Understanding Science Through Captioning

The language of science is difficult for many children to learn. But for those who are deaf or hard of hearing, learning science can be even more challenging. The unfamiliar words and concepts presented in science curricula are particularly troublesome if students cannot hear the correct terminology or use it in context.

For many of these students barriers to accessing effective science education are threefold. First, lack of time is a problem because deaf education tends to, for good reason, emphasize language/communication training often at the expense of subjects like science and math.

Second, traditional instructional media, namely print-based material, pose a barrier because students with hearing impairments frequently have reading and writing deficiencies, but these same students tend to have enhanced visual acuity. Therefore, an effective science curriculum should integrate visual information whenever possible.

Finally, given the instructional challenges above, it is not surprising that many children with hearing impairments approach academics with apprehension. Instruction that magnifies their limitations, such as context insensitive, rote reading and writing, only enhances their self-doubt and decreases their motivation. "Packaging" science in an engaging way, by putting it in contexts that students who are deaf can access and participate in, will make learning interesting and fun for these students.

By addressing these barriers, CAST's Understanding Science Through Captioning project sought to establish a model for improving science education for students who are deaf or hearing impaired; this project took one step toward helping these students be successful at--and perhaps even pursue careers in--science.

The Project

The project's goals were to:

• develop and implement strategies using video captioning technology that enhance student science achievement in three New England schools for the deaf
• replicate the initial implementation in a school that educates students with and without hearing impairments
• disseminate the findings of the research along with the enhanced curriculum and strategies for effective implementation

The research design included students in four New England schools. The Clarke School for the Deaf in Northampton, MA, the Rhode Island School for the Deaf in Providence, RI, and the Horace Mann School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Boston, MA all serve students who are deaf or hearing impaired and each participated in both project years. A fourth school, the Silas Deane Middle School in Wethersfield, CT, serves students with and without hearing impairments and was added at the start of the project's second year. The Wethersfield Public School system serves students who are deaf or hearing impaired through a collaboration with the CREC/Soundbridge program of Connecticut.

Students in these four schools used portions of the Clarke School for the Deaf Science Curriculum (a successful science program for students who are deaf) combined with CaptionWorks to videotape hands-on science experiments and then caption the videos themselves. Students videotaped and captioned half the science experiments while performing the other experiments by traditional methods. CAST researchers hypothesized that by "revisiting" the experiments on videotape, and by writing about them in the captions, students would become more engaged in learning and more successful at integrating the concepts and language of science.

Project Outcomes

Project findings are currently being disseminated through conference presentations and publications. An executive summary for researchers and a teacher's handbook for educators are both available on this website.

Project staff anticipate that the implications of this project will go well beyond schools for students who are deaf or hearing impaired. The ideas laid out in project publications will be important for students who are deaf in mainstream classrooms, as well as for their peers with or without disabilities. These strategies will provide powerful supports to teachers in the mainstream who need to understand how to address the barriers faced by students who are deaf and hearing impaired and how to better support these students as they learn the language of science.

Funding

Funding for the Understanding Science Through Captioning project was provided by the National Science Foundation's Program for Persons with Disabilities, NSF Grant No. HRD-9712964. The Foundation's mission is to promote and advance scientific progress in the United States.