An Investigation of the Cooperative Learning Process of Students with Hearing Loss in the Social Studies Course

Abstract

The Social Studies course, as part of the curriculum starting with primary school, aims to improve the social adaptation skills of students. Cooperative learning reinforces these skills by providing students with active involvement opportunities to set common goals in small heterogeneous groups. This case study investigates the implementation of the cooperative learning model in the Social Studies course with 4th grade students with hearing loss. The data were collected via video recordings of the lessons, voice recordings of the validity and reliability committee, documents, the researcher’s journal, and the process-products. Per the outcomes of this study, it is safe to state that the cooperative learning model contributes to debating skills on the Social Studies concepts as well as knowledge transfer, reasoning, and positive interdependence skills of students with hearing loss who receive an education based on the auditory-oral approach.