Favorable procedures to the development of a child with Down Syndrome in a common class

Abstract

At the size of school context, inclusive education brings important considerations requiring a rethinking of understandings and practices of the teaching-learning process aiming the course of socialization, cognitive, economic, cultural and psychosocial development of all individuals. By this perspective, this paper presents a fraction of research, which has investigated a teacher's teaching-learning conception and the pedagogical practices of her relation with a Down Syndrome child, included in a regular classroom. Through the use of the action-research methodology, and based on an ethnographic type case study, we searched, with the teacher, favorable procedures to enhance the student´s social, affective and cognitive development. By the means of new pedagogical practices introduced it was possible to record changes in the child´s behavior as well as in the subjective place that she occupied at school, as much as she acquired more visibility in face of her teacher and classmates, which, in turn, allowed her to engage and participate more in activities and independent actions. There were verified, however, ambiguities from the part of the teacher, who didn't always demonstrated belief in the student´s learning potential, in spite of acknowledging her progress. Several of her dilemmas can be traced to, among other aspects, the lack of specific formation to deal with intellectual handicapped students, as well as the homogenizing patterns of teaching, curriculum and evaluation.