Research at
Gallaudet University
2005 - 2006

Informal Learning Among Deaf Children in Residential Schools

Status: Completed Begin date: Oct 1, 2003 End date: Sept 30, 2005

Description

Social interaction among deaf youth who are living in residential schools has long been recognized as an important element in their development. Worldwide, deaf people have noted that their informal interactions with peers and deaf adults in dormitories and playgrounds were an invaluable source of knowledge about signed and written language, coping skills and the outside world. Most of the information about informal teaching and learning among deaf youth, however, is anecdotal. This book, based on a dissertation (University of MD, 1995), documents the structure of informal teaching-learning processes created by deaf youth in a residential school in Thailand and considers its impact on their cognitive and linguistic development. Children themselves created a range of activities, including storytelling and instruction, that served to effectively teach receptive and expressive skills in the sign language to hitherto languageless peers. The large number of deaf people (critical mass) and the hands-on experiences possible in a rural, residential setting were key factors. The findings have implications for residential and mainstreaming policy and placement, as well as for instruction in classrooms. The completed book (Gallaudet University Press, 2005) will recommend how the techniques of effective teaching and learning among signing youth can be employed for academic purposes in the classroom.

Investigators