Abstract
The Research focused on Impact of Inclusive Education on Academic Achievement of Students with Visual Impairment in selected secondary school in Benin City. Three (3) research questions were formulated to guide the study. The study adopted a descriptive survey. The population of the study consist of students with visual impairment, teachers, and non-visual impairment studentsin an inclusive secondary school in the sampled area. A total number of one hundred and seventy (170) respondent were selected for the study (i. e 140 students’ and 30 teachers from the Two (2) inclusive schools). The random sampling technique was used to select the respondents for this study. The research instrument for the study was Questionnaire titled: “Impact of Inclusive Education on Academic Achievement of Student with Visual Impairment in Selected Secondary School in Benin City (IIEAASVI)” which was distributed to the respondents and collected immediately after completion from respondents. The mean score and standard deviation were used in computing the responses of the questionnaire items. To account for the reliability of the study, the Cronbach Alpha Statistics was used which gave the total value of 0.836. At the end of the study, 0.687 was obtained for Influence of Teaching Methodologies on Academic Achievement of students with Visual Impairment, 0.713 for Impact of Teaching Materials on Academic Achievement of Students with visual Impairment, 0.767 for Roles of Teachers Towards Inclusion of students with Visual Impairment in an Inclusive Setting. This shows that the instrument is reliable.
It is evident that Student Centered Instruction is the best teaching methodology for students with visual impairment. This teaching method focuses on creating connections with students with visual impairment interests and the things they learn in school. The mean scores for this teaching method indicate a strong endorsement of their effectiveness, with the mean scores surpassing the criterion mean of 2.5. The ultimate goal is to make their educational process more meaningful and to achieve greater academic performance in school like their sighted peers. Secondly the use of Laptops with installed Screen reader, audio recorder, talking watch text to speech, camera, text to speech devices is appropriate for teaching students with visual impairment.
In conclusion the research posits that secondary school teachers need to be flexible and willing to adapt classroom instruction to meet the learning needs of students with and without visual impairment. At the same time, special education teachers need to collaborate with the significant stakeholders to ensure that learning takes place. However, regular teachers must have skills in communication, collaboration, cooperative learning strategies and confidence to use these skills in the classroom. The research suggested among others that given the complex nature of classrooms and the increasing demands on teachers (who often have little or no specialized training in working with students with visual impairment), structures should be set up to provide the necessary help and guidance for them to make changes in their instruction.
