Abstract
The concept of extrascholastic learning argues that education can take place not only within the confines of the classroom or school but also in any environment that serves the intended learning purpose. Extrascholastic learning-based education, which enables students to acquire primary life experiences, provides significant advantages in terms of making instruction more concrete and ensuring the permanence of learning. This advantage is considered to be a significant opportunity for students with learning disabilities to eliminate learning deficiencies. This chapter aims to explain the theoretical foundation of extrascholastic learning-based education, the identification process of students with learning difficulties, the educational practices they are included in at the end of the process, highlighting significant considerations regarding extrascholastic learning activity process, presenting a sample lesson plan for teaching history topics, and providing sample activities to be used during implementation.
TopIntroduction
There are many definitions of learning disability in different scopes over the years. However, if it is necessary to make a descriptive definition of learning disability in general terms, it can be expressed as the difficulty experienced by the individual in terms of speaking, listening, reading-writing, problem solving skills and using mathematical skills (Sağlam et all., 2022). In order to provide all kinds of opportunities and equalities of opportunity in educational environments, it is required to take necessary measures for students who have learning disability and need special education. Designing the teaching processes based on individual differences for the sake of students is the building stone of comprehensiveness and sustainability in education (Salar, et al., 2016). Problems related to processing the data caused by learning disability in a child and learning new information will bring along affective and behavioral problems (Aslan, 2015). This condition which has a holistically negative effect on the child’s development will also affect the child’s social activities negatively. However, another student with no learning disability can easily transfer these learning and data processing experiences to real life. This difference which is experienced among students related to learning processes may lead to great differences between individuals over the years. However, for a healthy social structure, social education is expected to have positive effects in a balanced way (Erdal, 2019). Otherwise, it is possible to predict that an individual who has been raised with the negative effects of a learning disability in society will face constraints in terms of social acceptance and social life. As a matter of fact, in Ancient Greece which prevailed by perfect body perception, people had a negative viewpoint of those who had mental, spiritual, or social problems besides physical problems. These people were not respected in society. During the 1960s in Europe, individuals with learning disability or mental issues were considered sick, and experimental treatment methods were tried for them. It is possible to evaluate all these as evidence of negative outcomes experienced during different periods (Atayurt- Fenge & Subaşıoğlu, 2020).
It is seen that the negative perceptions and practices that existed in the past on this subject are no longer accepted to a great extent today. Especially positive changes have brought many advantages in educational environments and social life of individuals. Education of students with special learning needs is one of these issues. However, it is seen that many wrong evaluations are still made regarding the educational processes of students with special educational needs. In a study conducted by Asan (2019), it was determined that teachers in educational environments do not have enough information on this issue, and students at different levels have changed their negative perceptions with the trainings they received on this subject.
The conventional sense of education designs an environment where the teacher is the main trainer, whereas the student is considered a passive receiver. Realizing that this viewpoint bears negative consequences for qualified education has enabled students to have an active learner role in learning processes over the years. An educational process where the teacher is the guide and the student takes an active part in the process has brought along several novelties for education, including programs, school books, classroom environment, and the physical environment of the school. This innovation movement in education has begun to be applied in different periods according to different development properties of countries. The system of education which has been designed with a conventional sense of education for many years has revealed several victims due to the use of wrong and deficient learning methods in the education of students who need special education. Accepting the possibility of different learning levels with a modern sense of education and figuring out that it is possible to overcome learning disability with the help of methodological measures and changes have yielded a different viewpoint on the education of students with learning disability (Köksal, 2016).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Out-of-School Learning: In addition to the teaching processes planned within the school in education, out-of-school educational activities are carried out in places such as museums, botanical parks, science centres, industrial establishments, etc. in order to create concrete life experiences.
Individualised Education Plan: Planning the educational processes of students with special educational needs in accordance with the determined educational objectives.
Learning Disability: Difficulty in acquiring or using different types of skills such as reading, writing, listening, understanding and speaking.
Inclusive Education: Education of students with different learning difficulties in classes where normal education is provided.
Peer Teaching: Within a certain group, students help each other in different subjects, contribute to teaching processes and support the solution of their problems.