Educational challenges facing deaf and hearing loss students in secondary school

Abstract EN

The study addresses the educational challenges in terms of deaf and hearing loss students' perceptions of educational and psychosocial challenges, availability of educational environment support, and cooperation of educational administration.

The study is applied to (128 deaf and hearing loss students) all of them attending classes 11th grade in 2013 in ALRafi’e Higher School in Gaza City.

A descriptive analytical approach has been used in the study, using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Challenges revealed that the students are in need for support services (interpreters for comprehensive accurate communication, services, academic advisors - psychologists -social workers), assistive technology, written precise instructions of materials, and suitable formulation of written exams. The curriculum is unfit for deaf students, it needs to be updated and teachers need capacity building.

There is a necessity to use appropriate methods of teaching and educational aids.

Students are unable to read, write, and master the mathematical skills, in addition to the difficulty in selfexpression, relations building, interaction with colleagues and self verification.