Continuing teacher training at EJA: teaching strategies for students with intellectual disabilities

Abstract

This article presents data from a proposal for continued teacher training from the perspective of Inclusive Education, applied in a Youth and Adult Education school (EJA), in a municipality in the State of Paraná. It was developed through action research, with the objective of developing and implementing a continuing training proposal for teachers in the final years of Elementary and High School at EJA, to improve pedagogical practice aimed at students with intellectual disabilities. The research participants were ten teachers from different curricular components. It is theoretically based on: Marins (2019), Prais and Vitaliano (2018), Vigotski (1997, 2021), and Zerbato (2018). To collect data, the following were used: a) an open questionnaire to identify teaching conceptions about intellectual disability; b) observation of classes and; c) teachers’ report. The data were analyzed by Content Analysis and showed that the training contributed to the teachers' practice, with the following results: 1. change in the teaching conception of intellectual disability, from limited and assisted, to possibilities of participation and learning; 2. the Peer Tutoring methodology contributes to the learning of students with intellectual disabilities at EJA; 3. highlighted as positive points that the elaboration of the lesson plan, in a collaborative way, brings more security to teaching work, and more accessible ways to make content available and evaluate, benefited not only students with intellectual disabilities, but other students in the EJA.