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

other types have used spoken language. Specialschools are now bilingual schools for specialneeds education. When we asked parents andteachers whether they felt that the schoolhad succeeded in giving the pupils an equaleducation, irrespective of hearing impairment,the parents were more doubtful than theteachers. Diagram 9 shows whether parents andteachers think that the school has succeeded ingiving the pupils an equal education ‘to quite agreat extent or a very great extent’.The pupils’ self-confidence and ability tocooperate are essential elements of the task of theschool, but the schools’ success in this respectdepends on several different factors. We askedparents as well as teachers whether they thoughtthat the schools had succeeded with this.The responses showed that there is a cleardifference between how parents perceive theschool’s work on these issues and the school’sown understanding of the situation (seediagram 10). Special school’s parents andteachers have a similar picture of how the schoolsucceeds in its task of developing the ability ofpupils to cooperate.A hearing/communication factor can, of course,exist here, affecting the possibility for the schoolsto succeed in developing the pupils’ ability tocooperate, and this can be an explanation forspecial schools having a smaller proportionthan other types of schools. When we asked theteachers what it is that governs the teaching, itseems that in compulsory school – but not inschools for the hearing impaired – it is commonthat recommendations from peripatetic teachersgovern the teaching for 60% of the pupils. Atschools for the hearing impaired and specialschool, this is much less common, probably dueto the expertise existing at the school. Instead,the work team has a greater influence on theteaching. All of the schools, however, do ofcourse have the pupil’s needs in focus whenplanning the teaching.We wondered whether any differences existedbetween the type of schools with regard to theteachers’ assessment of what is important forachieving goals in school. The teaching at schoolsfor the hearing impaired seems to emphasiseprimarily that the pupils should present workof their own, carry on discussions in class, plantheir own work and talk about books they haveread. At special schools, unlike other schools, ithas been deemed in respect of a small proportionof pupils (10%) that presentation of the pupil’sown work, discussions in class, conversationsabout the pupil’s own texts and writing simpletexts are not particularly important, or notimportant at all, for goal fulfilment. Otherwise,the schools seem to be alike in this respect.School for pupils with learning disabilitiesdistinguish themselves here as they works inaccordance with other goals. According to theteachers, the most important aspect here is thatthe pupils put forward their own opinions. Thiscorresponds well with these schools activities andgoals.Finally, we wondered whether the teachers, whenawarding grades, would disregard certain goalsif the pupil had a permanent disability or someother similar, non-temporary personal condition(SFS 1994:1194; SFS 1995:401). Of the teachersof hearing impaired pupils at compulsory schoolsoutside the schools for the hearing impaired,20% responded that they would make use ofthis possibility.The proportion of teachers whodo this at special schools is the same. At schoolsfor the hearing impaired, on the other hand, asmany as 40% of the teachers say they would usethis possibility (see diagram 11).54 Goal fulfilment in school for the deaf and hearing impaired