| Summary: | Research concerning second language learners, specifically those learning a
second spoken/written language, has been used extensively over the past two decades to
support educational approaches being used with students who are deaf and hard of
hearing without much direct research on its applicability or impact on the education of
children who are deaf. This was an exploratory quasi experimental study in which 33
hearing children in multigrade educational settings, 18 in a regular classroom
environment, the quasi control group, and 15 in a shared learning environment with deaf
children, completed a survey composed of two subscales, information and attitudes at two
times, November and June, during the school year. The benefits of shared learning for
hearing children is apparent in the statistically significant difference in hearing children's
knowledge about hearing loss, the ear and American Sign Language (ASL), as well as an
increase in positive attitudes toward individuals with a hearing loss when educated
alongside children who are deaf. Seven deaf children in grade two educated in a shared
learning setting alongside hearing peers completed a similar version of the same survey at
three times, November, February and June. The effect of shared learning on the attitudes
and knowledge of children who are deaf describes a U-curve similar to that experienced
by second language learners entering a new culture (Lysgaard, 1955; Oberg, 1998) or
individuals undertaking a novel creative endeavor or project (Gullahorn & Gullahorn,
1963) in their attitudes toward individuals with a hearing loss when educated in a shared
learning environment alongside hearing peers. === Arts, Faculty of === Psychology, Department of === Graduate
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