R EPO'R T R ESUMES ED 013 009 EC 001 177 A DEMONSTRATION PROJECTIN ART EDUCATION FOR DEAFAND HARD OF HEARING CHILDREN AND ADULTS. BY SILVER, RAWLEY A. NEW YORK SOCIETY FORTHE DEAF, N.Y. REPORT NUMBER DR.-G-8590 PUB DATE JUL 67 GRANT 0E0...1-.7008596-.2038 (DRS PRICE MP=50.50 HC -$2.64 68P. a DESCRIPTORS-. *DEAF, *HARDOF HEARING, *HANDICRAFTS,*ART EDUCATION, *EMPLOYMENTOPPORTUNITIES, AURALLY HANDICAPPED, CHILDREN, ADOLESCENTS,ADULTS, APTITUDE, INTERESTS, DEMONSTRATION PROJECTS, TORRANCETEST OF CREATIVE THINKING THIS PROJECT WAS DESIGNEDTO ASSESS APTITUDES:INTEREST, AND VOCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIESFOR THE HEARING IMPAIREDIN THE VISUAL ARTS AND TO IDENTIFYEFFECTIVE METHODS OF TEACHING ART. A GROUP OF 54 DEAF ANDHARD OF HEARING CHILDREN AND ADULTS ATTENDED EXPERIMENTALART CLASSES. THREE RATINGSCALES AND THE TORRANCE TEST OFCREATIVE THINKING WERE THE INSTRUMENTS USED TO ASSESSAPTITUDE. STUDENT INTERESTWAS MEASURED BY QUESTIONNAIRES.CRAFTSMEN, EMPLOYERS, AND ART SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS COMPLETEDQUESTIONNAIRES DESIGNED TO MEASURE VOCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES. CONCLUSIONSWERE-.-.(1) APTITUDE AND INTEREST INTHE VISUAL ARTS IS AS HIGHFOR THE DEAF AS FOR THE HEARING,IV A TALENTED DEAF PERSONCAN SUCCEED AS A CRAFTSMAN, (3)SOME PEOPLE WORKING WITHTHE DEAF TEND TO UNDERESTIMATE THE APTITUDES, INTERESTS,AND VOCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES FORTHE DEAF IN THE VISUALARTS, AND (4) ART TECHNIQUES ANDCONCEPTS CAN OE CONVEYEDTO DEAF STUDENTS WITHOUT THE USE OFLANGUAGE. QUESTIONNAIRERESPONSE TASULATIONS ARE PRESENTEDALONG WITH SAMPLE QUESTIONNAIRES AND RESPONSES. ELEVENREFERENCES ARE CITED. (MW) Cr% FINAL REPORT Project No. 6-8598 teN Grant No. OEG-1-7-008598-2038 r--f A DEMONSTRATION PROJECT IN ART EDUCATION FOR DEAF AND HARD OF HEARING CHILDREN AND ADULTS July 1967 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE Office of Education Bureauof Research A DEMONSTRATION PROJECT IN ARTEDUCATION FOR 0I1 DEAF AND HARD OF HEARING CHILDRENAND ADULTS I8 1 I q Project No. 6-8598 Grant No. OEG-l-7-008598-2038 iI Pi a = 1 is i I 1 Hawley A. Silver, Ed.D. siII! 1 al111i I 82is July 1967 MI The research reported hereinwas performed pursuant to a grant from the Office of Education,U.S.Depart- ment of Health, Education, and Welfare. Contractors undertaking such projects under governmentsponsor- ship are encouraged toexpress freely their profes- sional judgment in the conductof the project. Points of view or opinions stated donot, therefore, neces- sarily represent official Officeof Education position or policy. New York Society for the Deaf 344 East 14th Street New York, N. Y., 10003 TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. INTRODUCTION 1 Background 1 Hypothesis and Objectives 3 II. METHODS 4 Methods of Assessiwg Aptitude for Art . 4 Methods of Assessing Interest in Art. 7 Methods of Assessing Vocational Oppor- tunities 7 Methods of Assessing Teaching Procedures. 7 III. RESULTS 9 Aptitude for Art 9 Interest in Art Vocational Opportunities Teaching Procedures 19 Response of Vocational Specialists and Educators 25 IV. DISCUSSION 27 Low Expectations 27 Misconceptions About Art 29 Conceptions of Art Education 30 V. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 32 VI. SUMMARY 34 REFERENCES 36 APPENDICES A Comments by6Art Teachers who Evaluated Portfolios B Questionnaires Pertaining to Interest in Art C Questionnaires and Comments Concerning Voca- tional Opportunities D Art Supplies and Costs 3xamples of Written Communications i CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Background Since deafness closesthe door to manyvocations and avocations,there is a need forinformation about the aptitudes andinterests of peoplewho are deaf. include those who are In this study,the term deaf will hard of hearing oraphasic, unlessotherwise indicated.* Low expectations ofability can distortthe prob- arts among lem. Few look forability in the visual the deaf, yetdeafness could beexpected to develop qualities which arerelated to talent,such as origin- ality or sensitivity. The deaf personmust often guess at themeaning of events andbe tuned to what- ever clues he canfind. It would seemnatural for him to express hisreactions visually,through the same channel from which hereceives most of hisimpressions. He could also beexpected to developability in visual thinking, and as a matterof fact, deafchildren have been found superiorto hearing children ontests of memory fordesign and movement(6, p.82; 2,p.46). Few expect the deafto have interestsin the with visual arts. In fact onevocational specialist whom the project wasdiscussed in its earlystage, predicted that thegreatest difficultywould be find- ing a population towork with, andanother predicted that those who enrolledin the classeswould ask to be is not paid for theirtrouble. With hindsight, it surprising that aninvitation to study artin a class The visual for deaf studentswould have wideappeal. *When distinctions aremade, the termaphasia will refer to those whohave brain damagewhich impedes the The interpretation and/ortransmission of language. term hard of hearingwill refer to thosewhose hearing loss occurred afterlanguage was acquired. The term deaf will refer tothose whose hearingloss has preven- ted the normalacquisition of language 1 MIN1111111111111 arts can compensate in many ways: deafness is isola- ting and art is a means of sharingexperiences without the need for talk. The enjoyment of works of art can be profound, and there is pleasure aswell in making art forms. Art minimizes veroal ability andcapitali- zes on visual thinking,sensitivity to environment, and the desire to communicate. Few expect the deaf to succeed ascraftsmen, de- signers, or artists. Public funds are available for the tuition of a handicapped personif it seems likely to enable him to earn his living,but they are rarely available to a deaf person seeking a careerin the fine or applied arts. This will be illustrated by the ex- perience of one of the students on page28. The fact that even the deaf who goto college often choose to be tradesmen(6, p.365) suggests that counseling leads them to the trades. But what if voca- tional and educational expectations areunrealistically low? What if many deaf persons haveaptitudes but little or no opportunity todevelop them? The evidence of aptitude can beprofoundly affec- ted by expectations. Torrance has shown that highly creative children conceal theirability when they fear rejection or failure (9,p.126). Ability in the visual arts is particularly vulnerable tothe opinions of an art teacher (8,p.169). Like low expectations, inadequateteaching can make decisive difference in theevidence of aptitude in students. In a study of 9000 Canadianhearing chil- dren, during a period of more thantwo years, it was found that imitative proceduresinterfered with their development in artistic expression,and that when they were required to draw aseries of objects according to a teacher'sdirections, they were retarded whencompared with children who were allowed todevise their own sym- bols (3, p. 39). Yet an observer visiting artclasses in schools for the deaf sawstudents in one school copying their teacher's model of aChristmas tree orna- ment, and coloring in areas of adesign outlined by the teacher, taking turns with a singlebrush and a single jar of paint. In a second school for the deaf, students painted from plaster casts intints and shades of a single color; in a third,they copied 2 ------1111111111111111 their teacher's own painting, anabstraction in the manner of JacksonPollock, and in a fourth,they copied photographs clipped from amagazine (8). Of four studies of artisticability in deaf chil- dren, two found littledifference between deaf and hearing in artistic judgment(6, p.368). The third, a study of ability rather thanjudgment, found major differences (4, p.421). Evaluating paintings madeby 20 deaf children over aperiod of six years, anart educator found them differentfrom the work of hearing children in subject matter andtechnique. The findings 1 suggest that deaf children areretarded in artistic ability and that deafness isthe cause. The possibility that the cause might lieelsewhere was not considered, nor were objectives ormethods of teaching described. In the fourth study,however, 25 children in four schools for the deaf attendedexperimental art classes for about 10 weeks. Their paintings were thencompared with the work of hearingchildren by 17 art educators: 8 found no differences, 7 found thedeaf less mature and 2 found them superiorin aptitude for art(8, p.80). This suggests that lackof ability in art maybe due, not to deafness, or lackof aptitude, but toteaching practices. Hypothesis 1. Given an adequate introductionto studio ex- periences and the offeringsof museums, deaf students can be expectedto have as much aptitudeand interests in the visual arts as dohearing students. 2. Vocational opportunities forthe deaf in the applied arts are generallyunderestimated. Objectives 1. To obtain information aboutaptitudes, inter- ests, and vocationalopportunities in the visualarts for the deaf. 2. To identify effectivemethods of teaching art to deaf children andadults. 3 Notices were sent to schools and other agencies in the New York City area announcingthat there would be free instruction in painting andsculpture, as well as field trips, for alimited number of deaf children and adults at the New York Society forthe Deaf. Students were not selected but were accepted in the order in which they applied.*The children's class was limited to8 students each term, and the adult-teen- ager class was limited to15 students each term. Three children, 3 teenagers, and 4 adults enrolled inthe