What is fair access to exams for signing deaf candidates? Rachel O Neill, Audrey Cameron, Eileen Burns, & Gary Quinn

Transcription

1 What is fair access to exams for signing deaf candidates? Rachel O Neill, Audrey Cameron, Eileen Burns, & Gary Quinn

2 Scottish Examination Arrangements for Signing Deaf Candidates Since 2003 Scottish deaf candidates have been able to access their examinations in sign language and respond in sign. Different arrangements in England Each candidate has an individual communicator (could be a ToD) No minimum BSL qualification level set for communicators Most recent research shows 12% of ToDs have Signature Level 3 or above but 30% of ToDs work with signing pupils (Ravenscroft & Wazny, 2017)

3 How Valid are these Arrangements? Validity The extent to which an accommodation reduces barriers to meaningful participation without changing the content of the test. A valid assessment is one that can be used to compare test scores with those students who did not have the accommodation. In other words, is the test measuring what we think it is measuring? (Cawthon 2010) Research Communicators: questionnaires and interviews Candidates: individual and group interviews

4 The Sign Language Skills of the Communicator/ Teacher We want better interpreters who know all the meanings of the questions and know how to change from English into sign language better than someone who is just learning signing and are slow and not skilled enough - that s just no use. Candidate

5 Communicators Level of Subject Knowledge Two months of learning all the signs and actually understanding the words because in science certainly at the level that the boys are doing, the signing - a lot of it is new to me. So it wasn t just learning the signs, it was actually relearning also with the kids. No. It was actually an area that I wasn t very familiar with, so even though we had covered it, we hadn t covered it a lot. I thought that could be a problem, if I don t know exactly what I m signing in that one question.

6 Iconicity The sign for earth would provide the answer to this question: 1. Which wire is the earth wire? B C A Some communicators would have interpreted using the sign for earth. Some communicators would have fingerspelled the word earth.

7 The Use of Fingerspelling in Exams with the Aim of Improving Validity When signing the exam did you ever fingerspell a term which you have a sign for : 11 responded yes. Radius - this is so visual it would have given the answer [questionnaire] I just wanted to make sure for myself that there wasn t anything that I was giving away by accident without realising it. [communicator] No, if we had a sign it was used. [questionnaire]

8 The Frequency of Candidates Requests for Question Repetition and Protocol used by Communicators Some communicators felt that candidates would have benefitted from asking for questions to be repeated more often..admitting to their teacher that they do not understand [communicator] I think sometimes if you keep asking, you start to get worried what the person signing thinks. [candidate] Some communicators on repetition signed the question the same way. Some communicators changed how they signed the question.

9 Scottish Qualification Authority Exam Project Scottish Sensory Centre

10 Development of 450 additional BSL signs for Biology and Chemistry for translation of exam papers Workshops with a team of 10 people Thanks to the team of deaf scientists, teachers working with deaf children and sign linguists: John Denerley, Claire Leiper, Janet Wardle-Peck, Tania Allan, Rob Rattray, Gerry Hughes, Dr Mark Fox and Derek Rodger

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13 Evaluation approach: Trial exam using the digital papers; interviews; questionnaire

14 Responses of 29 pupils and staff Do you think SQA should provide electronic BSL translated exam papers for deaf students? Do you want SQA to do this type of paper? % No Yes

15 VOXUR (Yellow box) a film crew in a box as a potential tool for responding to exam questions

16 Discussion Similar results found in USA Higgins et al. (2016) Guidelines for ASL versions of assessments (Measured Progress Innovation Lab, 2015) Should the discourse organisation of ASL questions be used? Diamond structure Should mathematical symbols and visual information be translated? Need for further work in the UK with BSL presented assessments

17 References Burns, E. (2011) How Can We Improve Access to SQA Exams for Signing Deaf Candidates?University of Edinburgh: Unpublished MEd thesis. Cameron, A., Quinn, G. & O Neill, R. (2011) Assessing the feasibility of using digitised British Sign Language examination papers for Deaf candidates in Scotland. Edinburgh: Scottish Sensory Centre accessed Cawthon, S. (2010) Science and Evidence of Success: Two Emerging Issues in Assessment Accommodations for Students Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing, Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 15 (2): Accessed Higgins, J., Famularo, L., Cawthon, S., Kurz, C., Reis, J. & Moers, L. (2016) Development of American Sign Language Guidelines for K-12 Academic Assessments, Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education.21 (4): DOI: Measured Progress Innovation Lab (2015) Guidelines for the Development of American Sign Language Versions of Academic Test Content for K 12 Students Accessed Ravenscroft, J & Wazni, K. (2017) The Qualification of Teachers of pupils with visual impairment, or pupils with hearing impairment or pupils with multi-sensory impairment (vision and hearing impairment)commissioned Report, Scottish Government. Scottish Sensory Centre (2017) British Sign Language Glossary Project of Curriculum Terms Accessed

18 Contacts Rachel O Neill rachel.oneill@ed.ac.uk Audrey Cameron audrey.m.cameron@ed.ac.uk Eileen Burns headteacher@hamiltonschooldeaf.s-lanark.sch.uk Gary Quinn g.a.quinn@hw.ac.uk (Heriot Watt University)

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