Lecture
A teaching method is a way of pedagogical influence that
has its own goals, its own objectives, and constitutes an integral structure.
A methodological technique is a specific, often elementary action
of the teacher that elicits a responsive action from the student.
A teaching methodology represents a combination of particular
content and methods (a pedagogical technology).
For special pedagogy, of particular importance is the classification
of methods that takes into account a holistic approach to the instructional process, developed
by Yu.K. Babansky. He identifies three groups of methods.
Group I - methods of organizing and carrying out learning-cognitive activity. This group of methods includes: verbal,
visual, and practical methods (the transmission and perception of instructional information as a source of knowledge); inductive and deductive methods (intellectual
activity); reproductive and problem-search methods (the development of thinking); independent work by students under the teacher's guidance.
Group II - methods of stimulation and control.
Group III - methods of control and self-control.
Deficiencies in the development of the cognitive activity of students in special educational institutions (especially in thinking and speech, sensory-perceptual activity, and attention) do not allow
any single classification or set of approaches to be used in full.
In the system of correctional instruction, verbal, visual, and practical teaching methods are widely used. The possibilities of their use were revealed in considerable detail, from the standpoint of correctional didactics, by A.N. Graborov, G.M. Dulnev, I.G. Eremenko, and others.
According to the manner of conveying information, three groups of methods are distinguished.
1. Visual methods, which include observation and demonstration.
Observation is the purposeful perception of an object or phenomenon,
which is specially planned by the teacher. It may be brief or
prolonged, continuous or episodic.
Demonstration is the presentation, the showing of an object, phenomenon, or action. There exist visual aids for demonstration: means of object-based visualization (real objects or their copies); means of pictorial visualization (illustrations, slides, films); conventional-symbolic means (formulas, symbols, diagrams).
When applying them, one should bear in mind such characteristics of children as
a slowed pace of perception, a narrowing of the scope of perception, and impairment
of the accuracy of perception. Illustrations should be large, accessible, and in a realistic style.
In correctional work, the principle of ensuring a polysensory basis for instruction is applied, that is, instruction is built with reliance on all the sense organs.
2. Verbal methods: a narration is a monologue by the teacher containing
instructional information; a conversation is a dialogue between teacher and student; an explanation is a commentary in which essential features, connections, and relations that are hidden from direct perception are revealed.
a narration should be concise and clear; the presentation of material requires emotionality and expressiveness. In a conversation it is important to formulate questions clearly; they must be understandable to the child.
Verbal methods should be combined with the use of visual and
practical methods.
3. Practical methods: exercises (oral and written); productive activity; experimental-research activity, elements of programmed instruction.
Visual and practical methods are widely used in the practice
of special education. general pedagogical teaching methods and techniques are used by special pedagogy in a particular way, involving a special selection and combination of methods and techniques that more
fully meet the student's special educational needs and
the specifics of the correctional-pedagogical work with him.
Preference is given to methods that help most fully to convey, perceive, retain and process instructional information in a form accessible to learners, relying on the analyzers, functions, and systems of the body that remain intact.
at the initial stages of instruction, practical and visual methods are preferable, forming the sensorimotor basis of concepts and
notions about the surrounding world. Methods of verbal transmission of instructional information serve as supplementary ones. At later stages of instruction, verbal methods come to the fore.
The method of working with a textbook also has a certain distinctiveness:
given the specifics of the speech development of learners in the primary grades,
the explanation of new material from the textbook is not carried out, since for the full mastery of the material children need their own subject-practical activity, reinforced by the teacher's lively, emotional word and vivid images of the material being studied.
In implementing visual teaching methods, the teacher not only demonstrates the object in question, but must also organize observation, the study of the object, and teach children the methods and techniques of examination,
and encourage children to generalize and consolidate their practical experience in words.
A variety of the practical teaching method is the use of didactic games and entertaining exercises. they also serve as a method of stimulating and activating the cognitive activity
of children. A lack of life experience and practical experience, and the insufficiency
of mental functions significant for the development of imagination, fantasy, and the verbal shaping of play, make it necessary to teach such children
to play, and then gradually to incorporate play as a teaching method into the correctional-educational process.
Thus, in special education a complex combination of several methods and techniques of work is practically always used for the purpose
of achieving the maximum correctional-pedagogical effect. The combinations of such pairings and their adequacy to one or another pedagogical
situation determine the specifics of the process of special education.
In special pedagogy, the process of upbringing takes place under complicated conditions: it is necessary not only to solve the upbringing tasks generally accepted within the system
of education, but also to ensure the satisfaction
of special needs in upbringing with respect to each category
of persons with developmental disorders, and to form skills that are absent owing to
a primary or subsequent developmental disorder - social, including
communicative, behavioral and other skills, and personal qualities. Upbringing is carried out in an extremely individualized way, taking into account
all the developmental characteristics of a given child, in the process of cooperation
between the teacher and the child, and among the children in the class or group.
Like teaching methods, methods of upbringing children with developmental
disorders have specific features in their application. The method of habituation and exercise is used in forming stable social
behavior skills, such as sanitary-hygienic and everyday-domestic
skills, self-organization skills, etc. This and other practical-active methods (play, educative situations) are used in combination with various informational methods.
The adequacy of the perception of educative information depends both
on the complexity of its content and on the level of the child's sensory capabilities. In this regard, methods that make it possible
to rely on visual information accompanied by the teacher's comments and explanations, and to make effective use of examples from the child's surrounding life, are of great educative significance. It should be emphasized
that for children of preschool and early school age with developmental special needs, the actions, deeds, views, judgments, and habits of the teacher
or caregiver remain, for a long time, a model for imitation, and their authority is indisputable and unquestionable. Incentive-evaluative methods
(reward, punishment) are also realized in a practical-active
form, accompanied by verbal encouragement accessible to the child («good», «right», «well done») and by material reward. Moreover, the degree
of material value of the reward gradually decreases: a treat,
a toy - their pictorial substitutes (a picture depicting a treat,
or a toy) - an abstract substitute (a token or other symbol of reward:
a small flag, a star, a «+» sign, etc.) - and finally, only verbal encouragement.
Methods of punishment likewise have a practical-active character,
since verbal reproach, especially in a harsh form, is categorically unacceptable. A child who does not yet have sufficient experience and knowledge of moral norms, social interaction, and social behavior, and who is not able
to regulate and control his movements, emotions, and actions to the necessary degree, often cannot be blamed for the condemned actions he has committed. Therefore the teacher or caregiver must always show
the necessary restraint in reproaching a child and express disapproval
with a stern look, a shake of the head, accompanying these signs of displeasure with words: «that's bad», «that's not nice», «shame on you», «I don't like to see (hear) this», «I am upset». In extreme cases a natural restriction of actions is applied, involving the child in correcting or
eliminating the consequences of a negative act. As the child develops
verbal forms of punishment also become possible: verbal reproach, a reprimand. The use of the method of punishment is effective only in the case
where the child understands that he has committed a bad act; where the punishment does not
humiliate the child or cause him physical pain; and where the punishment is applied infrequently, so that no habituation to it develops.
A teacher or caregiver should never raise his voice in communicating
with a child, even when reproaching him. The only exceptions to this rule are situations in which the child's actions pose a danger to his
life or health. An unusually loud voice from the teacher or caregiver in
such a case serves for the child as a signal of danger, a warning.
In adolescence and youth, as real results appear, informational and stimulating methods of upbringing that rely on the adolescents' and young people's intellectual and speech
capabilities occupy an increasingly larger place (conversations, meetings, counseling, the use of the means of art and literature, encouragement, trust, reproach,
and condemnation, etc.).
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