Barrier-Free Science Education for Visually Impaired Students: An Activity for Life Cycle in Plants

This research aims to design and apply a lesson plan to satisfy 3rd-grade inclusive education students’ individual learning needs on the subject of plant life cycle, and to develop three instruction materials based on this lesson plan. In the first stage of this three-staged research, visually impaired students’ individual learning needs were determined by conducting workshops with science teachers, elementary school teachers, and special education teachers. Then, the learning outcomes of science education programs were determined. In the second stage, teaching materials suitable for students’ personal characteristics were designed by the teachers after assessing the students’ needs. Visually impaired students also participated in the process of developing the educational material. In the last stage, students were taught according to the lesson plan with the materials prepared according to the 5E learning model. After the lessons, data were collected through semi-structured interview forms to determine the students’ opinions on the lessons and materials. Descriptive analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data obtained. The research results showed that the teaching material responded to the needs of the students and contributed positively to their conceptual learning.