Educating Deaf Learners Creating a Global Evidence Base

Education in general, and education for deaf learners in particular, has gone through significant changes over the past three decades. And change certainly will be the buzzword in the foreseeable future. The rapid growth of information and communication technology as well as progress in educational, psychological, and allied research fields have many scholars questioning aspects of traditional school concepts. For example, should the classroom be "flipped" so that students receive instruction online at home and do "homework" in school? At the same time, inclusive education has changed the traditional landscape of special education and thus of deaf education in many if not all countries, and yet deaf children continued to lag significantly behind hearing peers in academic achievement. As a consequence of technological innovations (e.g., digital hearing aids and early bilateral cochlear implants), the needs of many deaf learners have changed considerably. Parents and professionals, however, are just now coming to recognize that there are cognitive, experiential, and social-emotional differences between deaf and hearing students likely to affect academic outcomes. Understanding such differences and determining ways in which to accommodate them through global cooperation must become a top priority in educating deaf learners.

Through the participation of an international, interdisciplinary set of scholars, Educating Deaf Learners takes a broader view of learning and academic achievement than any previous work, considering the whole child. In adopting this broad perspective, the authors capture the complexities and commonalities in the social, emotional, cognitive, and linguistic mosaic of which the deaf child is a part. It is only through such a holistic consideration that we can understand their academic potential.

Harry Knoors, Ph.D., is Professor at the Behavioral Science Institute of the Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands, and Director of the Kentalis Academy at Royal Dutch Kentalis. Knoors is trained as a psycholinguist, specializing in language and literacy of deaf children. He is involved in research on childhood deafness (mainly language, literacy, and psychosocial development) and research on the effectiveness of special education. Knoors is an associate editor of the Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education.

Marc Marschark, Ph.D., is Professor at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, a college of Rochester Institute of Technology, where he directs the Center for Education Research Partnerships. His primary interest is in relations among language, learning, and cognition; current research focuses on such relations among deaf children and adults in formal and informal educational settings. He is Editor of the Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education.

Preface
Contributors

1. Educating Deaf Students in a Global Context
Harry Knoors and Marc Marschark

Part 1. A Changing World for Deaf Learners

2. Being a Deaf Student: Changes in Characteristics and Needs
Sue Archbold

3. When You're Not Average, Be (Come) Excellent: Barriers and Opportunities for Deaf Students
Corrie Tijsseling

4. Responding to Cultural and Linguistic Diversity among Deaf and Hard of Hearing Learners
Greg Leigh and Kathryn Crowe

5. Research on Language Development: Discourses on Learning and Messages to Family Support After Cochlear Implantation
Marieke Bruin

Part 2. Language, Literacy, and Numeracy

6. Awareness of Hong Kong Sign Language and Manually Coded Chinese by Deaf Students in a Sign Bilingual and Co-enrollment Setting: A Hong Kong Case Study
Gladys Tang, Chris, Kun-Man Yiu, and Scholastica Lam

7. Literacy and Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students: Research and Practice
Susan R. Easterbrooks and Michella Maiorana-Basas

8. Developing Numeracy in Individuals Who Are Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Claudia M. Pagliaro

9. Language Assessment of Deaf Learners
Rosalind Herman

10. Issues of Access and Validity in Standardized Academic Assessments for Students Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing
Stephanie W. Cawthon

Part 3. Cognition, Social, and Emotional Development

11. Deaf Children's Executive Functions: from Research to Practice?
Daan Hermans, Brigitte Vugs, Lian van Berkel, and Harry Knoors

12. Social-Cognition for Learning as a Deaf Student
Gary Morgan

13. Social Relations of Deaf Learners: Important Resources for Socio-Emotional Well-Being and Academic Success
Manfred Hintermair

14. Reciprocity in School Peer Relationships of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Early Adolescents: Promoting Empowerment
Nina Wolters and Jet Isarin

15. Stress among Children Who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing and Their Families
Anat Zaidman-Zait

16. The Role of the Environment in Children's Emotion Socialization: The Case of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children
Carolien Rieffe, Anouk P. Netten, Evelien Broekhof, Guida Veiga

17. Social Relations, Mental Health, and Deaf Learners: Approaches to Intervention
Johannes Fellinger and Daniel Holzinger

Part 4. Technology for Learning and Development

18. Enhancing Emergent Literacy in Preschool Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children through Interactive Reading
Evelien Dirks and Loes Wauters

19. Language Skills and Literacy of Deaf Children in the Era of Cochlear Implantation: Suggestions for Teaching through e-Learning Visual Environments
Maria Cristina Caselli, Pasquale Rinaldi, Daniela Onofrio and Elena Tomasuolo

20. EmotionWeb: From Fundamental Research to a Functional Tool for Professionals
Karin Wiefferink, Meinou de Vries, and Lizet Ketelaar

21. Benefits of Technology-Enhanced Learning for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students
Eliane Segers and Ludo Verhoeven

23. Click and Start Learning! Innovative Development Programs for Professionals
Chantal Gervedink Nijhuis and Arie Terpstra

Part 5. Learning and Educational Context

23. Enhancing Academic and Social Outcomes: Balancing Individual, Family, and School Assets and Risks for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students in General Education
Shirin D. Antia

24. Classroom Adaptations for Effective Learning by Deaf Students
Leo De Raeve

25. Curriculum Design in Dutch Deaf Education
Annet de Klerk, Connie Fortgens, and Annelies van der Eijk

26. Re-envisioning Learning and Teaching in Deaf Education: Towards new Transactions between Research and Practice
Ruth Swanwick

Epilogue

27. Educating Deaf Learners in the 21st Century: What We Know and What We Need to Know
Marc Marschark and Harry Knoors

Index