Science Based Education for Students Who Are Deaf and/or Hard of Hearing

Research studies have shown that if science is taught through inquiry using both hands-on and minds-on instruction, the theory of science-based learning would be the best method to teach students with disabilities (Luckner & Carter, 2001). In the field of Deaf education, it is well known that for a majority of students who are Deaf and/or Hard of Hearing (D/HH), American Sign Language (ASL) is their primary language with its own syntax and grammar. The English language is, in actuality, a Deaf student’s second language. With this in mind, students who are Deaf are functionally English-language learners (ELLs) or limited English proficient learners. Looking at students who are D/HH as actual ELLs, it would seem logical to research what has been used as best practices in teaching Hearing ELL students. Sutman (1993), Barrera, Shyyan, & Liu (2008), Echevarria (2005), and McCargo (1999) all came to the conclusion that exposure to hands-on, inquiry based science helped facilitate the acquisition of language and the development of cognitive skills to hearing English-language learners. If ELLs are successful in learning English through a science-based curriculum, can students who are D/HH do the same? This mixed methods research study gathered data to validate the need to use a science-centered curriculum to support reading comprehension with 4th and 5th grade students at a school for the Deaf in a northeastern, urban region of the United States. Findings from this action based phenomenological research study included an increase in vocabulary retention in science, as well as an increased trend line of correct responses during English Language Arts (ELA) classes. Along with this quantitative data, qualitative data was collected supporting the perspectives of both teachers and students in this mixed methods study. Six teachers and four students were interviewed that met the criteria of this study and concluded that motivation and experiential learning through the lens of science increased students’ ability to retain information, as well as word identification, compared to an English-centered curriculum

Practicing phonomimetic (conducting-like) gestures facilitates vocal performance of typically developing children and children with autism: an experimental study

Every music teacher is likely to teach one or more children with autism, given that an average of one in 54 persons in the United States receives a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). ASD persons often show tremendous interest in music, and some even become masterful performers; however, the combination of deficits and abilities associated with ASD can pose unique challenges for music teachers. This experimental study shows that phonomimetic (conducting-like) gestures can be used to teach the expressive qualities of music. Children were asked to watch video recordings of conducting-like gestures and produce vocal sounds to match the gestures. The empirical findings indicate that motor training can strengthen the visual to vocomotor couplings in both populations, suggesting that phonomimetic gesture may be a suitable approach for teaching musical expression in inclusive classrooms

Ways of Guided Listening: Embodied approaches to the design of interactive sonifications

This thesis presents three use cases for interactive feedback. In each case users interact with a system and receive feedback: the primary source of feedback is visual, while a second source of feedback is offered as sonification. The first use case comprised an interactive sonification system for use by pathologists in the triage stage of cancer diagnostics. Image features derived from computational homology are mapped to a soundscape with integrated auditory glance indicating potential regions of interests. The resulting prototype did not meet the requirements of a domain expert. In the second case this thesis presents an interactive sonification plug-in developed for a software package for interactive visualisation of macromolecular complexes. A framework for building different sonification methods in Python and an OSC-controlled sound producing software was established along with sonification methods and a general sonification plugin. It received generally positive feedback, but the mapping was deemed not very transparent. From these cases and ideas in sonification design literature, the Subject-Position-Based Sonification Design Framework (SPBDF) was developed. It explores an alternative conception of design: that working from a frame of reference encompassing a non-expert audience will lead towards sonifications that are more easily understood. A method for the analysis of sonifications according to its criteria is outlined and put into practice to evaluate a range of sonifications. This framework was evaluated in the third use case, a system for sonified feedback for an exercise device designed for back pain rehabilitation. Two different sonifications, one using SPBDF as basis of their design, were evaluated, indicating that interactive sonification can provide valuable feedback and improve task performance (decrease the mean speed) when the soundscape employed invokes an appropriate emotional response in the user

Listening to Museums: Sounds as objects of culture and curatorial care

This practice-based project begins with an exploration of the acoustic environments of a variety of contemporary museums via field recording and sound mapping. Through a critical listening practice, this mapping leads to a central question: can sounds act as objects analogous to physical objects within museum practice – and if so, what is at stake in creating a museum that only exhibits sounds?Given the interest in collection and protection of intangible culture within contemporary museum practice, as well as the evolving anthropological view of sound as an object of human culture, this project suggests that a re-definition of Pierre Shaeffer’s oft-debated term ‘sound object’ within the context of museum practice may be of use in re-imagining how sounds might be able to function within traditionally object-based museum exhibition practices. Furthermore, the longstanding notion of ‘soundmarks’ – sounds that reoccur within local communities which help to define their unique cultural identity – is explored as a means by which post-industrial sounds such as traffic signals for the visually impaired and those made by public transport, may be considered deserving of protection by museum practitioners.These ideas are then tested via creative practice by establishing an experimental curatorial project, The Museum of Portable Sound (MOPS), an institution dedicated to collecting, preserving, and exhibiting sounds as objects of culture and human agency. MOPS displays sounds, collected via the author’s field recording practice, as museological objects that, like the physical objects described by Stephen Greenblatt, ‘resonate’ with the outside world – but also with each other, via their careful selection and sequencing that calls back to the mix tape culture of the late twentieth century.The unconventional form of MOPS – digital audio files on a single mobile phone accompanied by a museum ‘map’ and Gallery Guide – emphasizes social connections between the virtual and the physical. The project presents a viable format via which sounds may be displayed as culture while also interrogating what a museum can be in the twenty first centur

Putting It Into Words: The Impact of Visual Impairment on Perception, Experience and Presence

The experience of being “present” in a mediated environment, such that it appears real, is known to be affected by deficits in perception yet little research has been devoted to disabled audiences. People with a visual impairment access audiovisual media by means of Audio Description, which gives visual information in verbal form. The AD user plays an active role, engaging their own perceptual processing systems and bringing real-world experiences to the mediated environment. In exploring visual impairment and presence, this thesis concerns a question fundamental to psychology, whether propositional and experiential knowledge equate. It casts doubt on current models of sensory compensation in the blind and puts forward an alternative hypothesis of linguistic compensation. Qualitative evidence from Study 1 suggests that, in the absence of bimodal (audio-visual) cues, words can compensate for missing visual information. The role of vision in multisensory integration is explored experimentally in Studies 2 and 3. Crossmodal associations arising both from direct perception and imagery are shown to be altered by visual experience. Study 4 tests presence in an auditory environment. Non-verbal sound is shown to enhance presence in the sighted but not the blind. Both Studies 3 and 4 support neuroimaging evidence that words are processed differently in the absence of sight. Study 5, comparing mental spatial models, suggests this is explained by explicit verbal encoding by people with a visual impairment. Study 6 tests the effect of words on presence and emotion elicitation in an audiovisual environment. In the absence of coherent information from the dialogue, additional verbal information significantly improves understanding. Moreover, in certain circumstances, Audio Description significantly enhances presence and successfully elicits a target emotion. A model of Audio Description is presented. Implications are discussed for theoretical models of perceptual processing and presence in those with and without sight

Vividness, Consciousness, and Mental Imagery

Today in many studies, mental images are still either treated as conscious by definition, or as empirical operations implicit to completing some type of task, such as the measurement of reaction time in mental rotation, an underlying mental image is assumed, but there is no direct determination of whether it is conscious or not. The vividness of mental images is a potentially helpful construct which may be suitable, as it may correspond to consciousness or aspects of the consciousness of images. In this context, a complicating factor seems to be the surprising variety in what is meant by the term vividness or how it is used or theorized. To fill some of the gaps, the goal of the present Special Issue is to create a publication outlet where authors can fully explore through sound research the missing theoretical and empirical links between vividness, consciousness and mental imagery across disciplines, neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, cognitive science, to mention the most obvious ones, as well as transdisciplinary methodological (single, combined, or multiple) approaches

"From mimism to music in the child" : an oral-style contextual reading of the primary learning theory of Marcel Jousse with special reference to Rudolf Laban.

Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, 1995.In the essay, "From Mimism to Music in the Child" (1935), Jousse, the French linguistic anthropologist, * describes the process whereby instinctive learning takes place and develops into cognitive motor skills in the Child; * traces the connections between the stages of learning and the skills acquired by the Child. These skills include gestural mimic imitation, drawing, listening, speaking, and musical expression; * makes specific recommendations about the process of teaching the Child; * relates the stages in the early learning processes in the Child to the development globally and universally of the anthropos; * demonstrates the relationship between Man and his fellows, both as individuals and as expression of cultural distinction, and between Man and the universe; * comments on the distinction between human and animal learning capacities; * explains the roles of key features in human expression; *explains aspects of cultural and linguistic change; * comments on cultural and linguistic change. In this research-essay, I am * attempting to clarify, in various degrees, all of the above: the learning issues receive more attention than do the rest; * attempting to identify the similarities and differences between the thinking and views on learning of Jousse with those particularly of Rudolf Laban, and incidentally of Montessori and Lenneberg; * demonstrating an 'Oral-Style text'. The Introduction to this research-essay summarises the thinking of Jousse and Laban. The Body of the study: * provides biographical information about Jousse and Laban; * explains the difficulties and problems encountered with the text of the essay "From Mimism to Music in the Child"; * comments on the nature and operation of Oral-Style texts and their cognitive and affective influence upon the reader; * contextualises and interprets the text of the essay, "From Mimism and Music in the Child". The Conclusion adds comments, and suggests areas for further study and investigation

The use of poetry in remediation

This dissertation presents an evaluation of a new method of teaching reading by means of a handbook for teachers and a workbook for children who have not learnt reading after being taught by the traditional methods in the classroom. The method uses poetry, mainly in doggerel and limerick form, assembled into a sequential and meaningful reading/spelling programme which, together with reference to phonics workbooks and reading books, trains the beginner reader up to the level of reading literacy. Research on the literature available shows that poetry has not yet been used as a total remedial programme. The efficacy of the need for remediation is examined, and remediation methods analysed for what they should include. Other avenues of remediation are explored, such as the gross and fine motor and perceptual schools of thought, and the language and auditory orientation to remediation, into which the Poetry Method neatly fits. Psychological theories - such as the behaviourist operative reward systems and the ideas of phenomenologists such as Rogers - that total healing can come about through renewed motivation and growth in self-esteem, are shown to be included in the Poetry Method