Designing a Prevocational Skills Curriculum Guide for Students with Intellectual Disabilities in Elementary Schools

Designing a Prevocational S kills Curriculum Guide forStudents with Intellectual Disabilities in Elementary SchoolsDr. Gh. Hemati Alamdarloo1 Dr. A. Beh-Pajooh2Dr.Gh.A.Afrooz3 Dr. B. Ghobari4 Dr. N. Moosapour5AbstractThe aim of this study was to design a curriculum guide of prevocational skills for students with intellectual disabilities in elementary schools. The study was of exploratory type accomplished in two stages of documentary and field studies. In the field study, the perspectives of 315 parents, 140 teachers and 52 professionals were examined using “the Prevocational Skills Questionnaire” which was developed by the researchers. The results revealed that six components of prevocational skills; that is, social skills, physical skills, functional academic skills, work skills and habits, daily living skills, and skills of understanding the concepts of time and place are necessary for students with intellectual disabilities and could be categorized into three groups of compulsory skills, elective skills and optional skills based on their importance. Also, in the second step the library study indicated that the aims of the curriculum for prevocational skills should be the development of the social skills, physical skills, functional academic skills, work skills and habits, daily living skills and skills of understanding the concepts of time and place. Moreover, we identified the content of the prevocational curriculum and found that the vertical organization of the content of such curriculum should be based on the cyclic gradual development of the social environment and the horizontal organization of the content should be based on a multidisciplinary method. Practical activities in actual environments are the best learning activities, and the actual materials in natural environments are the best materials. Also, demonstration, fieldtrip and project methods are the best teaching strategies. The best grouping is a small group of students with four members and homogeneous development. The starting time of training has to be from the beginning of the first grade in elementary schools. The best space for prevocational skills training is community-based school and the best assessment method for assessing the achievement is performance-based assessment.