Skills needed for teaching hearing-impaired adolescents. The perceptions of teachers.

To date, very little research has focused on the preparation of teachers who work with hearing-impaired adolescents. In this study, a survey was developed to glean information on what secondary level teachers judge to be the essential competencies for working with hearing-impaired adolescents. In addition, the questionnaire asked teachers to indicate the degree of training they had received in the competency areas. The surveys were returned by 487 teachers. They indicated that 18 competencies should be considered essential for teaching adolescent students. For 15 of those 18 competencies, however, they indicated that there was a significant difference between the importance of the competency and the degree of training that they had received in the area. Implications for teacher preparation programs and state certification agencies are discussed.