Single Versus Multiple Certification for Teachers of Hearing-Impaired Students

Abstract

This study investigates the efficacy of awarding single, all-encompassing certificates to teachers of hearing-impaired students. To determine whether more than one type of certification could be justified, 190 teachers and professionals rated the importance of 55 competencies for teachers of hearing-impaired students. The ratings were analyzed with a nonparametric analysis of variance. The findings presented evidence of the need to modify the practice of providing the same certification for all teachers of hearing-impaired students. The results indicated significant differences between the ratings of the teachers from the state residential school and the teachers from the day school and significant differences between the ratings of teachers of various grade levels.

Competencies Critical to Teachers of Students with Hearing Impairments

“…Concomitantly, there has been a consistent request that certifying agencies should reexamine the requirements currently necessary for certification as a teacher of students with hearing impairments (Northcott, 1972;Scott, 1983;Serwatka et al, 1984). As expressed by Sass-Lehrer (1983), s'The generic approach to training and certification has guided the development of teacher training curricula in the last decade despite major changes that have occurred&dquo; (p. 867).…”

“…Only those who held state or professional certification, who were teaching full-time, and who worked with preschool-or elementary-age students were used in the Of those questionnaires that werẽ etur~ed, ~28 were eliminated because the respondents were either retired, university personnel, secondary-level teachers, or not certified. Secondarylevel teachers were not included in this analysis because research reported by Serwatka et al (1984) indicated that there were a high percentage of significant differences on the ratings of competencies by teachers at elementary and secondary levels. In addition, teachers of students ~vho had secondary handconditions in addition to a hearing loss were excluded from the analyses.…”

“…They were then subjected to the judgments of practicing professionals for validation. The consensus procedure frequently has been used to determine the importance of competencies for good teaching (Gargiulo & Pigge, 1979;Scott, 1983;Serwatka et al, 1984;Venn, Serwatka, & Shreve, 1982). In this study, teachers were provided with a questionnaire that included the list of 40 competencies.…”