A look at A look at Paraprofessio ionals ls supportin ing deaf students in in the main instream Rachel Locker McKee Rachel Locker McKee
A research-based discussion of Hearing and Deaf paraprofessionals working with with ith ‘High igh/Very High Needs ery High Needs’ deaf deaf Roles & responsibilities Profile and practices Impacts on learners
Data Teacher Aides (hearing) 128 questionnaire responses 8 interviews + class observation (case studies) Deaf Paraprof’s (Mentors,TAs) 8 interviews 1 participant observed (in case study) Plus - surveys ( & case study interviews) of Mainstream Teachers (N = 178) Parents (N = 126) ITODs (N = 31)
Deaf Ed Strategic Plan 2004-7 Advocates - Access to curriculum supported by adaptations to the communication environment, teaching and learning approaches & curriculum: currently relies significantly on TAs (for very students in mainstream) Recognizes issues in TA skills & conditions Recognizes value of Deaf partners in D. education
Socialization/learning at school requires access to 1. Formal & Informal communication 2. Peer interaction & relationships 3. ‘Unwritten’ curriculum (Stinson & Foster 2000) What part do paraprofessionals play, and what do they say about, deaf students’ access to socialization?
Teacher Aides Are good, hard-working, committed people Often bring or develop relevant skills Make a huge contribution within the current structure Are appreciated and praised by many
TA Roles & responsibilities Tutor, teach, supervise academic work 1. Social support - manage behaviour, advocate, 2. friend, facilitate peer interaction Sign language interpreting 3. Orally ‘interpret’/ re-explain instructions 4. Adapt lessons & resources, clerical assistance 5. IEP involvement – report progress, discuss goals 6. Note-taking 7. Hearing aid/equipment management 8. Liaise with parents, and other staff re. student 9. Speech & auditory training practice 10. Work with other children as directed 11. Teach signs to children & staff in school 12.
Role ‘fit’ with job descriptions 3 out of 129 respondents supplied a job description that mentioned a deaf student and tasks relevant to those they actually perform with a deaf student Majority of job descriptions - generic TA generic Spec.Needs, or mostly, not sighted. Weak task specification ⇒ performance criteria? ⇒ accountability for ed. outcomes?
Level of TA responsibility 80% of class teachers see TA as vital to student communication access & learning Teacher: “I rely on her to interpret and modify just about everything we do in the curriculum” 70% of TAs feel highly responsible for student communication access and learning TA: “ I feel very responsible for the teaching” “He needs somebody (else) who can teach him. The classroom teacher can’t, or doesn’t.”
A Principal’s comment (about his view of TA role with signing deaf students) “…the job that the TAs take on, to a greater extent, is that of an interpreter . To interpret the language and the curriculum… I see the teacher's aide will actually be a teacher for the deaf children ”
TA training specific to job Over half had received NO training specific to working with a deaf student. Training was short in-service courses: 1 day, or <1 week provided mainly by the Deaf Ed Centres or SES Training content: Sign Language & Deaf awareness Note-taking ‘Mainstream Courses’ (generic)
Perceived training needs NZSL Interpreting skills Strategies for teaching deaf students - reading, math, curriculum subjects Speech and auditory training methods These areas reflect wide scope of their functions & skills required, & overlap with specialist roles
Teacher Aides: bridge or filter to learning bridge or filter to learning Deaf students’ experience of the language and content of classroom learning is filtered through the language, knowledge & practices of ( untrained ) Teacher Aides Q: “What information do you expect the TAs to pass on in class?” A: “Just everything. Everything that we discuss, everything that’s said, and they (T.A.s) do too ... so he knows exactly what’s happening and what people are being told. Yeah ... everything that he would normally be expected to hear.” / “I rely on [TA] to interpret and modify for Robert just about everything we do in the curriculum” (another teacher)
TA interpretation - problems: Gaps - omission of content; difficulty conveying various ‘layers’ of talk happening in classroom Incomprehensible or impoverished signing - vocab, grammar, articulation, coherence Changes - to content, style/tone of delivery, nature of the communication (1-to-many 1-to- 1) Physical positioning - inappropriate for optimal inclusion in the communication event Conflicting task demands on student’s visual attention - listen + look, listen + read, listen + write/draw, listen + action
Mediated interaction - equivalent access? Research on classroom interpreting finds serious problems with - comprehensibility - accuracy - interaction dynamics - standards of competence Evidence that deaf students understand & learn less through interpreted instruction than their hearing peers. What about informal interaction?
Ethics? Effectively the service provision model is Least qualified staff providing the greatest amount of direct support to most complex learning challenges . Students without special needs get all their instruction from qualified teachers. (Giangreco & Doyle 2002)
Contention 1 – Teacher Aides Extensive reliance on untrained TAs to modify mainstream learning contexts for deaf students with high linguistic & educational challenges by - mediating classroom communication - adapting and delivering instruction - facilitating socialisation is conceptually unsound is under-evaluated in practice & outcomes
Deaf Paraprofessionals Now 5 employed as Deaf Mentor or Deaf Resource person (previously more) Position funding ends in 2006
Roles & Responsibilities Language model - transmission of NZSL Home visits - mentor Cultural role model parents & child (for child ) & cultural ‘Keep in Touch’ days - advisor (for staff) foster Deaf bonds Teach Deaf studies Support pre-school Assist class work - play groups - early esp. reading, maths language input Teach NZSL - staff, H. Interpret & translate in students, parents mainstream class
Deaf Mentors work with - 6 - 30 students - depends on regional population, & referrals by professionals Ages: pre-school - secondary school Mainly signers; few oral, few CI High proportion with educational disadvantage - limited/remedial language, minority background, + disability Minor contact with parents - would like more
Gatekeeping? “Some TODs and Advisors are reluctant to let students have contact with me. They seem anxious that I might pull them towards the Deaf world. Or they say the family ‘isn’t ready’ to meet a Deaf person – they think I’ll frighten them and that they need to deal with a hearing person. Why would I frighten parents?! I have not yet been introduced to a family of a prospective cochlear implant child. I think that’s wrong - because at the end of the day, the child is still deaf.”
Deaf PP as Cultural resource Deaf-world “ I tell parents about myself as a Deaf adult, knowledge and we talk about their “(Deaf TA) was the child. I talk about what it’s greatest teacher for like for a Deaf person in me of what was the home, which is new information for parents… going on, and of After a while they’ll start Deaf culture and asking me questions, and things like that. I think I often tell them about my it’s really valuable to own experiences and have a Deaf person in how I did things”. (DM) the classroom” (ITOD)
Deaf PP as Teaching Resource Modelling Deaf- “Sometimes the ITOD wants to watch me as I centred teaching work with a deaf child, so I strategies : can guide her how to improve the ways she “It’s wonderful having works. For example, I a Deaf instructor now might show her how to – because I’m getting read with the child, using NZSL. She may not realise a perspective about that when the child knowing how to do it reaches a word he doesn’t know, it needs to be from a deaf child’s fingerspelled so they can perspective .” (ITOD) link it to the word on the page” (DM)
Holistic approach to mentoring Affective rapport thru “Deaf students often conversing about tell me: ‘[ToDs] don’t experiences understand because Scaffolding learning through general they’re not deaf like knowledge you. I can’t really talk Attuned to social, to them the same, emotional needs they don’t understand Building language & me.’ (DM) communication competence
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