Future Reflections
Winter/Spring 2008
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Encourage Hands-on Learning
by Mary Jo Thorpe, Education Program Specialist
NFB Jernigan Institute
As
part of the NFB�s initiative to promote interest in subjects related to science,
technology, engineering, and math (STEM), the Future Reflections editor
has asked the NFB Jernigan Institute to submit several useful articles relating
to this area over the next few editions. These articles will provide concrete
suggestions to parents and teachers about best practices they can use to empower
their blind students and help them gain more from the study of STEM subjects.
It seemed best to start with fundamentals, and nothing is more fundamental when
talking about the education of blind or low-vision children than a discussion
of the importance of hands-on learning. So, here are some tips we hope you will
find useful:
Tips to Encourage Hands-On Learning
In many ways, we live in a �hands-off� society. Phrases such as �Do not touch!�
or �Hands off!� send a message that using our hands to examine something is
socially inappropriate and unacceptable. However, the use of touch to gather
information is a valuable tool, and vital to a blind student�s learning.
�Hand thinking,� as research psychologist Selma Fraiberg refers to it, allows
the student to form a mental picture of one�s surroundings through touch. It
is an effective and completely respectable method of gathering information for
observation and learning. Numerous blind students are given so many �don�t touch�
messages that they become timid and ineffective in using this skill of exploration.
If we as educators and parents do not break that pattern, then the students
are truly handicapped--not by their blindness, but by their lack of experience.
The following are some points to keep in mind when encouraging hands-on learning.
1. Be cautious not to limit your blind student�s exploration because of your
visual bias. Just because it looks yucky or unpleasant to you, does not mean
that it will feel that way to the touch. Even if it does, so what? Dissection
material for a biology lab class is a good example. Through the use of touch,
students will gain experiential knowledge rather than relying solely on descriptive
knowledge and, as a result, have more meaningful learning experiences.
2. Use the hand-under-hand teaching method. This occurs as the instructor places
his hands under the student�s to demonstrate a particular task or motion, or
as a way to gently lead a student�s hand to a particular object to explore.
It can be thought of as the alternative to a sighted student watching a demonstration.
Hand-under-hand allows the student to maintain more control over his or hands
than if the instructor grasped them and moved them in the traditional hand-over-hand
approach. More control over their own hands gives blind students a higher level
of control over the entire learning process. Of course, the method works best
if the instructor also incorporates strong verbalization, concise instructions,
and clear movements with his hands in a way that is easy for the student to
distinguish.
For example, when teaching concepts where a student needs to be shown how to
hold a tool or instrument, the instructor can hold his hands under the students�
to help the students understand the motion their hands need to make, or to demonstrate
the correct hand or finger position. This practice can also be helpful when
an instructor is trying to explain concepts that are ambiguous or highly visual.
3. Like any other skill, students need to have proper tactile observations
modeled and articulated for them so that they know what and how to examine with
their hands. Since most visual learners (that includes most teachers and most
parents) may be unfamiliar with tactile exploration and observation, here are
a few suggestions that can help you help your blind student make meaningful
observations and gather appropriate information tactually.
- Model appropriate questions that students can ask themselves in order to
gain information from the object. For example: What does the texture feel
like? Is the object curved, or flat? Does the object have multiple openings
or other parts connected to it?
- Encourage students to run their hands (note the plural; both hands, all
fingers) across the entire surface area of the object.
- When relevant, ask the student what shape the object is, or what it resembles.
- Prompt students to explore thoroughly, including inside objects if that
is relevant.
- Encourage students to compare and contrast characteristics and qualities
of the object they are observing to items with which they are familiar.
- Help the student recognize tiny details that may be distinguishable tactually
on a particular object such as cracks, small parts, blemishes, engravings,
or ridges.
- Add visual information to what the student is looking at tactually; for
example, describe what color a particular texture may be if it is relevant
to that object.
- Encourage students to use their fine motor skills; such as tracing the
object with their fingertips rather than just feeling the object resting in
their hand. This will help the student to gather more detail from the object.
When we allow blind students to explore objects by touch, we are giving them
the opportunity to form mental pictures made from their own observations. Verbal
descriptions are still helpful and sometimes necessary, but these are intrinsically
someone else�s interpretation, someone else�s view of reality. Blind individuals
can visualize, through the use of touch and mental reflection, just as sighted
people do. As teachers and parents we must be patient while our learners take
the time they need to form those mental images. With practice, blind students
will learn to perfect their use of touch as an effective tool.
Additional Readings
�Another Way of Seeing� by Deborah Kent Stein, Future Reflections volume
22, number 1 (Convention 2002), pp 27-30. http://www.nfb.org/Images/nfb/Publications/fr/fr9/fr03co12.htm
�The Barrier of the Visible Difference� by Kenneth Jernigan, Gray Pancakes
and Gold Horses (Kernel Book 14), 1998 National Federation of the Blind,
pp. 1-15. http://www.nfb.org/Images/nfb/Publications/books/kernel1/kern1401.htm
�Educated Fingers� by Barbara Pierce, Future Reflections volume 23,
number 2 (Special Issue�The Early Years), pp. 75-77. http://www.nfb.org/Images/nfb/Publications/fr/fr14/fr04se19.htm
�Hand-Over-Hand Guidance: What Lesson Do We Teach?� by Andrea Story, Future
Reflections volume 19, number 1 (Winter/Spring 2000), pp. 17-19.
http://www.nfb.org/images/nfb/Publications/fr/fr19/Issue1/f190106.htm
�Teaching Exploration: Correcting a Glaring Flaw in the Education of Blind
Children� by Geerat J. Vermeij, Braille Monitor volume 47, number 9
(October, 2004), pp. 700-705. http://www.nfb.org/Images/nfb/Publications/bm/bm06/bm0609/bm060908.htm
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