ABS104 - The contributions of the cultural-historical perspective to research on the development of scientific concepts by students with intellectual disabilities - Board 19

The aim of this study is to analyze how the educational practices have occurred in the classroom dynamics so that these students may develop scientific concepts. Based on this, we reflect on the process of conceptual development and how students with disabilities can learn school subjects in view of the concrete conditions of everyday school life. The study is based on the cultural-historical perspective of human development. These projects are being carried out in different public schools in Brazil, and the research subjects are students with intellectual disabilities and their teachers. Two situations were analyzed. During the teacher training meetings, teachers reported their practices and revealed their great difficulty in creating learning paths for students with intellectual disabilities, so that they take hold of school knowledge, especially because these students show peculiar characteristics that set them apart from most students. We have seen some progress, in the sense that teachers are now looking at disabled students, which did not occur previously. This student is beginning to be noticed in the classroom, but the teachers’ reports about the educational activities reveal the lack of confidence in this student’s development possibilities. The analyzed classroom episodes reveal that education for students with intellectual disabilities is still restricted to what they already know how to do, always using the same routines, with mechanical exercises that prioritize perceptual skills such as sound and letter recognition, which do not allow them to move towards reflection on what they are learning.