Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Recently Introduced Tools In Enhancing Pedagogical And Psychological Support For Students With Intellectual Disabilities

Abstract

This article takes a scientific and educational approach to examining manuals designed to improve the quality of support for students with intellectual disabilities. By analyzing these manuals, the article aims to identify challenges in applying them within the context of adapting educational processes. Additionally, it will explore factors that can influence how effectively teachers can use these manuals to improve learning outcomes.

Researches have shown that in the last 5 years in the Republic of Armenia, the processes of creating a supporting toolkit developed for the purpose of improving the pedagogical and psychological support system have been activated. The reason for this is, in particular, the changes in the order of services provided and the challenges of modernizing the pedagogical conditions arising from the requirement to adapt the learning process of students with special educational needs (SEN).

The Scientific and Methodological Council of the Faculty of Special and Inclusive Education of the Pedagogical University, having participated in these processes, has revealed that the effectiveness of educational manuals and guidelines developed with the aim of improving the pedagogical conditions of students with intellectual disabilities and introduced into the methodological support process is controversial. According to them, this calls for serious scientific and pedagogical research.

The expert analysis of about 52 methodological manuals (39 out of them visual-methodological, and 13 – practice applied) showed that all the presented manuals are actual, but however, in almost 50-70% of them the following issues are found:  completeness and adequacy of content; professional-linguistic essay, including scientifically accessible and accurate application of professional concepts; scientifically incomplete justification of the presented material; the low level of independence and creativity in the development of the methodological tasks presented; in interdisciplinary processes related to insufficient accounting of the content of tasks and exercises and the possibility of multi-disciplinary circulation of communicated knowledge, abilities and skills; inadequate processing of methodological instructions for the purpose of implementation of presented tasks, exercises and motivation.