Adapting assessment practices for deaf learners

The Department of Education (2010:36) states that assessment strategies should be adapted to meet the learning needs of individual learners. Through the assessment, educators can identify what kind of intervention or form of support is needed to address the existing barriers to learning. This could imply various interventions with the learner or educator; transformation of some aspects of the curriculum; or addressing family or social factors.

All assessment procedures should be appropriate and relevant to the realities of the learners or school concerned and should be built into the teaching and learning process. Assessment should thus identify learning needs and determine whether learning occurs successfully (Department of Education 2002:106).

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The Department of Education (2011c:23-24) highlights some procedures that educators can follow when adapting assessment for deaf learners. These include:

 Design assessment tasks which will allow for different learning styles or intelligences;

 Allow for group assessment tasks;

 Pace or scaffold the assessment activities;

 Allow for tests and assignments to be taken orally as well as in written form;  Modify the vocabulary used in test items to match the learner’s abilities;  Use projects or portfolios in lieu of tests;

 Provide graphic cues (e.g., arrows, stop signs) on answer form;  Give alternative forms of the same test;

 Provide tasks which require short answers from deaf learners;  Teach test-taking skills;

 Allow deaf learners extra time to complete tasks;

 Use technological aids or make other special arrangements to undertake assessment tasks;

 Keep a record of materials and assessment tasks used;

 Keep educators’ observation books for learners who need additional support;  Focus only on key concepts for deaf learners;

 Focus on the positive aspects or talents of deaf learners;  Vary assessment activities;

 Exclude some marks collected early in the semester for a learner who performed poorly at the beginning of the year but subsequently made good progress;

 Allow learners to make models, role-play, develop skills, and create art projects to demonstrate their understanding of the information;

 Allow written or drawn responses to serve as alternatives to oral presentations;  Allow learners to use computers or word-processors.

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Westwood (2011:212) states that assessment is a very important process that provides an indication of how effective a particular episode of teaching and learning has been. The process of assessment also highlights anything that may need to be taught again, revised, or practised further by some learners. Assessments of learners’ characteristics such as interests, prior knowledge, and learning styles help educators to provide learning activities that engage and encourage learning. Assessment is an integral part of curriculum adaptation. It helps educators to identify what learners need so that they can appropriately adapt the content, and teaching methods and activities (UNESCO 2004:83).

3.4.4.1 Learning area: Social Science

In order to assess the skills of deaf learners, educators can provide tasks that require short answers. For example, when the learners study the factors that affect location of settlements (geography), such as climate, vegetation, natural features, laws, etc., they do not need to describe the factors, they need only list them. They can be allowed extra time to complete the tasks. They can also be provided with alternative forms of assessment, such as multiple-choice questions, fill-in-the-blank questions, true-false questions or essay questions (Department of Education 2011d:30).

3.4.4.2 Learning area: Mathematics

In order to assess the geometric skills of deaf learners, the learners can be provided with real shapes (models). Cut-out shapes of rectangular, square and rhombus can also be provided when educators evaluate their knowledge of special kinds of parallelograms. The modification of the vocabulary used in test items will help educators to make the assessment procedures fair and effective. For example, “the instruction “find the fraction of the whole number” can be replaced by the instruction “multiply the fraction and the whole number”, where the word multiply can be accompanied by the respective sign (“x”) (Department of Education 2011e:33).

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3.4.4.3 Language area: English Home Language

Educators can allow deaf learners more time to complete assignments and tests. They can be allowed to present written essays instead of oral presentations, for example. They can get help from their classmates to complete the essay outline before they write it. Educators can also allow deaf learners to create, for example, a pictorial collage to represent the themes of each section of the outline. Discussion should always precede any writing activity (Department of Education 2010:53).

When educators prepare language tests for deaf learners, they can reduce the number of options for multiple-choice questions to focus on major concepts, and provide options for short-answer questions. They can also help deaf learners to identify the key content, but keep the remainder of the assignment the same. Deaf learners could be allowed to use the dictionary during tests or assessments (Department of Education 2010:53).

The researcher feels that the study of Grade 8 curriculum policies revealed that the existing documents (Senior Phase) do not hold appropriate strategies and guidelines for educators in high schools to adapt the curriculum to the needs of deaf learners. Deaf learners are not likely to be exposed to all relevant material at a level similar to that of hearing peers. This means that while deaf learners are exposed to classroom activities and the curriculum, they are often not able to benefit. Interactions with educators and the classmates are often inadequate, as deaf learners often have limited vocabulary.

The researcher also believes that it is important to realise that educators of the regular schools must be appropriately supported to maintain their continuous involvement with deaf learners and learn strategies for working effectively with these learners in the inclusive classrooms. They need to know how to differentiate instructions in order to make the curriculum more accessible for deaf learners through adaptations and accommodations. Therefore, it is important to provide information to educators of mainstream schools about the types of curriculum adaptations that could be considered in developing the appropriate strategies for a particular deaf learner.

93 3.5 CONCLUSION

In Chapter 3 the term curriculum was described. The general aims of the new South African National Curriculum Statement Grades R-12, which builds on the previous curriculum, but also updates it and aims to provide clearer specification of what is to be taught and learnt on a term-by-term basis, were discussed. Four levels of curriculum adaptations which include the level of content, instructional strategies, instructional materials and assessment were determined. Effective curriculum adaptations for deaf learners which include these four categories were discussed in detail with practical examples for main subject areas.

Chapter 4 focuses on explaining the research design and methodology utilised to conduct this study.

94 CHAPTER 4