Educational Multimedia System in Teaching Mathematics: A Case Study of students With Autism

Abstract

This study examines impact of Educational Multimedia System in teaching mathematics for autistic students. As the number of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder grows every year, the public’s attention on the subject has naturally increased as well. It is important to understand that autism is not as portrayed by popular culture or as depicted in some movies,especially in an autistic student’s ability to do or not do higher order mathematics. However, there are some effective teaching strategies that allow autistic students to improve their critical thinking and problem solving skills needed to solve mathematical problems. This study was designed as a qualitative research that includes a case 'autism'. The researcher used tools like semi-structured interview, observation form to collect the primary data from respondents. The researcher used Lev Vygotsky’s constructivism theory and Mayer’s cognitive theory of multimedia learning to analyze and interpret the data to produce information and draw conclusion on the study. Different views and the behaviors of the respondents related to the mentioned themes was collected together under same theme and explained in their perspective by cross triangulation method.From the analysis and interpretation of the data the researcher found that interest, communication, language, sensory impairments, and abstractness of mathematics are highly affecting factors in mathematics learning for ASD students. So, the school administration and the subject teacher should pay more attention and use Educational Multimedia System to create favorable environment in mathematics class for ASD students.