Adaptation of instructional materials for children with hearing impairment in primary schools in Goma division, Mukono municipality

Abstract

The study investigated the extent to which instructional materials are adapted for children with hearing impairment in primary schools in Goma Division Mukono Municipality. In particular, the study explored the instructional materials that are adapted by teachers in teaching of learners with hearing impairment, how instructional materials are adapted for children with hearing impairment and the challenges encountered by teachers when adapting instructional material for learners with hearing impairment. The study adopted the qualitative approach where by information was collected using interviews and observation. Purposive sampling method was used to select the respondents. The findings indicated that some of the instructional materials adapted included charts, real objects, audio visual materials, pictures, photographs and text books among others. Although teachers mentioned audio visual materials and text books, there was no evidence showing that they adapt audio visual materials and text books. Findings further revealed that age was an important aspect considered when adapting instructional materials. Other considerations mentioned by the respondents were durability, safety of the instructional materials, number of learners, ability, content to be covered, relevancy and availability of raw materials to use. The findings indicated that teachers face a number of challenges in adapting instructional materials and these include; lack of raw materials to use, lack knowledge to adapt instructional materials, materials to use are expensive and negative attitude from stake holders. The researcher recommends that there is need to build the capacity of teachers to enhance their ability to adapt instructional materials for learners with hearing impairments.