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Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at
http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/
e-I SSN: 2395-0463
Vol ume 02 I s s ue 8
Augus t 2016
Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 195
The Academic Learning Process: Deaf and Hard Hearing
of Polytechnic Students Share Experiences in a
Phenomenological Study
Samuel Quain1* Faustina Otsyina2 Bernard Baba Ambotumah 3Xiaaba Dantallah Yidana Ike
Joe Nii Annang Mensah-Livingstone
1. Faculty of Business and Management, Koforidua Polytechnic P O Box 981, Koforidua
2. Faculty of Applied Science, Koforidua Polytechnic P O Box 981, Koforidua
3. Faculty of Business and Management Koforidua Polytechnic P O Box 981, Koforidua
4. Faculty of Business and Management Koforidua Polytechnic P O Box 981, Koforidua
5. Registrar, Koforidua Polytechnic P O Box 981, Koforidua
E-mail of correspondent author: manna_1880@yahoo.co.uk MOBILE PHONE 0277362133
Abstract
The number of Deaf and Hard Hearing students coming to the polytechnics has been increasing
for the past years. The problem is that they may not have the benefits of a Deaf and hard of hearing
culture in the polytechnic as compared to pre-tertiary life. The aim of this paper was therefore to
explore their experiences in their academic learning process on a polytechnic campus.
Appropriately a phenomenological approach to the study was chosen. The main data collection
was an in-depth interview. After analyzing the data through a rigorous coding system, four
categories were adopted in presenting the results. The results showed that though they had some
challenges, their cognitive elements pointed to potentially good students given that some
appropriate measures are taken by the polytechnics and the ministry of education. Some theoretical
and practical implications for research were put forward at the tail end of the study
Key words: Deaf and hard hearing students, social cognition, phenomenology, Ghana,
polytechnics.
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Vol ume 02 I s s ue 8
Augus t 2016
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1. Introduction
The number of deaf and hard of hearing
(DHH) students in the polytechnics in Ghana
has been increasing for the past years. In the
Koforidua Polytechnic for example, ten of
such students had been admitted as at the end
of December, 2015. The problem is not the
numbers because when expressed in
percentage terms, the ten of the total number
of students is minuscule. The issue is that
their pre-tertiary educational conditions are
different from that of tertiary conditions. For
example, the schools for the DDH in Ghana
are resourced with the necessary materials
and appropriate staff unlike that of tertiary.
Therefore, DDH may not encounter the kind
of culture which befits them. Thus the aim
was to explore their experience on a
polytechnic campus. This paper is the first of
its kind in the sense that it has never been
done in the kind of context.
Hearing students have the benefits of all the
four preferences of learning, namely: visual,
aural, read/write and kinetics (VARK) as
posited by Fleming (2001).
1 Communication Considerations A to ZTM is
a series from Hands & Voices
The DHH do not have the benefit of one of
the four preferences, that is, audio. Thus,
there are cognitive differences in the DHH
and the Hearing which can affect their
language comprehension, literacy and
learning (Marshark, 2015). According to him
the cognitive differences are likely to be in
the area of memory, visual information
processing, concept learning and knowledge
organization. In Ghana there are special
schools for the Deaf in all the regions. The
schools are staffed with teachers who use the
appropriate methods and materials in
teaching the Deaf. According to the officials
of the School for the Deaf in Koforidua (in
Ghana) most children who are deaf are sent
to the schools in their early age. The ten
students in the polytechnic were no
exception. They all attended the special
school for the deaf before joining the
polytechnic. The issue is that the teachers in
the polytechnics in Ghana do not have the
appropriate skills in teaching the DHH.
Writing an article based on the topic social
cognition and theory of mind in
Communication Considerations A to Z TM1
,
Doctor Brenda Schick took the position that
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Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at
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e-I SSN: 2395-0463
Vol ume 02 I s s ue 8
Augus t 2016
Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 197
Deaf and hard-of-hearing students are at risk
for delays in social cognition. Also skills in
social cognition affect social interaction. As
well, skills in social cognition can affect
academic learning.
1.1 The problem statement and motivation
for research
The DHH have a limitation in the learning
process as compared to the Hearing. The
Hearing have all the benefits of the learning
preferences whilst the DHH lack one in a
learning environment. Yet they have to
compete with the Hearing in the same
learning environment for good grades. Given
the circumstances we were motivated by the
need to discover the strength of the DHH in
the learning process.
1.2 What is DHH?
Deaf and hard of hearing has a technical
definition. The American National Standards
Institute (1989) gives the following
indicators as the level of deafness.
15-30 dB HL, mild hearing loss
31-60 dB HL, moderate hearing loss
61-90 dB HL, severe hearing loss
>90 dB HL, profound hearing loss
Thus a deaf communicator may not
necessarily be completely deaf. Such person
may be described as hard of hearing. Goss
(2003) illustrates it better that if a phone is
ringing, a person with mild hearing loss is
likely to notice it after some time, a person
with a moderate hearing loss may need
assistive listening devices (hearing aids,
amplifiers, FM systems) to hear it, a person
with severe hearing loss can hear it only with
the help of assistive listening devices, and a
person with a profound hearing loss may not
hear the phone even with assistive listening
devices.
1.3 The purpose of the study
The purpose of this article was to describe the
experiences of DHH Students in the learning
process in the polytechnics, using the
Koforidua polytechnic as a case study. The
study was narrowed to a learning process that
affects academic work or performance. It
might be an event, activity, procedures,
systems or any other factors that has a bearing
on the DDH’s learning process. It is
important to do this study in order to get a
deeper understanding about the phenomena
and thus suggest practices and policies based
on tertiary education. Also, this work will fill
a gap in the scholarly literature.
