Question-Answer Relationships in Social Studies Courses with Students with Hearing Loss

Abstract

Educational settings adopt an active participatory learning process in which students with and without hearing loss are guided towards knowledge through questions. Questions are believed to improve critical, creative and high-level thinking skills. This research is a case study aimed at identifying and suggesting some solutions to the problems that students with hearing loss experience in understanding and answering the types of questions asked in a Social Studies course. Eight students with hearing loss participated in the study. Data were collected through observations, interviews, documents, research logs and process products. Analysis of the data suggests that students with hearing loss are able to answer some cognitive memory questions as well as those that call for convergent thinking, divergent thinking and evaluative thinking skills in the Social Studies Course while requiring the instructor to simplify and materialize the question and encourage the students to interact with the group for some others.