The Benefits of Cooperative Teaching Applied Through Projects to Improve Learning for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract : People with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are characterised by severe limitations in nodal connectivity of information, which can involve some or several levels of the neuropsychological information processing system to various degrees. For this reason, in besides treating behaviours formally expressed by international classifications, it´s necessary to apply programmes to facilitate functional connectivity and fluidity over knowledge processing, in this sense, the cooperative project-based method can help neural networks interact and support the perception and subsequent processing of information. A total of 10 participants took part in this study, divided into two groups of 5 students each. One of the groups included a student with level 1 ASD (n: 5). All students belong to the same class and are studying all subjects corresponding to first grade of secondary education. Results confirmed the hypothesis that project-based work in small cooperative groups is effective, with all students showing improvement compared to the other two didactic methods implemented: practical and expository. Moreover, it was also observed that the group in which the student with ASD participates has not impaired the knowledge process, but, on the contrary, provides benefits that exceed the second group of exclusively neurotypical students (n: 5) in the statistics applied.