The aim of this study was to design and implement a lesson with a working-forward approach for children with intellectual disabilities, as well as to clarify whether it can realize a learning environment that induces constructive interaction to expand the scope of learning for children with intellectual disabilities. As such, a lesson with four students in the upper secondary department of a special needs school for children with intellectual disabilities was implemented using an arts and crafts teaching material called “Orizome Presentation.” This was then analyzed from three perspectives—effect in terms of task-doing, effect on attention to the monitor, and effect on social interactions—by classifying non-verbal acts. The results indicated that constructive non-verbal interaction might have been stimulated among the participating students by the learning environment that involved (1) clarity about the role change between task-doner and the monitor, (2) externalization of various learning outcomes, and (3) observability of externalized objects.
View full abstract