The effect of peer teaching on the academic achievement of hearing impaired students in teaching fractions and students' view

It is very important to increase the awareness and diversity of educational environments in order to overcome the difficulties of hearing impaired students in mathematics and to facilitate their adaptation to society. The modern understanding of education requires the use of teaching methods that will enable each student to realize their learning at the highest level, regardless of individual differences. İşitme engelli öğrencilerle yürütülen bu çalışmada akran öğretimi yöntemi seçilmiştir. One of these methods is the peer teaching method, in which both learning and teaching students can achieve cognitive, affective and social gains. In this study carried out with hearing impaired students, peer teaching method was chosen. This study aims to reveal the effect of the hearing impaired eighth grade students on their academic achievement in fractions through peer teaching method and the attitude changes and opinions of the hearing impaired students in the peer teaching process. The study was conducted for 8 weeks with 12 students attending eighth grade in a state secondary school for the hearing impaired in Istanbul. The mixed method in which quantitative and qualitative data were collected together was used in the study. In the quantitative part of the study, six students with hearing impairment in the experimental group were taught fractions by peer teaching method in accordance with Individualized education program. The same gains on fractions were studied with six hearing-impaired students in the control group, without any additional work. Fraction Achievement Test was administered to all the hearing impaired students participating in the study as a pre and post test, and the Attitude Scale towards Mathematics was applied to the students in the experimental group before and after the peer teaching. In the qualitative part of the study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the hearing-impaired students in the experimental group and questions about peer teaching were asked. Students' responses were analyzed using content analysis method. According to the findings obtained at the end of the study, it was found that using the peer teaching method on fractions statistically significantly increased the academic achievement of the hearing impaired eighth grade students. However, no statistically significant change was found in students' attitudes towards mathematics. In addition, the students positively stated that they found the peer teaching method useful and fun, that they remembered their previous knowledge and learned the subject better, and that they wanted to repeat the peer teaching. On the negative side, the students stated that they had difficulty understanding in the peer teaching process, and they found mathematics difficult.