Goal fulfilment in school for the deaf and hearing impaired - batod

also affects special schools, which only fiftyyears ago were significantly more practically andvocationally oriented.The goals in school, in addition to those that areknowledge-related, also include goals that arebased on society’s values. The goals cover ‘goalsto aim for’, which constitute the foundation ofthe system, and ‘goals to attain´, which formthe basis for evaluation and assessment. Onemeans for achieving the goals is deemed to bethe working environment. Special schools andschools for the hearing impaired have adaptedtheir environment to a specific target group.By way of facilitation and compensation, theworking environment enables the pupils tobenefit from the teaching and to achieve thegoals (Rådet… 2003). Other hearing impairedpupils should also have access, to varying degrees,to different types of adaptation for the purposeof making the tuition accessible. Schools mustadapt their methods so that pupils requiringsupport can, to as great an extent as possible,achieve the goals.According to the Education Act, school mustrest on a democratic foundation and everyonewho works in school must promote (the pupils’)respect for every individual’s intrinsic value.Schools thus have a considerable responsibility,to ensure that the system lives up to thedemocratic goals of society.In this report, we present an evaluation of goalfulfilment in accordance with the syllabuses,through the collection of grades. We also assessparts of the curriculum’s general goals and valuesby way of questionnaires to parents and teachers.Who achieves the goals?The National Agency for Education reports thatthere is a spread of merit ratings both betweenand within schools (Skolverket 2005a; 2005dc).Differences between schools are normally lessthan differences within schools. Accordingto the National Agency for Education, gradedifferences between schools can be explainedby factors other than the quality of teaching. Itis well known that socioeconomic background,gender and ethnic background all affect pupils’merit ratings. Thus when one of these categoriesbecomes too large at one school, the effecton that school’s total grade average increases(Skolverket 2005c).There are, however, other factors than thosementioned above that affect a school’s, andindividual pupils’, grade averages. The NationalAudit reported that in 2006, only 57% of allpupils with disabilities achieved the goals inSwedish, English and mathematics (Larfors &Casson 2006). International studies and reportsare equally clear as regards the possibilitiesfor pupils with learning disabilities to achieveknowledge goals in school. For instance, studiesshow that children who have had meningitis,one of several causes of severe hearing lossand deafness, encounter an increased risk ofdifficulties occurring at school (Grimwood et al.1995). A link is also reported between low birthweight and future school-related difficulties. Thereading and numerical development of childrenwith hearing impairment is also significantlyaffected if they have additional disabilities(Resnick et al. 1999; Nafstad et al. 2002).It is thus also probable that schools with a largeproportion of pupils who have difficulties inaddition to hearing impairment and deafnesshave a lower grade average.Goal fulfilment of hearing impaired anddeaf pupils in schoolIn the 1960s it was common for deaf childrennot to receive adequate language habilitationduring their pre-school years. In her 1993thesis, Heiling indicated that early habilitationefforts involving sign language and early readingthrough spontaneous, play-related situations atpre-school in the company of adults increasedthe possibility for deaf pupils to achieve moreknowledge goals. She has also subsequentlypointed out that the removal of the early learningof reading with adult support could be onereason for the deterioration of deaf and hearingGoal fulfilment in school for the deaf and hearing impaired23