Since the 1990s Korea has established the foundation of informatization of education, set up the required educational infrastructure at schools, and made administrative and financial efforts to make use of the newly created environment in a pedagogica...
Since the 1990s Korea has established the foundation of informatization of education, set up the required educational infrastructure at schools, and made administrative and financial efforts to make use of the newly created environment in a pedagogical manner. Despite the many educational programs developed so far, the amount of multimedia materials targeting children with disabilities is very small, which makes it hard for the teachers teaching special classes to offer individualized education to special kinds.
The sample of this study were eight children with learning disorder in math(they were chosen among those whose IQ was 75 or more and who belonged between 55 and 65 on the KISE Learning Disorder Scale for their particular problems in math learning). They were helped understand the principles of multiplication and memorize the multiplication table by applying the multimedia program developed by the investigator. Then it was tested if their multiplication skills could be improved and their time of task performance could be decreased.
The eight children with learning disorder in math were attending the special classes at five elementary schools in Gyeonggi Province. Their teachers provided the crucial help to the study.
The application program was developed to have sequence in the learning of multiplication using multimedia materials and to help the learner move up the stages according to his or her own level. Total ten sessions were given, and each of them lasted for 40 minutes.
After examining the children at different schools, their teachers were given the pre-test questionnaire, program CD, program manual, program log, and post-test questionnaire. The data were collected for analysis.
The analysis results indicate that all the children understood the concept of group calculation, memorized the multiplication table(in regular sequence), and made significant growth in solving multiplication questions with one digit numbers, operating the multimedia program on their own. But their time of task performance didn't seem to get better compared to their task accomplishment due to their tendency of avoiding pen and paper tests. In conclusion, the children with learning disorder improved in their memorization of the multiplication table and multiplication skills in the less suppressive atmosphere of one-on-one mutual learning with the computer. The results prove that the new approach fulfilled the needs expected from the conventional method of individualized education by the teacher.
Furthermore, it's also emphasized to apply computer-based programs to teach children with learning disorder and to make use of and spread computer programs of special educational purposes in more diverse areas.