Cognition, Education, and Deafness: Directions for Research and Instruction

Reactions from the Practitioner's Point of View

Reactions from the Practitioner's Point of View Mary Hockersmith We all appreciate the perspectives presented by Sigel and Brinker, their keen observations, and their challenge to those of us in the educational trenches. The jigsaw puzzle of the components of cognition, developmental process , and educational practices is indeed an inherent problem in our field. Sigel and Brinker have suggested that researchers and practitioners need to establish an ongoing dialogue. However, before dialogue can be meaningful , some common information must be shared. First, I charge college and university training programs with the task of laying the foundation for this common dialogue. When I was in college, courses in human development, cognition, and learning theory were usually not offered in the education department. One was required to crossregister into psychology or home economics for a child development course. No one mentioned the basics of research design to me until I was in graduate school. I submit that all teachers in training should be required to take coursework in human development, cognition/learning theory, and the vocabulary of basic research. Additionally, coursework must stress the application of these areas to classroom management, to curriculum design, and to systematic observation and descriptions of human behaviors. What about those of us who have completed the rigors of preservice training? My next charge is to school boards and school administrators. They can assist practitioners in acquiring and incorporating the research information that is available by doing any or all of the following: 1. Support the teaching of thinking and problem solving. Please STOP supporting fact-and-memory education. 2. Support training in the application of cognitive and learning theory for our inservice teachers. 3. Support and demand an analysis of curriculum in order that higherorder thinking skills are stressed. Then provide the financial and organizational support for the curriculum revisions resulting from that analysis. 4. Support and encourage an environment where questions (Why? What do you think?) and intellectual challenges are welcomed from students. 5. Encourage and support research efforts. 6. Provide the time and incentive for practitioners to read the research studies. Inherent in the study of human development is the study of interrelationships between the biological and psychosocial aspects of develop222 ment. Sigel and Brinker have indicated an omission of these interactions in the papers in this volume. Those of us who are practitioners sometimes believe that both researchers and assessment personnel sometimes overlook these affective components. My third charge, then, is to the school psychologists and assessment personnel who provide much of our raw data. They must stop talking to teachers in numbers or test scores and tell us instead about student potential-about areas of expectation for success. They need to help us learn how to be better observers of behavior and to give us some ideas for classroom strategies. For example, when they tell us that a student has difficulty with the skill of visual transport, they should also tell us that this child will probably have difficulty looking from a paper on a desk to an overhead projection or chalkboard. Then, let us work out strategies together and discuss the results of our instructional modifications. School administrators and school boards also have a role to play. School psychologists/counselors and assessment personnel must have a reasonable caseload before there will be time to do what we are requesting. A caseload of 80 to 100 students is too much to allow for active collaboration. Finally, I wish to address the classroom teachers. We must stop talking so much. We need to become involved with our students to find out what they like and do not like. We need to know what their expectations are and what is relevant to them. We must observe how students accomplish a task and then document our observations. Only then may teachers begin planning how to build on student strengths so that students can taste success. Teachers should also plan lessons and materials that are relevant to the students, their lives, and their goals; and teachers must give students some responsibility for their learning. Teachers may plan their own assessment carefully by asking, "Am I testing what I am teaching, and am I teaching what I am testing? Why am I teaching this? Is my instructlonal sequence in accordance with developmental expectations?" Regardless of the cognitive theory to which any of us may subscribe, there is now overwhelming evidence that successful development occurs through interaction with the environment. As practitioners, it is our responsibility to...