Paraprofessio ionals ls supportin ing deaf students in in the - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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
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Rachel Locker McKee Rachel Locker McKee
working with with ith ‘High igh/Very High Needs ery High Needs’ deaf deaf
Roles & responsibilities Profile and practices Impacts on learners
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)
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)
education
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?
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
1.
Tutor, teach, supervise academic work
2.
Social support - manage behaviour, advocate, friend, facilitate peer interaction
3.
Sign language interpreting
4.
Orally ‘interpret’/ re-explain instructions
5.
Adapt lessons & resources, clerical assistance
6.
IEP involvement – report progress, discuss goals
7.
Note-taking
8.
Hearing aid/equipment management
9.
Liaise with parents, and other staff re. student
10.
Speech & auditory training practice
11.
Work with other children as directed
12.
Teach signs to children & staff in school
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.
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
(about his view of TA role with signing deaf students)
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)
NZSL Interpreting skills Strategies for teaching deaf
Speech and auditory training
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
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)
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
Conflicting task demands on
student’s visual attention - listen + look,
listen + read, listen + write/draw, listen + action
Research on classroom interpreting finds serious problems with
competence
Evidence that deaf students understand & learn less through interpreted instruction than their hearing peers.
interaction?
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)
Extensive reliance on untrained TAs to modify mainstream learning contexts for deaf students with high linguistic & educational challenges by
is conceptually unsound is under-evaluated in practice & outcomes
Now 5 employed as Deaf Mentor or Deaf
Resource person (previously more)
Position funding ends in 2006
Language model -
transmission of NZSL
Cultural role model
(for child) & cultural advisor (for staff)
Teach Deaf studies Assist class work -
Teach NZSL - staff, H.
students, parents
Home visits - mentor parents & child
‘Keep in Touch’ days - foster Deaf bonds
Support pre-school play groups - early language input
Interpret & translate in mainstream class
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
“Some TODs and Advisors are reluctant to let students have contact with me. They seem anxious that I might pull them towards the Deaf
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-world
knowledge
“(Deaf TA) was the greatest teacher for me of what was going on, and of Deaf culture and things like that. I think it’s really valuable to have a Deaf person in the classroom” (ITOD)
“I tell parents about
myself as a Deaf adult, and we talk about their
like for a Deaf person in the home, which is new information for parents… After a while they’ll start asking me questions, and I often tell them about my
how I did things”. (DM)
Modelling Deaf- centred teaching strategies:
“It’s wonderful having a Deaf instructor now – because I’m getting a perspective about knowing how to do it from a deaf child’s perspective.” (ITOD)
“Sometimes the ITOD wants to watch me as I work with a deaf child, so I can guide her how to improve the ways she
might show her how to read with the child, using
that when the child reaches a word he doesn’t know, it needs to be fingerspelled so they can link it to the word on the page” (DM)
Affective rapport thru
conversing about experiences
Scaffolding learning
through general knowledge
Attuned to social,
emotional needs
Building language &
communication competence
“Deaf students often tell me: ‘[ToDs] don’t understand because they’re not deaf like
to them the same, they don’t understand me.’ (DM)
Perceptions of work environment
Enjoy autonomy & flexibility of role Good prof devel support, but need deeper training
to confidently meet job demands
Deaf professional supervision, from D cultural
centre, would be empowering
Lack of interpreting limits professional performance &
projection of competent image to others: disempowering communication practices
Inconsistent understandings of their role Mix of ‘inclusive’ and ‘excluding’ practices &
attitudes among deaf ed professionals
A lot of teachers think my
as broader – I want to work with all deaf students Most ITODs & Advisors don’t sign well, although we can ‘get by’. It makes deep communication difficult. The attitudes of hearing professionals vary: 50% have changed their attitude to positive, but the other 50% don’t see deaf mentors as relevant to their hearing impaired/ oral students. There’s still a
Having no interpreter in an IEP meeting is a bad example for parents of deaf children. It would be good for them to see a Deaf person taking a more active role with an interpreter so they understand how this works for their child in the future.
Deaf PPs are inherently agents of change
in deaf ed - bringing different perceptions, ways, values, and ideas about what works for deaf students
They relish this opportunity - but with the
caution of people who do not feel empowered to directly challenge the powerbase of the contexts they work in.
If you see what’s going on out there - it’s a mess. I would say that 5 % of mainstreamed children are successful … At least half are struggling; they don’t get enough support – usually 10-15 hrs a week from ITOD and/or a teacher aide. What about the rest of the week?! It seems to me that all these students are doing is waiting for the next bell... The (deaf unit) teachers don’t have enough NZSL skills.
Under-developed language skills
Partial communication/information access
Hearing-centered teaching approach
Lack of independence - academic and social
Identity confusion - “who am I like?”
adult/female/ hearing/white ≠ child/deaf/non-white
NZ educationalist Ian Evans (2000) argues: “No learners really have special needs – they all have basically the same needs:
learning through engagement with peers and
materials;
communicating to expand the imagination; comprehensible instruction; practice; physical and mental challenges and
achievements”.
Increasing/changing specialist &
Re-designing learning contexts and
The roles and resources of Deaf paraprofessionals
♥
bring value to deaf students (& families):
identity, language, social skills, cultural knowledge
bring ‘insider’ insight about directions for change but
remain marginal to the educational contexts and culture they operate within - issues of
training, deployment, tenure, communication access, role expectations, cultural perspective
contexts they work in do not reflect the bilingual-bicultural, Deaf-centric goals implicit in their role
(Keith Ballard 1999:171) (Keith Ballard 1999:171)
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A senior ITOD stated: A senior ITOD stated:
We currently accept conceptually unsound
We currently accept conceptually unsound practices practices vis vis a a vis vis Teacher Aides as deaf ed Teacher Aides as deaf ed providers - with less than ideal outcomes providers - with less than ideal outcomes for for Deaf people Deaf people
We have the ideas, will, & expertise in NZ to
We have the ideas, will, & expertise in NZ to take a take a ‘ ‘green fields green fields’ ’ approach to changing this approach to changing this situation. situation.
This includes harnessing
This includes harnessing Deaf knowledge Deaf knowledge about deaf learners about deaf learners in our education system in our education system thru power sharing thru power sharing