Contours of Inclusion: Inclusive Arts Teaching and Learning

The purpose of this publication is to share models and case examples of the process of inclusive arts curriculum design and evaluation. The first section explains the conceptual and curriculum frameworks that were used in the analysis and generation of the featured case studies (i.e. Understanding by Design, Differentiated Instruction, and Universal Design for Learning). Data for the cases studies was collected from three urban sites (i.e. Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Boston) and included participant observations, student and teacher interviews, curriculum documentation, digital documentation of student learning, and transcripts from discussion forum and teleconference discussions from a professional learning community.The initial case studies by Glass and Barnum use the curricular frameworks to analyze and understand what inclusive practices look like in two case studies of arts-in-education programs that included students with disabilities. The second set of precedent case studies by Kronenberg and Blair, and Jenkins and Agois Hurel uses the frameworks to explain their process of including students by providing flexible arts learning options to support student learning of content standards. Both sets of case studies illuminate curricular design decisions and instructional strategies that supported the active engagement and learning of students with disabilities in educational settings shared with their peers. The second set of cases also illustrate the reflective process of using frameworks like Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to guide curricular design, responsive instructional differentiation, and the use of the arts as a rich, meaningful, and engaging option to support learning. Appended are curriculum design and evaluation tools. (Individual chapters contain references.

THE EFFICACY OF THE DESIGNED INTERVENTION LEARNING MATERIALS FOR IMPROVING ENGLISH LANGUAGE COMPREHENSION ABILITY TO STUDENTS WITH HEARING IMPAIRMENT IN SELECTED TANZANIA INCLUSIVE SECONDARY SCHOOLS

This study embarked on intervention research to establish the efficacy of the developed intervention learning materials in improving language comprehension ability among students with hearing impairment in inclusive classrooms in secondary schools in Tanzania. The study adopted a developmental design using pre-test, post-test quasi-experimental mixed approach in which the experimental group was subjected for intervention using designed intervention materials while the control group used a traditional approach in learning comprehension. The study employed questionnaires, interviews and documentary review as methods of data collection. The quantitative evaluation employed paired sample t-test and independent t-test to compare scores within the group and between the experimental and control groups. The qualitative evaluation used a phenomenographic approach. The findings revealed that the post-test mean scores of the students in the experimental group improved significantly in comparison with the control group.  Article visualizations

TEACHING STRATEGIES TO TEACH HEARING-IMPAIRED STUDENTS AT SPECIAL EDUCATION SCHOOL IN SARAWAK, MALAYSIA

Whatever teaching strategies adopted by the teacher, it has to be the one best suited for a specific target group of students, even if it will be a tall order for hearing-impaired students who have language and communication problems. With different hearing-impaired student abilities, the teacher is very much challenged and must be equipped with skills in order to successfully teach and accommodate the needs of all the students. A qualitative study was done in a special education school in Sarawak, Malaysia. Five teachers participated in the structured interview to answer the three objectives of this study. The objectives are to identify the teaching strategies used to teach hearing-impaired students, to determine the reasons for the choice of teaching strategies used to teach hearing-impaired students and to identify challenges in teaching hearing-impaired students. The study shows that there is lack of communication competence among students and also a lack of teaching competency to teach hearing-impaired students by the teachers. The teachers also expressed their worries about the social, academic, and emotional challenges that the students face

The Development and Evaluation of the Hearing Intervention Battery in Arabic (HIBA) for Auditory Perception in Children with Cochlear Implants

The Hearing Intervention Battery in Arabic (HIBA), is a multi-modal auditory training intervention, that was developed based on the recommendations from our published systematic review of the literature on the effectiveness of auditory training (AT) for children with cochlear implants (CIs). HIBA was primarily intended to help improve speech and pitch perception in Arabic-speaking children with CIs. Due to the lack of auditory and speech assessment tools for the Arabic language, the A-CAPT, an Arabic version of the English Chear Auditory Perception Test (CAPT) was developed. The A-CAPT was validated prior its use in this project with 26 children with typical hearing. There was a strong agreement between the test and retest measures and normative data and the critical difference values were calculated which were similar to the British English CAPT. A randomized control trial (RCT) to evaluate the HIBA training programme was conducted with 14, 5- to 13-year-old Arabic-speaking children with CIs. The control group received art training following step-by-step drawing and face-paint exercises while the HIBA multi-modal training group received games involving communication interactions (DiaPix), speech cue discrimination (Alefbata.com), and pitch discrimination (musical discrimination using a keyboard). All tasks were interactive and designed to be completed by the children together with their parents or caregivers. There was a double baseline measurement, followed by a 4-week intervention period before a post intervention assessment. There was a significant improvement in consonant perception for children who received the HIBA multi-modal training intervention but this was not observed in the active control group. There was some evidence of generalization of learning, as observed by improvements in the non-trained task (phoneme discrimination) for the intervention group but not for controls. It was unclear if one particular element of the HIBA led to these improvements. Parents were actively involved in the multi-modal training group and their feedback indicated that the most preferred part of multi-modal training was the communication interaction tasks using the Diapix. To understand which element of the HIBA led to improvements in speech perception and whether the duration of training and sample size masked any gains, a trial forward in a larger scale should be conducted. In addition, to improve the quality of evidence of the study, collaboration is need to achieve a double blinded study and minimize bias. Findings of this project may suggest that children with CIs and their parents can benefit from regular and sustained access to age-appropriate auditory training materials and activities. In addition, findings would extend the current understanding of the impact of auditory training on CI outcomes in children and provide inspiration for a more comprehensive rehabilitation scheme for CI users

READ WRITE EASY

This book is the second of two volumes on deaf multiliteracies based on research with deaf children and adults in India, Uganda and Ghana. Multiliteracies include not only reading and writing but also skills in sign language, drawing, acting, digitally mediated communication, and other modes. The book covers a variety of themes including learner engagement, classroom practice, capacity building, and education systems. Authors discuss aspects of learning such as the sequencing of different multiliteracies skills in the classroom, a gamified approach to English grammar, a sign-bilingual online environment, and the influence of visual materials on learners' participation. Capacity building with young deaf professionals and a comparative discussion of deaf education systems in three countries also feature in the volume. The book is of interest to both researchers and practitioners. In addition to four research chapters, it features four 'innovation sketches'. These are reports of innovative practices that have arisen in the context of the research, and they are particularly relevant for practitioners with an interest in methodologies