Maternal questions while reading to deaf and hearing twins: a case study

This study examined the frequency and types of questions that a mother used during storybook reading sessions with her 3-year-old twin daughters. One had normal hearing and one was deaf. Results indicated that the mother asked almost twice as many questions of the hearing twin as she did of the deaf twin. The types of questions asked also varied. With the hearing twin, the mother primarily asked conventional test questions. While questions asked the deaf twin appeared to serve the same function as conventional test questions, they were asked in a form not examined in previous research. Differential changes in questions asked the twins across three reading sessions also were noted. Implications for the quality of language during book reading with young deaf children are discussed.     

Maternal interactional behavior with nonorganic failure-to-thrive infants: a case comparison study

Mothers of 47 6-month-old infants with early histories of nonorganic failure to thrive (NOFT) infants and a matched comparison group of physically healthy infants were observed in interactions with their infants in their homes one month following hospitalization. Mothers of NOFT infants were observed to have less adaptive social interactional behavior, less positive affective behavior, and demonstrated more arbitrary termination of feedings. No group differences were found in flexibility or sensitivity of maternal feeding, or in environmental circumstances such as number of persons present, noise level, or level of activity. These salient deficiencies in maternal interactional behavior may continue to disrupt the NOFT child's physical growth and psychological development following initial diagnosis and hospitalization. Additional studies are needed to identify patterns of maternal interactional behavior which influence psychological prognosis and to assess the responsiveness of maternal interactional behavior to intervention.     

Learning process, strategies and web-based concordancers: a case study

The recent widespread use of web‐based concordancers seems to provide a promising mode for language teaching and learning, especially in the English as a foreign language (EFL) setting, because through concordancers students can easily gain exposure to a huge number of authentic and sorted language examples. This paper describes a case study of the learning process and strategies used by three Taiwanese college students in the concordancer setting. A web‐based concordancer was used to assist the participants while undertaking a proofreading activity. Think‐aloud protocol was used to collect their data. The results showed that the following four factors have influenced learners’ learning process and strategies in use: (1) prior knowledge, (2) cognitive skills, (3) teacher intervention and (4) concordancer skills.     

Attention interchanges at story-time: a case study from a deaf and hearing twin pair acquiring Swedish sign language in their deaf family

This case study longitudinally analyzes and describes the changes of attentional expressions in interchanges between a pair of fraternal twins, 1 deaf and 1 hearing, from the age of 10-40 months, and their Deaf family members. The video-observed attentional expressions of initiating and reestablishing interchange were grouped in 5 functional categories: "getting," "directing," "maintaining," "redirecting," and "checking" attention. Changes appear to be associated with development during the twins' ages of 10-13, 15-24, and 28-40 months, including the use of vision in communication. Although there are similarities in the changes of each twin's communicative initiations, there are also differences based on hearing status, personality, and use of modality. This is evident in the ways in which each twin's individual attention interchanges unfold over time; it is also connected with the parents' negotiating attention and arranging "seating positions" with them. Implications and findings for special educational purposes are discussed.     

Metacognitive strategies applied during correcting text-related answers of three students with hearing loss

The purpose of this paper is to describe the metacognitive strategies applied during the controlling–correcting activities of three hearing-impaired youths' written answers to text-related questions. The data have been derived from a pilot action research effort. The research journal, students' portfolios, archival information, interviews, surveys and the videotaped data of this action research effort have been compiled based on the cyclical actions and analysed inductively. The metacognitive strategies the instructor applied seemed to create a supportive environment for the students to contribute to the activity, utilising some of their metacognitive strategies and skills. However, it is suggested that for their internalisation of those metacognitive strategies, they would need more practice and various experiences in meaningful learning environments.     

Metacognitive ability from a theory-of-mind perspective: a cross-cultural study of students with and without hearing loss

Theory of Mind (see, e.g., Bartsch & Estes, 1996) is a concept that can help educators understand how students think about their state of mind and that of others involved in various life situations. To examine the impact of culture and the impact of hearing loss on metacognition as explained by Theory of Mind, two samples of students with and without hearing losses who were from two different cultures were compared on their ability to choose pictures representing their perspectives on specific life situations. The two groups did not differ in their metacognitive interpretations of the experiences when they were from the same culture, although students from different cultures did differ, indicating that culture may have a greater impact on metacognition as explained by Theory of Mind than hearing loss. Data collected in the present study affirmed previous research showing that students with hearing losses could make metacognitive decisions about life situations just as ably as their hearing peers from the same culture.     

没钱如何办好学校——A学院发展战略案例研究

没钱如何办好学校,这也许是绝大多数中国高校校长最关心的问题。对A学院的案例研究表明,该校1997年至2003年发展的基本经验可概括为以下三条:(1)以规模效益为核心的学校发展战略;(2)在全校范围内强调经营意识与成本意识;(3)积极与地方政府合作,建立高校与地方之间的良性共生关系。该案例研究还表明,从组织管理理论的角度看,变化的社会环境与高校应变能力之间的不对称性问题,规模发展与质量控制问题,组织发展的阶段性与相应组织管理改革问题,建立适合创新型高校生存与发展的公共治理环境问题等,是当前中国地方普通高校和民办高校共同面临的问题。     

Recent policy,the numbers game and the schooling of the hearing impaired: a study of one teacher's career

ABSTRACT

This paper describes and analyses the fate of an educational innovation, namely the mainstreaming of hearing impaired children into a primary school. Set in the context of recent State policy, it is a critical case study of a ‘caring’ organization staffed by ‘professionals’ engaged in work upon children with special needs. The data presented are derived from ethnographic interview with a specially qualified teacher of the hearing impaired. Primarily, it explores the teacher's interaction with her male headteacher, from her perspective. Conflict developed between the two around the meaning of integration, and the use of the hearing impaired children as a resource to preserve the school, at a time of threatened closure. Eventually, there was a polarized antipathy between teacher and head; and a consequent teacher career failure and head career success, resulting in the ultimate resignation of the teacher. As such, the paper is a critique of the socially oppressive schooling of those children deemed to have special needs.     

Social engagement, attention and competence of preschoolers with hearing loss

The social engagement, social attention skills and social competence of 10 hearing preschoolers and 10 preschoolers with hearing loss were investigated during free play in inclusive oral kindergarten settings using a three-level hierarchical model. When comparing the types of opportunities, at the first level, the children with hearing loss created significantly fewer opportunities through visual regard and interaction. At the second level, for social attention skills, this group scored significantly higher on distractibility, and significantly lower on alert, sustained and focused attention. For the third level, social competence, no statistically significant differences were found between the two groups. Discriminant Function Analysis showed that the function that discriminated maximally between the two groups of participants was composed only of amount of interaction at Level 1. Children scoring highly on this function were also more likely to have the ability to focus their attention and manage divided attention, to be reciprocal, and to demonstrate mutuality and problem-solving skills with peers.     

Academic engagement in students with a hearing loss in distance education

This investigation compared 267 students with a hearing loss and 178 students with no declared form of disability who were taking courses by distance learning in terms of their scores on an abbreviated version of the Academic Engagement Form. Students with a hearing loss obtained lower scores than students with no disability with regard to communication with other students, but some felt that communication was easier than in a traditional academic situation. Students who were postvocationally deaf had lower scores than students with no disability on learning from other students, but they obtained higher scores on student autonomy and student control. In general, the impact of a hearing loss on engagement in distance education is relatively slight.     

Initiating self-assessment strategies in novice physiotherapy students: a method case study

Student self- and peer-assessment strategies ideally are instigated early in programmes for health professionals. This study presents an innovative method of stimulating critical evaluation of clinical skills learned in the practical class setting for first year physiotherapy students. Twice in the semester (beginning and end) students assessed mock clinical demonstrations using examples of two widely discrepant approaches to evaluation of clinical skills: (1) a detailed analytical rubric of listed criteria and (2) a broad holistic, competency-based proforma. Anonymously, 67 students rated the usefulness of the activity to learning. They provided estimates of individual self-efficacy to make fair and reliable judgements in grading the demonstrations using the rubric and proforma and contemporaneous levels of personal stress with the perceived stress scale_10. Students reported that the activities aided their learning of course work on both occasions. By the end of semester the change in students’ self-efficacy to grade the demonstrations with the proforma was significantly greater than that for the rubric. The changes flag a deep understanding of the analytic and holistic methods used by class examiners and future clinical educators. Practical experience with assessing clinical performances enhanced student familiarity with the practical assessment and was associated with a reduction in pre-examination personal stress levels.     

听障儿童鼻音功能低下矫治个案研究

为探讨鼻音功能低下患儿鼻腔共鸣障碍的矫治训练的有效方法。实验对一名鼻音功能低下的听障儿童进行鼻腔共鸣障碍矫治训练,采用捏鼻试验监测患儿鼻音功能并且采用单一被试法对鼻腔共鸣障碍矫治前后的鼻流量数据进行统计分析,以监测训练效果。经矫治后患儿捏鼻试验发鼻音时鼻翼两侧有明显振动感,矫治前后鼻流量值差异有显著统计学意义(P<0.01)。鼻腔共鸣法、增加鼻音训练对于鼻音功能低下有很好的疗效。     

Specialized instruction within general education: a case study of one elementary school.

This study examined how classroom teachers in one elementary school approached the problem of designing specialized instruction for students with reading problems. We asked 12 teachers to rate their confidence in designing effective interventions and then to diagnose a student's reading problem, select an intervention, and implement it. Teachers were moderately confident about their ability to design effective interventions; but some teachers expressed doubts about how to proceed. Their approach to intervention differed somewhat from that of special education resource teachers. Some teachers experienced considerable difficulty in implementing the interventions they selected.     

Stress and coping in hearing mothers of children with hearing loss: factors affecting mother and child adjustment

The present study examines maternal and child adjustment as a result of the application of a stress and coping model (Folkman, Schaefer, & Lazarus 1979) to factors associated with having a school-aged child with a hearing loss. Thirty-six hearing mothers of children with hearing loss participated in the study. Information was gathered through parent and teacher questionnaires and home interviews and observations. Results indicated that (a) social support emerged as an important predictor of maternal adjustment as well as a buffer between current life stress and maternal adjustment, and (b) maternal problem-solving skill emerged as a significant predictor of child adjustment and as a mediating factor between child's age and teacher rating of child adjustment. The discussion focuses on possible explanations for these findings, the utility of a competency-based rather than psychopathology-based perspective in understanding parent and child outcomes, and implications for intervention strategies.     

Recovering lost histories of educational design: a case study in contemporary participatory strategies

Past practices shape and limit the design imagination of teachers, pupils, parents, governors, and others concerned with designing modern schools. Bringing histories of education to the table in the participatory design process of new school buildings and curricula is necessary. Schools having an extraordinary past have the potential to draw from that prefigurative practice. This paper reports a case study on how the Kees Boeke School in The Netherlands recently has returned to its own history in addressing the needs of its current and future learners in a redesign project. Through addressing the question of how the redesign might reflect a reconnection with the original vision of education espoused by Boeke—learning in relative freedom, with awareness of responsibilities for own and community’s well-being—the school management, architects, teachers, and students took part in a participatory design process. That process and the resulting school design is discussed. From this case study we argue that past adventures in education can inspire current redesign. Past experiences as well as concerns and beliefs about the future are an inevitable influence on initiatives to realise schools for the future, both for schools with experimental and those with traditional histories.     

Seeing, hearing, and doing: a developmental study of memory for actions

The ability to recall and organize actions was studied in children from 5 to 11 years in age. 8 different auditory or visual commands were successively presented for 10 trials in each modality in a free-recall task. Younger children performed fewer commands but recalled relatively more recent ones, and they showed the same degree of subjective organization and the same degree and structure of hierarchical clustering as the older children. The hierarchical structure was independent of recall, age, and modality, with the motor actions being organized by the locus of the object or instrument of the verb in the command. The difficulty of the commands was highly correlated with uncertainty of the locus of the action, that is, the number of possible arguments (objects or instruments) a verb could assume, as measured by a subsidiary experiment on 8-year-olds who were asked to name as many parts of the body upon or with which one could perform each action. Developmental differences in recall appear to rise because of primary organization (retrieval) and rehearsal strategies rather than secondary organization.