AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF MATHEMATICS WITH STEM TILES AND THE MATHSTALK: A PILOT STUDY
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Authors: Sariat Ajibola Adelakun, Aminat Abdulsalam, Ismail Adelabu Adegbola
Keywords: STEM tiles, mathstalk, blind and visually impaired, inclusive
Abstract: In Nigeria, students with visual impairment are often exempted from mathematics out of the belief that it is impossible for them to do mathematics. Particularly, they were generally not registered for external examinations required for admission to tertiary institutions. This affected the choice of careers of those who managed to get admission and prevented many of them from been admitted for tertiary education in universities, Polytechnics and colleges of education. Earlier research in Nigeria identified some reasons for the inaccessibility. First is the barrier in communication between the teachers and the SVI. That is to say that mathematics is taught to SVI in special and inclusive schools by sighted teachers who do not know braille and the students cannot see prints. Second has to do with representing some mathematics topics on a linear form with braille fonts and finally because of limited human and material resources. Most schools have very limited specialist support teachers and the teachers are not trained to support mathematics teachers during their training. Necessary resources are also not available. This paper, however, presents a pilot study in Four inclusive secondary schools in Nigeria. Two were randomized for treatment and the remaining two were placed on waiting list control group. Mathematics teachers in the two intervention schools were taught how to use STEM Tiles and board to teach some topics. They were also taught to use the Maths talk software to teach and examine some topics. The intervention was for one session and data were collected through observations and interviews. Findings suggest that the SVI were able to solve sums effectively, though intervention classes initially didn’t solve many questions with all students in the class, however, the situation improved by mid of the year. The SVI and sighted classmates interacted more and this feature SVI sometimes explaining questions to the sighted classmates.