HANDS-ON, HEADS-ON, AND HEARTS-ON IN TEACHING MATHEMATICS TO CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL EDUCATION NEEDS, DIVISION OF OLONGAPO CITY, PHILIPPINES

Abstract

The Department of Education specifically all public schools in the country have a diverse and unusual task in a child’s education. They are in charge of not only teaching the basic concepts of learning, but also letting children know how to behave in a social setting. Department of Education in the Philippines is highly concerned with producing learners whose full potentials are developed regardless of their capabilities, hence this research was conceived. Since the researchers are engaged personally to children with special education needs, the experimental analysis made to action. It opted to find ways on enhancing the number concept of children with special needs. In so doing, determining the effectiveness of hands-on, heads-on and hearts-on in teaching Mathematics for children with special education needs was conceptualized. The study was conducted with eight (8) pupils with varied exceptionalities or conditions as follows: Cerebral Palsy, Autism, Hearing Impairment and suspected learning disability confined in a Self-Contained classroom. A pre-test and post-test were employed in this study. 3 H’s was employed in this study as experimental approach. The first H is called the “mental” (HEADS-ON) using images (pictures) to represent objects to count or solve a math problem. The “doing” (HANDS-ON) which involves physically manipulating objects is the second H. The final H is the “interest” (HEARTS-ON) also known as the “symbolic” which involves using only numbers and symbols to count or solve a math problem. The key finding was consistent with other research revealing that in order to achieve great knowledge and success in understanding, pupils or children with special education needs must engage in hands on, heads on and hearts on approach, particularly in learning Numeracy or Mathematics. These children needed heads on, hands on and hearts on to relate and retained to them the numbers being taught. It also observed that all throughout the study, children with Autism needed more motivation and patience as compare to the rest of the SEN participants. Implication of the study to these children help to enhance the Numeracy skills of the pupil-respondents.