Hi. I had a blind student in an Anatomy and Physiology class last year. Try teaching
anatomy to a blind student! Actually, she did very well; she received one of the
highest grades in the class. You'll need to think about your material in a new way.
While difficult, this is a great opportunity for your teaching and for the rest of the
class. As you change some of your style, you'll be considering the non-visual
learners more than you might have for particular topics.
Sometimes I would have the entire class close their eyes and visualize something I was
describing. Or I would have them try to identify bones by reaching into a bag and
identifying them only by feel. While it was sometimes quite difficult coming up with
ideas, in the end I think it worked best for all.
You could also try things like breaking the class into small sections and having them
discuss / act out / find examples of different concepts you're describing in class.
If you have a large class (as I did, with smaller lab sections) it might be difficult,
but even then, it can be worth it-- the rest of the class appreciates the break from
the large lecture format.
For your specific Gen Psych class, if you can, try to pre-screen the videos and see
how closely the audio follows the visuals. For your graphs, perhaps instead of just
sticking a graph up in front of the class, you could ask the class different ways they
can think of that could demonstrate the relationships you're describing. This is
helpful, since you pick up the students who really have problems with the concept of
graphs and what they represent. Another thing you may have to consider are your tests.
I had to rewrite the tests for her-- obviously, labeling diagrams was out of the
question, but so were Matching questions.
One more bit of advice-- find out if the student has been blind since birth or not.
That makes a huge difference. Definitely meet with them and talk to them and ask them
what methods work best for them.
Hope this helps!
Martha Rosenthal (writing from Stacy Andersen's email :-) )
-----Original Message-----
From: Hershberger, Tom [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Wed 7/23/2003 10:03 AM
To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences
Cc:
Subject: Blind student
I will be teaching a completely blind student next semester in my general
psychology course. The text and readings will be available on audio tape, but I am
looking for TIPS, which is the point of this list. The major difficulty is that I
make extensive use of graphics in the lectures (graphs, pictures, diagrams, etc) and
routinely use video clips to make points. I have been in touch with all of the
obvious offices and agencies.
Comments, suggestions, advice, etc. are welcome.
Tom Hershberger
Thomas J. Hershberger, PhD
Professor of Psychology
Chatham College
Pittsburgh, PA 15232
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
412 365-1128
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