Incorporating the Expanded Core Curriculum into science

The Expanded Core Curriculum (ECC) is a set of concepts and skills that are taught to students with visual impairments to support their learning that often occurs incidentally with vision. Students with visual impairments must learn both the ECC and content from the general education curriculum, including science. Thus, it is crucial to incorporate these two sets of curricula so that students with visual impairments can learn both sets of curricula more efficiently. This article presents an analysis of science curricula and lesson plans that support the Next Generation Science Standards while promoting teaching skills to students with visual impairments in the ECC. The results show that the ECC can be incorporated into science easily which will allow the ECC and science to be taught in one lesson.

Elements of Expanded Core Curriculum That Best Predicts Academic Achievement of Students With Visual Impairment

Every student (student with visual impairment or non-student with visual impairment) is expected to leave the walls of any educational institution with a strong grasp of knowledge, skills, and attitude to function successfully in life-after-school. In order to be successful, students with visual impairment must learn all the nine components of the expanded core curriculum (ECC). The expanded core curriculum empowers students with visual impairment to access their education and make their own choices throughout life. Without specialised instruction in ECC, students with vision loss may not be aware of the activities of their peers or acquire other critical information about their surroundings (Ferrell, 2000). As students with visual impairment learn the expanded core curriculum they build a strong foundation for success in life today and tomorrow. The ECC must therefore, be strategically and sequentially taught and integrated into all aspects of the education of the student with visual impairment. Ninety three students with visual impairment at University of Cape Coast and University of Education, Winneba were used for the study. Questionnaire and Multiple regression were used to collect and analyse data respectively. Independent living skills emerged as the best predictor of academic achievement of students with visual impairment.

The Expanded Core Curriculum Areas Experienced by Campers during Camp Abilities: A Qualitative Study

Introduction: The expanded core curriculum (ECC) refers to the generally accepted nine areas of instruction that children who are visually impaired (i.e., those who are blind or have low vision) must learn through explicit instruction in order to live independently as adults. Children with visual impairments must experience immersion in the ECC in their daily lives throughout the year rather than only being taught these skills during the school year by teachers of students with visual impairments. Therefore, this research was undertaken to determine whether athletes attending Camp Abilities, a sports camp for children with visual impairments, experienced new ECC skills or practiced previously learned ECC skills and if so, how. Method: Researchers chose to interview 10 athletes from a purposeful sample of 30 children who had previously attended camp. The 10 coaches who worked with these athletes one-on-one participated in focus group discussions at the end of the weeklong camp. In addition, all athletes and coaches attending camp listed their thoughts on posters describing how all athletes attending experienced areas of the ECC. Finally, researchers documented observations of athletes’ opportunities to practice ECC content throughout the weeklong program. Researchers transcribed interviews and focus group discussions and reviewed for themes relating to ECC areas that were part of the students’ lived experience during camp. Results: Three major conclusions emerged from reviews of the interviews, discussion group transcripts, posters, and observations: (1) athletes and coaches were initially unclear about what the ECC areas were and how the athletes experienced the ECC in their everyday academic and home activities; (2) following clarification of the ECC areas, the athletes came to recognize how they learned and applied ECC skills during the camp experience; and (3) a more structured instructional approach to applying the ECC at camp may further enhance their experiences. Discussion: The youth participants were not able to list and describe all of the ECC areas when interviewed at the end of camp. However, adult participants (coaches) listed most ECC areas and described how athletes experienced the ECC during camp in their focus group discussions. Once researchers clarified ECC areas for athletes, they identified self-determination, recreation and leisure, social interaction, and independent living as the areas of the ECC most often experienced during camp. Implications for practitioners: Practitioners need to pay attention to structured learning of the ECC areas and consider articulating for students which areas overlap in their everyday lives, so that they are fully aware of the multiple skills they are acquiring. Camp Abilities is a functional way for youths with visual impairments to experience all areas of the ECC.

Competence in Expanded Core Curriculum Skills: Does the Level Taught Matter to the Visually Impaired?

Educating the visually impaired requires unique consideration in which they would be provided with the tools, skills, and strategies they need to develop alternative means of obtaining information. The alternative means are compensatory access, sensory efficiency, assistive technology, orientation and mobility, independent living, social interaction, recreation and leisure career education and self-determination skills. The study sought to investigate the expanded core curriculum skills for students with visual impairment. It compares the level at which these skills were acquired and how they influence their competence. The researchers employed descriptive cross-sectional design for the study. 93 students with visual impairment were selected using multi-stage sampling technique from University of Cape Coast and University of Education, Winneba for the study. Frequency and percentages and ANOVA were used to analyse the data to answer the research questions and the hypothesis respectively. The results of the study indicated that majority of the students with visual impairment started the study of the expanded core curriculum skills from the basic level of education. It also became clear that those who started the learning of the expanded core curriculum at the basic level proved to be very competent. It was recommended that the Special Education Division of Ghana Education Service should intensify the teaching and learning of expanded core curriculum skills at the basic school so as to continue to impact ECC competence throughout a child’s academic life.

Educating students with vision impairment today: Consideration of the expanded core curriculum

A phenomenological study was undertaken giving students with vision impairment the opportunity to voice their experiences of secondary schooling in mainstream schools. Policies of inclusion were considered, with analysis of how training and curriculum came together, as experienced by these students, to develop their inclusion in schools in Victoria. Interviews of each participant using interpretative phenomenological analysis revealed a number of themes, with lack of teacher understanding of vision impairment a common theme across all cases. The limited access to visiting teachers, specialists in vision impairment, points to the need for alternatives in the delivery of necessary expanded core curriculum components. It is proposed that teachers of these students would benefit from an online unit to educate them in vision impairment to eliminate unintentional exclusion practices currently experienced and to encourage them to incorporate components of the expanded core curriculum into their everyday practices. The need for further research is indicated.

Views of independence and readiness for employment amongst young people with visual impairment in the UK

There is concern that young people with visual impairment do not leave school adequately prepared for the workplace. Seventy young people from the UK with visual impairment (aged 16–19) took part in semi-structured interviews exploring how they define independence and how they predict they would deal with employment-based problems. Two overarching themes emerged: (1) how active/passive the young people felt they should be in solving problems (active–passive dimension), and (2) to whom (themselves or others) the young person attributed the responsibility for problems and solutions (internaliser–externaliser dimension). The results provide evidence of the importance of teaching young people disability-specific skills at school (an ‘expanded core curriculum’) which aims to maximise young people's independence while giving them a clear understanding of the accommodations to which they are entitled.