An Examination of Stories Written by Students with Hearing Impairment in Inclusive Classrooms

Abstract

Writing skills have an important place in people's academic and social lives. This paper examines the written skills of students with hearing impairment in inclusive classrooms and student characteristics considered to be associated with these skills. This research which was designed as a descriptive model was conducted with students with hearing impairment attending inclusive classes in the 4th-8th grades of state schools in Eskisehir province. During the data collection process, the students were given a brief preliminary preparation period, after which they were asked to write a story. Stories were scored using the Writing Skills Evaluation Form and evaluated using the Written Skills Evaluation Tool. In the data analysis, the quantitative descriptive analysis was performed, and the Pearson Correlation Coefficient was calculated. Findings indicated that the students' achievement average was 46.99% and they had the most difficulty in following grammar rules and organizing their thoughts to draw conclusions. No significant relationship was found between the scores for written skills and the characteristics of the students that were thought to be connected. Possible reasons for this include the limited number of participants, homogeneity of distribution, the wide range of ages and aspects of the inclusive students' educational environment.