Ensino de habilidades monetárias para educandos com deficiência intelectual (DI) da Educação de Jovens e Adultos (EJA)

Abstract

This paper presents contributions to the process of teaching monetary skills (ROSSIT; FERREIRA, 2003) to students with intellectual disabilities at Elementary School. The aim of this study was to assess how the teaching strategy called “Conhecer e Utilizar Dinheiro” (Knowing and Using Money) affects the acquisition of mathematical reasoning. More specifically, if such strategy can enable students with intellectual disabilities who were taking EJA - special type of education system for youth and adults in Brazil - to recognize paper money and coins of the Brazilian Monetary System. Participants were eight students from 19 to 29 years old with intellectual disabilities from a special school located in Parana State. The participants were interviewed twice during the study: an initial interview and a final one were performed as parameters of what they already knew and of how much they have advanced in relation to the content. A nine module sequence of the content was administered to the participants along with a battery of activities based on the information collected on the initial interview. The activities were exercises involving paper money and coins. As a final production, the participants went shopping for grocery. Results show that the participants were able to perform monetary transactions with both paper money and coins. They were also able to understand the value of money and its relation with transaction value. Data has demonstrated that “Knowing and Using Money” strategy has proven effective in teaching monetary transactions to students with intellectual disabilities, considering their cognitive limitations. Such strategy can be used to teach monetary skills to different groups of students, regardless of special Education needs. In such case, it is important to highlight that adaptations should be performed to meet the group specificity. This study theme was chosen due to the importance of mastering simple monetary transactions for students with intellectual disabilities as it allows them to achieve autonomy in performing everyday life activities.