Matematikprestationer och elever med dövhet eller hörselnedsättning

Abstract

The mathematics performance of Swedish deaf and hard‐of‐hearing students was compared to that of hearing students to relate the situation in Sweden to recent international research results. Quantitative analysis of performance on the national subject test in mathematics and questionnaire on demographic variables for the deaf and hard‐of ‐hearing students were used. Analyses showed significant differences overall between deaf and hard‐ofhearing students and their hearing counterparts, but more importantly, gave insight into specific areas in which deaf and hard‐of‐hearing students may succeed or falter. In the study no significant differences in mathematics performance appeared between the deaf and hard‐of‐hearing students if sign language or spoken language was used as the language of instruction. No significant differences appeared depending on investigated background variables between the two groups, students mainly taught in sign language (class for the deaf) and students mainly taught in spoken language (class for the hard‐of‐ hearing). Demographic variables investigated were students’ gender, hearing status, additional functional disability, born is Sweden or not as well as parents’ hearing status, level of education, born is Sweden or not. The study serves as a basis for further investigations to develop deaf and hard‐of‐hearing students’ performance in mathematics.

Keywords

• Deaf
• hard-of-hearing
• mathematics performance
• national test in mathematics
• sign language