Deaf students
often rely on sign language interpreting in order to participate in
academic programs at institutions of higher education (IHE). The
quality of educational interpreting is variable, particularly in
science and engineering (S&E) IHE classrooms. IHE S&E
material often may be beyond the educational backgrounds of many
sign-language interpreters. Research measuring the comprehension and
retention of interpreted material in S&E among deaf students in
IHE settings is scarce.
These research projects collect and
analyze information concerning how learning through interpreting
interacts with various characteristics of deaf students and their
educational settings. One focus of this research involves analysis of
visual attention strategies of deaf and hearing students in high-tech
classrooms. Through the use of an eye tracker, it was discovered how
deaf students and hearing students differ in the allocation of their
gaze (i.e., divide their attention) among a sign language
interpreter, the instructor, and a visual display. Results are still
in preparation, but early results of this research that focused on
the initial question of how interpreting interacts with
characteristics of deaf students have been published.
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