Multisensory Haptic-Audio Didactical Design to Support a Visually Impaired Student’s Mastery of Functional Plant Concepts

Abstract

Visually impaired students have limited access to visual information, which can hinder their understanding of concepts that are difficult to represent through verbal explanations alone. In IPAS learning, this challenge is particularly evident in understanding the functional relationships among plant parts. Although previous studies have reported the potential of tactile and audio media, research that uses learning obstacles as the basis for developing didactical designs to guide students’ learning trajectories remains limited. This study aims to develop a haptic-audio-based didactical design to address learning obstacles in understanding the functional concepts of plants. The study employed a descriptive qualitative approach using the Didactical Design Research (DDR) method. The participant was a sixth-grade visually impaired student at SKh Negeri 01 Serang City. Data were collected through an initial diagnostic test, classroom observations, teacher interviews, field notes, and a final concept mastery test. Data were analyzed through prospective, metapedadidactical, and retrospective stages. The findings indicate that the main learning obstacle was not the recognition of plant structures through tactile exploration, but the difficulty in connecting these structures with their biological functions. The implementation of haptic-audio media, supported by repeated tactile exploration, audio narration, and teacher prompting, helped the student gradually develop an understanding of structure-function relationships. Retrospective analysis resulted in an empirical didactical design that integrates multisensory experiences with adaptive pedagogical support. This study contributes a learning trajectory-based design for more accessible IPAS learning and provides practical guidance for integrating haptic-audio media into inclusive instruction.