Practical activities in school gardens in the process of teaching geography learning for students with intellectual disabilities

Abstract

This text corresponds to the partial results of a master dissertation research which objective was to investigate the possibilities and challenges in the teaching and learning process of Geography with practical activities in a school garden. The research was fostered by the observation of the difficulties of Geography teachers in working with students with intellectual disabilities (ID), due to the lack of adequate teaching materials and insufficient teacher training. The study subjects are students with ID, enrolled in the final grades of elementary school in Gama-DF, Brazil. For the respective study we used qualitative research as a methodology. The use of the school garden as a pedagogical teaching resource enabled the promotion of a more meaningful learning, which also contemplated other human skills, interesting for students with ID, by associating the geographical contents applied during the development of practical activities in the school garden, in geography classes. Throughout the research it was noticeable how effective the practical activities in the physical space of the school garden in teaching Geography to students with ID were effective, gave meaning to understanding and reflection of geographical knowledge, and strengthened actions of inclusion in the school space.