should be related with students’ daily
life. Giving physics materials through an appropriate context thought to prevent students from viewing
physics as an abstract topic, irrelevant to their everyday life, supporting student motivation [5]. Also, it
should have a high probability to be faced with in real life. It should provide new learning experiences
to the learner. Moreover, it should be relevant to the target concept and appropriate for being divided
into sub-contexts.
Table1. Dimensions of Wisdom Box
A. Context Based Dimension
Name of subdimensions
High probability
Relevance to content
New experiences
Sub-contexts
Starting with context
related questions
Explanation of context
related questions
Appropriate level
Description of sub-dimensions
The situations that have high probability to be faced with in real
life should be chosen as a context.
Chosen context should be relevant to target content.
Besides of reminding previous experiences chosen context
should provide new experiences.
Chosen context should be appropriate to be divided into subcontexts.
Based on context based learning approach, chosen context
should be suitable for asking context related questions
The explanation for asked context related question should be
gotten with the applications
Context should be appropriate to focus group’s cognitive level.
B. Self-Learning Dimension
Name of subdimensions
Independency
Flexibility
Focus group
Special needs
Equality
Introduction
Self-evaluation
Description of sub-dimensions
Students should be able to learn the target content
independently.
Materials should be flexible so that different learners may use
the tool in different ways.
There should be a focus group.
Materials should be appropriate for special needs of focus
group.
User should not be in disadvantaged position considering
content when compared with other learners using alternative
materials such as course books.
Materials should be introduced within a user guide.
Without any support, learner should evaluate his/her learning
process.
C. Concept Learning Dimension
Name of subdimensions
Appropriate to curriculum
Feedback
Discrimination
Scientifically correct
Social learning
Using difficulty
Description of sub-dimensions
The scope of formal curriculum should be considered while
choosing the content.
Continuous feedback should be provided via online support.
Materials should be purified from discriminative issues.
There should not be scientifically wrong expressions.
Material should let learner study together.
Material should be user friendly.
Second one is the self-learning dimension as indicated in Table 1. This dimension refers to being able
to study individually. Students who are studying with Wisdom Box can work on the topic independent
from teacher or peers with the help of guide or work sheets prepared. Having a self-learning property
is a significant requirement for a material since during whole lecture; a teacher may not obtain the
opportunity of reaching all type of students. The importance of self-learning can be understood from
the situation so that students can need study individually. This does not mean that students are
isolated from the peer interaction. Students can work together on Wisdom Box; and demand help from
the teacher if necessary. At the end, they can present their results to the teacher and get feedback.
Concept learning dimension implies that the tools in the Wisdom Box is not just for play but has a
focus on scientific concept. In addition, Wisdom Box should provide different study options for the
same concept. This concept should cover the objectives explained in the teaching programs. Besides,
it should enable feedback on learning process. Also, it should provide equality for the students.
Students studying with Wisdom Box and not studying with it should learn same concepts. Besides,
Wisdom Box should include a user guide to lead at the beginning and give opportunity to the students
to assess themselves at the end. Also, it should be designed for a specific focus group by considering
their special needs. Finally, it should not involve discriminative issues and; should be purified from
wrong information and difficulty of use.
3. Development of a Wisdom Box: Playground
An example Wisdom Box was developed for “Force and Motion” unit based on these main three
dimensions. A play ground was chosen as a context for the mentioned unit, since it is a familiar
context for each type of students, and may catch students’ attentions independent from their gender
and socio-economic status. Moreover, it can be separated into sub-contexts; such as slide (a rode with
holes that can be used as inclined plane or horizontally), swing, seesaw, ferris wheel, trampoline,
jogging track and sticks.
Fig.2. Playground Wisdom Box
Wisdom Box is designed as a wooden box and wooden tools that can be placed in it. It has a rope
handle to enable its portability. All materials mentioned above as sub-contexts are made from wood
except for trampoline (Figure 2). Outer sides of the wooden box are shaped as running track to be
able to use for learning displacement, position and velocity concepts. As shown in figure 2, after taking
wooden tool out of the wooden box, it can be set as running track and other materials can be placed
on it to model a real play ground. Wisdom Box also includes a user guide in it which starts with
explanation about how it is used and then has activities with directions for each target concept.
Self-learning dimension was satisfied by providing a work-sheet that includes directions for students to
discover concepts in motion by working individually on the material. For this study, developed Wisdom
Box focuses on visually impaired students by considering their special needs. For example, it contains
tactile materials which visually impaired students can study by themselves. A user guide is added into
Wisdom Box with the aim of giving descriptions about its usage, giving directions and providing selfassessment tools.
Content learning dimension of the developed Wisdom Box was chosen to be “Force and Motion” unit,
since physics is a compulsory course for 9th grade students in Turkey. Force and Motion unit is one of
the topics that students have difficulty [6]. With Sub-contexts like swing, seesaw etc.; most of the
motion concepts are covered. Inertia is explained with slide, swing, seesaw, ferris whell and
trampoline. Displacement and distance, velocity and speed are explained with jogging track and
sticks. Motion with constant velocity and motion with constant acceleration are explained with the rode
with holes. Being appropriate for both sighted and visually impaired students, Wisdom Box gives
chance to social interaction.
4. Testing Wisdom Box
Developed Wisdom Box was tested with a 10th grade visually impaired student. Feedback was
demanded about three dimensions of the material. Playground context was mentioned as interesting
by the participant. She explained that she has prior experiences about playground, and also it
provides new experiences by being a tactile playground. For self-learning dimension, verbal directions
were given during the application. According to given feedback on sufficiency and appropriateness of
the directions, a user guide was prepared by using Braille alphabet (Braille alphabet is a tactile
alphabet developed for visually impaired). This user guide has activities with directions for each target
concepts, and assessment questions to give feedback about learning process. Besides, at the
beginning of the user guide, there is a part explaining the use of the material. The concepts targeted
for the content learning dimension was tested one by one and it is observed that participant learned
them successfully.
Fig.3. Testing the material
5. Conclusions
It is suggested by the researchers that Wisdom Box can be designed for different concepts from any
subject area, in different contexts, based on defined three dimensions. All these differences show both
the fruitfulness of this teaching method and how an individualized education emerges. If Wisdom Box
is designed in other subject areas with different materials and distributed widely, it may lead to the new
educational system. In this system, responsibilities of the government will be shifted to check
validation of certificate and appropriateness of Wisdom Boxes to the national government objectives.
The researchers predict that in the future education will take place mostly in Free Schools. In Free
Schools, Wisdom Boxes with different levels may be used for learning instead of lectures in classes.
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