CITTI Project Ecuador Tour 2006

Gayl Bowser

We have been very involved in the getting to know and trying to understand part of this trip and it is a wonderful experience. Today Joy and I created some lessons for the teacher of the older students to try to both add to her pool of resources and to help her understand some concepts about teaching adults with significant delays. I think a lot about what the basis purposes of education here might be.

One important aspect of our trip is to expand on the idea that the educational program has to be functional. General education here involves a lot of lecture and repetition. But that does not work well for the group that Joy and I are working with. (Older students with Developmental Disabilities) So we want to convey the idea that rather than practicing saying color names, the students could use this information to be more helpful and independent in their own lives. We have had to think a lot about the levels of instruction that might be applicable in this situation. As Stacey said, the cultural barriers are enormous. We don't know how to do many of the daily tasks ourselves, so it's impossible to apply the concept of task analysis. The good part of this is that we will have to work closely with the teacher for this group and she will be our guide for the curriculum part of the planning. We think that we have ideas about teaching strategies and adapted equipment if we ever understand the functional life skills and the way they are done here.

In the U. S. it strikes me that we might be talking more about independence than we are here. It is not necessarily a cultural value that ANYONE be independent. But being HELPFUL is very important. And if you can help and also participate with others in your family and community, then that is even better. It's called a Minga. In a Minga everyone works together to accomplish a task. I think we need to help develop the MINGA theory of assistive technology!

Thanks for all your comments and good wishes. It's a trip to be here and learning SO much.

# posted by Chauncy Rucker @ 10:35 PM