Deaf Education – “Join Together” Yr 1 Annual Report

Project Objective 2.2 - Content Best Practices Competence of Preservice Teachers

Topical Team Leaders (TTL):

  • Susan Easterbrooks/Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA
  • Brenda Simmons/University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN

Topical Team Experts (TTE):

  • Harry Lang/Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY
  • Gay Su Pinnell/Ohio State University, Columbus, OH

Topical Team Members (TTM):

  • Pat Chrosniak/Canisius College, Buffalo, NY
  • Elaine Gale/Hunter College, New York, NY
  • Len Roberson/University of North Florida, Jacksonville, FL
  • Dave Smith/California State University-Fresno, Fresno, CA
  • Marcia Virts/McDaniel College, Westminster, MD
  • Kathleena Whitesell/Lenoir-Rhyne College, Hickory, NC

Objective

Description: Using action research and the VPDS network, preservice teachers identify the content best practices (standards-based content resources and content-specific strategies) that have been empirically documented to increase student academic achievement, resulting in the integration of these into d/hh teacher preparation programs and their demonstration by d/hh preservice teachers.

Overall Outcome: Research supporting increased academic achievement as a result of using the most effective standards-based content resources and content-specific strategies for teaching academic content to PK-12 students who are d/hh, improving d/hh teacher preparation program designs and increasing d/hh preservice teachers’ ability to demonstrate content best practices competence.

Year 1 Activities: Conduct a needs assessment of the content best practices (standards-based content resources and content-specific strategies) that have been empirically demonstrated to increase student academic (i.e., literacy, mathematics and science) achievement for all PK-12 students.

Outcome: Baseline empirical data.

A. Progress-during year one of the grant, objective 2.2 TTL focused their work

on:

  • developing a working knowledge of the grant ‘s design, goals, objectives, activities, evaluation protocols and technologies (Conceptual Understanding)
  • identifying, inviting and directing the work of the TTE and TTM to accomplish the year one activities for this objective (Team Membership)
  • conducting a Web site and literature review concerning the content specific (i.e., science, mathematics and literacy) instructional strategies that are needed to enhance the academic performance of PK-12 students who are d/hh (Literature Review)
  • began an investigation of the state-by-state, academic standards for PK-12 science, mathematics and literacy (Academic Standards)
  • discussing the development of a survey instrument that will be used to gather information concerning the use of content specific (i.e., science, mathematics and literacy) instructional strategies by (1) deaf education teacher preparation program faculty (2) Master Teachers and (3) individuals preparing to become teachers of students who are d/hh (Baseline Data)

B. Examples of Accomplishments-during year one of the grant, objective 2.2

TTL accomplished the following:

  • Conceptual Understanding -developed a growing understanding of their grant responsibilities, opportunities, resources and technologies
  • Team Membership -expanded team membership to include two TTE and six TTM
  • Academic Standards

academic standards that have been endorsed by nationally recognized professional organizations have been identified (e.g., National Council of Teachers of Mathematics):

Content Standards

Number and Operations

Algebra

Geometry

Measurement

Data Analysis andProbability

Process Standards

Problem Solving

Reasoning and Proof

Connections

Representations

The content specific, PK-12, academic standards have been identified for 30 states:

academic standards for additional states will be added in year two of the grant

resulting matrix of content specific, PK-12, academic standards is now being examined to determine those standards that are:

shared across the nation

shared by groups of states

shared by single states

resulting information will be used to guide both the search and sharing of standards based, content specific, PK-12 instructional strategies (e.g., emphasis will first be placed on those instructional strategies that address the most common academic standards)

  • Literature Review

review is now in its final stages of completion

review has been designed to identify empirically supported “best practices” in both general and deaf education for the technologically enhanced instruction of literacy, mathematics and science (e.g., literacy):

General Education

phonemic awareness

phonics

vocabulary comprehension

fluency

motivation

Deaf Education

visual fluency

visual decoding andencoding (e.g., use of cued speech andvisual phonics)

code-switching (i.e., dealing with dual languages)

balanced literacy (as described in on the Laurent Clerc Website)

The resulting information is being used to verify the informational matrix found on the Laurent Clerc Website ( of those instructional strategies that should be used vs. those that should be avoided in the education of students that are d/hh, e.g.,

Increase: reading aloud to students and time for independent reading

Decrease: exclusive stress on whole class or reading group activities

  • Baseline Data - knowledge gained from the Academic Standards and Literature Review work is guiding the development of a survey instrument that will be used with (1) deaf education teacher preparation program faculty (2) Master Teachers and (3) individuals preparing to become teachers of students who are d/hh. The survey instrument is to document their knowledge and use of the empirically supported, standards dictated, content specific PK-12 instructional strategies.

C. Project Performance on Established Program Performance Indicators/Measures-the year one performance indicators for this objective called for “Knowledge base developed re: effective content-specific strategies and standards-based content resources”. The year one activities for this objective called for “…a needs assessment of the content best practices (standards-based content resources and content-specific strategies) that have been empirically demonstrated to increase student academic (i.e., literacy, mathematics and science) achievement for all PK-12 students" to be conducted.

The “knowledge base” (Literature and Academic Standards Reviews) for this objective is near completion. The “needs assessment” (Baseline Data) is still in the design stage. That design will be completed and the needs assessment will be implemented during the fall 2004 semester.

D. Reason Planned Performance Indicators/Measures Were Not Attained -there were three basic reasons why the performance indicators and activities for this objective were not fully achieved. First, there were two changes in the TTL for the objective. One individual changed to a different grant objective and one individual found the tasks to be outside of their professional expertise. Throughout these changes, one of the original TTL for this objective has worked exceedingly hard to maintain both momentum and focus. Second, several of the TTM for this objective were unable to meet the established time line for their component of the activity. The third and final reason is both the daunting amount of knowledge that this objective was designed to accomplish and the relative paucity of college level, deaf education professionals who have focused their scholarship on science or mathematics instruction. As a result, there were few individuals to recruit to work on this very large and extremely important grant objective.

E. Corrective Action to Address Any Problems-the corrective actions to be

taken in year two of the grant include:

  • TTL and TTM

a solid and consistent team of TTL has been established for this objective

search for additional TTM for this objective will be expanded to include not only a larger array of deaf education college faculty (e.g., an expanding list of faculty that teach method courses), but also the growing number of Master Teachers that have/are being identified through the grant activities

  • Knowledge Base
  • Academic Standards - content specific standards for the remaining 20 states will be identified via use of the netTrekker on-line database system
  • Literature Review

complete the literature review

explore, in collaboration with the grant Co-Directors and other TTL, the use of Web-based documents and strategies that use the language and interest of deaf education colleagues to organize and access the knowledge generated by this objective

use the resulting knowledge base to guide the design, implementation and analysis of baseline data concerning the use of assessment strategies within PK-20 deaf education

  • Baseline Data

complete the design of the needs assessment survey document and protocol

implement the survey, analyze and use the results to guide year two activities.

F. Year Two Work- federal “No Child Left Behind”legislation mandates that grade equivalent, standards based science, mathematics and literacy content must be provided for ALL K-12 students. This new reality poses a substantial challenge to most deaf education professionals. This challenge is rooted in the belief that students who are d/hh must first develop adequate language and then use that language to learn academic content. This belief is in contrast to the position that students can best learn language via engaging, “hands/minds on” science, mathematics and literacy learning experiences. Unfortunately, while there is a great deal of literature to support the “hands/minds on” approach, there are not a great many PK-12 deaf education colleagues who consistently and effectively incorporate this approach into their teaching. Therefore, to move from the exception to the rule, PK-20 science, mathematics and literacy “best practices” must be identified, understood and shared. As a result, yeartwo activities for this objective will focus upon:

  • carrying out the corrective actions outlined in section “E” for this objective
  • establishing a growing cadre of TTE and TTM who are working to carryout the activities for this objective
  • Working with the literacy specialist at a school for the deaf to develop fourPowerPoint presentations with video clips to demonstrate some of the concepts around which there is very little information but which we know are key. These include:

visual fluency

visualization

incorporation of finger spelling

comprehension through conceptual accuracy

  • designing, implementing, evaluating and refining a growing array of face-to-face and distance education professional development strategies and collaborative opportunities for deaf education teacher preparation program faculty and Master Teachers that effectively and efficiently:

share what was learned during year one

demonstrate and facilitate, with technical support form the Objective 1.1 Topical Team, the use of Web-basedvideoconferencing technologies (WBVCT) that provide effective and efficient:

collaborative opportunities for deaf education faculty, their teacher candidates, Master Teachers and PK-12 teachers

systems that can be used by faculty, Master Teachers and preservice teachers of students who are d/hh to capture, research, share, model and rehearse technologically enhanced science, mathematics and literacy best practices that have the established potential to document the academic performance of PK-12 students who are d/hh

in preparation for year three, begin informally to explore strategies that can be used by deaf education teacher preparation program faculty and their PK-12 colleagues to document teacher candidates’ use of targeted, technologically enhanced, science, mathematics and literacy best practices during their instruction of literacy, mathematics and/or science within their field based placements (i.e., practicum, student teaching, internships, etc.)

collaborate with TTLs for 2.1, 2.3 and 2.4 in conjunction with the grant Co-Directors and Co-Evaluators in the discussion, search and possible pilot solutions to the lack of empirical evidence concerning the academic performance of students who are d/hh