Accommodating deaf and hard of hearing students in the mainstream classroom

2018-02-13In 2016, the California Legislative Analyst’s Office found that Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) students were not being educated effectively in State Special Schools. They recommended that public schools include DHH students in mainstream classrooms. However, no current teacher preparation programs prepare future teachers to educate DHH students. The purpose of this curriculum is to ensure that teachers can effectively educate DHH students in their mainstream classrooms. Applying social constructivism and social learning theory as the theoretical approach, the curriculum is five units long and formatted to be a blended course with an accompanying website intended for pre-service teacher credentialing programs but adaptable for in-service professional development. After successful completion of this curriculum learners will be able to discuss Deaf culture, the deficit mindset in schools and society, and how to use DHH equipment and tools for communication and apply IEP/504 plans to lesson planning to socially integrate DHH students with normal hearing peers. The summative evaluation includes a video recorded lesson of the teacher demonstrating that they can accommodate DHH learners in their classroom. If credentialing programs fail to prepare pre-service teachers and districts do not advise in-service teacher about how to work with DHH students then DHH students will only continue to be underserved in California schools. Such leadership on the part of California might provide a model for national adoption of preparing teachers to ensure that all learners achieve their educational goals