Instructional Practices used by Special Education Teachers in Classrooms of Young Children with Deafness

The purpose of this quantitative investigation was to identify instructional practices used by special education teachers in classrooms of young children with deafness. The population of study involved all 388 teachers serving in 34 Government Deaf Defective Hearing Schools located in four zones of the Punjab province. A sample of 68 teachers (two teachers from each school) teaching to young children with deafness in class K.G.I and K.G.II was selected. A self developed and validated questionnaire (cronbach Alpha: 0.92) was used to elicit teachers’ responses on instructional practices made by them in teaching speech, speech reading, reading recognition, writing and mathematics, on parental involvement and evaluation. Data were collected personally, through email, and registered post. Collected data were analyzed on SPSS. Independent sample t-test and ANOVA was run to see differences in instructional practices on the basis of teachers’ gender, position, qualification, number of children, and four zones of the Punjab. Major findings revealed that teachers were having problems in teaching to and working with young children with deafness due to overcrowded classrooms, lack of teaching staff, unavailability of hearing aids, lack of parental cooperation etc. conclusions were drawn and recommendations to Punjab Special Education Department of Pakistan were made.