Nonverbal ability and hearing impaired

Research concerning the relationship of nonverbal ability measures recommended for hearing impaired (HI) students and learning potential is reviewed. Earlier studies indicate that nonverbal measures can be used to predict academic achievement, while the more recent studies urge caution or suggest questionable predictability when interpreting the data. Recommendations for interpreting and communicating the nonverbal ability results are included.     

An investigation of perfectionism,mental health,achievement, and achievement motivation in adolescents

This study examined the relationship of perfectionism with measures of achievement and achievement motivation and mental health aspects of depression and self‐esteem in high school students. Participants were 123 tenth‐ through twelfth‐grade students. Results of multiple regression analyses indicated that students' personal standards were significant predictors of academic achievement. Students' personal standards also significantly predicted achievement motivation. Analyses of the relationship between perfectionism and depression and self‐esteem found that as students' personal standards increased, their levels of depression decreased and self‐esteem increased. Furthermore, when students experienced a discrepancy between their personal standards and actual performance, their depression levels increased and self‐esteem decreased. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Mathematics education in Lebanon: gender differences in attitudes and achievement

The purpose of this study was to investigate gender differences in students’ mathematics achievement and in their attitudes toward mathematics. Another purpose was to examine mathematics teachers’ beliefs and their perceptions of their male and female students’ ability. The sample consisted of 692 students (353 girls, 339 boys) between the ages of 12 and 16 years, enrolled in grades 7–9 at four private schools in Lebanon. Data were collected using the Attitudes Toward Mathematics (ATM) scale (Aiken in Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 5, 67–71, 1974), school records, and interviews with teachers. Results showed no significant gender differences in either achievement or attitudes toward mathematics, thus dispelling the common belief that female students in traditional cultures do not perform well in mathematics and dislike the field. A main effect for grade level was found with ninth graders significantly outperforming their younger counterparts. Also, teachers viewed mathematics as a male domain and attributed boys’ success to ability and girls’ success to effort. They also interacted with boys more frequently regardless of the nature of the exchange. Implications for future research and for instructional practice are overviewed.     

Initiations of social interactions by young hearing impaired preschoolers

This study examined strategies for initiating social interactions with peers, among 4 children with hearing impairment, aged 33 to 36 months, attending a special early education center or a regular kindergarten. The study investigated initiation type (related to partner's hearing status) and rates of initiation success/failure vis-a-vis hearing and deaf partners. Results revealed (a) more initiations in the regular program than in the special program; (b) in the special program, much more successful initiations toward children with hearing impairment than toward hearing children; (c) vocalization as the most frequent strategy used with both hearing and hearing-impaired partners; and (d) referential decisions about their initiations even among young children with hearing impairment (made by changing frequencies of various strategies according to partner's hearing status). The discussion addressed implications regarding integration of children with hearing impairment into regular educational settings.     

Mathematics textbooks, opportunity to learn and student achievement

Opportunity to learn is considered an important contributing factor in learning outcomes. In some of the latest international comparative studies of mathematics achievement, such as SIMS and TIMSS, painstaking efforts have been made to find out what the participating students' opportunities to learn mathematics had been. However, there have been problems with relating the findings to student outcomes. This article approaches opportunity to learn in three different ways. Among these approaches, an item-based analysis of textbook contents resulted in fairly high correlations with student performance at the item level in TIMSS 1999. This implies that even a quite simple analysis of textbooks can produce valuable information when looking for explanations for student achievement in mathematics.     

Inferencing skills of adolescent readers who are hearing impaired

Two experiments examined the inferencing abilities of a group of adolescents who were hearing impaired compared with a group of hearing children matched approximately for chronological age. The first experiment used on‐line methods and suggests that pupils who are hearing impaired are less efficient at drawing inferences. When they do so correctly, they draw inferences automatically as the text is encountered in a similar manner to the hearing pupils. In the second experiment, the same material was presented to the hearing‐impaired adolescents in British Sign Language. However, from the results obtained, it is not possible to comment on how the information is processed when it is presented manually, and suggestions are made on ways this might be further investigated. It is suggested that the difficulties encountered by the students who are hearing impaired, when reading implicit material, reflect the relative impoverishment of their experiential backgrounds.     

Counselling in families with a deaf or hearing impaired child

Sveriges Dövas Riksförbund (SDR), i.e. Swedish National Association of the Deaf, in co-operation with the Department of Psychology, University of Stockholm, carried out and evaluated a research program concerning supportive interventions in group with therapeutic direction for hearing parents of deaf and hearing impaired children. The program which was based on a pilot study (Backenroth, 1976) demonstrating an actual need for a psychological supportive program focusing on the parents, was carried out between 1976 and 1979 in different parts of Sweden: Boden, Gävle, Göteborg, Lund, Malmö and Stockholm. Altogether 76 parents constituting eleven groups participated in the program which was financed by Delegationen för Social Forskning, i.e. the Delegation for Social Research.     

Issues in the school-to-work transition of hard of hearing adolescents

Career theorists emphasize the importance of the development of career maturity in adolescents if they are to successfully negotiate the school-to-work transition. Transitions of deaf and hard of hearing adolescents may be especially problematic. The authors examine the implications of current labor market trends for young people, in particular those with hearing loss, and review data on employment outcomes for deaf and hard of hearing people. They discuss the environmental and attitudinal barriers that can influence the career outcomes of this population, consider the impact of hearing loss on adolescents' career maturity, and review the studies on this topic in the literature. The article focuses on the experiences of students with significant hearing loss who are educated in regular classes with the support of itinerant teachers, who communicate orally, and who may be defined as hard of hearing. Recommendations for research and practice are provided.     

Science self-beliefs and science achievement of adolescents in Gulf Cooperation Council countries

This study explored the predictive effects of science self-beliefs on science achievement for 24,680 13-year-old students from Gulf Cooperation Council member countries – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – who participated in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2007. The performance of adolescent students in Qatar and Saudi Arabia on the TIMSS 2007 science assessment was significantly below the TIMSS scale average. Adolescent students’ science beliefs had both positive and negative predictive effects on science achievement across the Gulf Cooperation Council member countries.     

Academic achievement and self-concepts of Latvian adolescents in a changed social context

Three questions were posed. Would low achieving 13 to 14 year olds in Latvia have followed the predictions derivable from Social Identity Theory and formed a counter-culture or would they display depressed scores on measures of self-evaluation and other aspects of self-concept? With ethnic Russians having been “relatively deprived” vis-a-vis ethnic Latvians since 1989, would these effects be particularly evident in their experience and behaviour? Given that both groups are materially impoverished in comparison with their English peers would this be reflected in their self perceptions and evaluations? While differences associated with differential achievement were found across a wide range of perceptual, evaluative, attitudinal and reported behavioural measures in line with the hypothesis that low achievement is associated with depressed school-valued dispositions and behaviour, neither the relative deprivation of ethnic Russians, nor the lower material resources of both groups showed effects. Suggestions are offered as to the consequences of these results for policy makers and the challenges they present to social psychologists in education.     

Play behavior of hearing impaired children: integrated and segregated settings

The free-play behavior of young hearing impaired children in integrated and segregated settings was compared using a multielement baseline design. Two children, aged 3 and 5, were observed using momentary time sampling of their play as they alternated from one setting to the other. Data were collected in ech setting for various categories of play behavior. The categories were derived from the classic play categories of Parten and Smilansky. Results indicate that the children engaged in more socially advanced play in the integrated setting.