Communication Connections: Service Learning and American Sign Language

Abstract

The connection between service learning and ASL instruction is advantageous because students gained cultural understanding as well as language skills. This course design could be used at other institutions where a Deaf community is accessible.

Training socially responsive health care graduates: Is service learning an effective educational approach?

“…Similar findings are evident in other studies (e.g. Casey & Murphy, 2008;Amerson, 2010;Reading and Padgett, 2011). Interestingly, Nokes et al (2005) reported conflicting results with students' cultural competence decreasing following SL engagement.…”

“…Sample sizes ranged from (n = 3) medical students in one qualitative study (Dharamsi et al, 2010b) to (n = 3450) students from multiple disciplines in a quasi experimental study (Astin & Sax, 1998). Examples of the methodological weaknesses identified included samples from single institutions (Beling, 2004;Bentley & Ellison, 2005;Champagne, 2006;Horacek et al, 2009;Leung et al, 2011;Liang En et al, 2011b;Loewenson and Hunt, 2011) with a variety of potential biases, for example, self-selection bias for students (Ngai, 2009;Green et al, 2011;Reading & Padgett, 2011) possible positive reporting bias (Kearney, 2004;Reynolds, 2005;Brown, 2009;Liang En et al, 2011b;Loewenson & Hunt, 2011) and social desirability bias (Casey and Murphy, 2008;Loewenson & Hunt, 2011). Of the 26 Quasi-experimental studies the majority (n = 20) used some form of self-report measure as did (n = 6) of the mixed method studies.…”

“…SL projects are designed, implemented and evaluated collaboratively with the intent of applying students' theory to practice while simultaneously targeting community identified needs. A number of studies (Burrows et al, 1999;Peterson & Schaffer, 1999;Beling, 2003;Bentley & Ellison, 2005;Goldberg et al, 2006;Johnson, 2007;Neill et al, 2007;Casey & Murphy, 2008;Kearney, 2008;Dauenhauer et al, 2010;Liang En et al, 2011b;Long et al, 2011;Pakulski, 2011;Reading & Padgett, 2011;Vogt et al, 2011;Zucchero, 2011) found that students gained a deeper understanding and application of knowledge through SL projects and experiences.…”

“…people who are homeless, people with HIV, people experiencing poverty and health inequities, etc. (Burrows et al, 1999;Elam et al, 2003;Bentley & Ellison, 2005;Casey & Murphy, 2008;Amerson, 2010;Horowitz et al, 2010;McMenamin et al, 2010;Green et al, 2011;Liang En et al, 2011b;Mitschke & Petrovich, 2011;Reading & Padgett, 2011;Schindler, 2011). Working in partnership with the "different other" appeared to help students develop a deeper appreciation of the vulnerabilities that marginalized segments of the population experience and nurture a purposeful sense of social responsibility.…”

Balance Toward Language Mastery

“…Practice, repetition, authentic usefulness, and active engagement create the connections to help individuals learn more than one language. Since ASL serves a distinct culture, DHH, the connections students make in learning ASL will help advance understanding and consideration for a different culture (Reading & Padgett, 2011). Dean, Hubbell, Pitler, and Stone (2012) explained the benefits of physical and non-linguistic comparisons in engaging students' perception and analysis visual representations.…”