“Can a snowman have more than three snowballs?” Conducting Project Studies with Young Deaf Children

Abstract

This study explored conducting project studies with young deaf children in two American Sign Language (ASL) and English bilingual schools for deaf children. Project studies involve teachers’ facilitation of exploration on a topic that interests young children. In projects, children learn by doing, starting with questions based on children’s curiosity about a topic and finding answers to the questions through investigation, field trips, and play. Children then represent their understanding and ideas about the topic in various ways. This study used ethnographic methods by observing specific strategies that teachers used to facilitate deaf children’s learning in multiple early childhood classrooms. The study also included focus group interviews to listen to the perspectives of families and teachers about using the project approach with young children in deaf education. The findings include descriptions of deaf children’s experience conducting projects that took place in both schools. It revealed the benefits of conducting project studies with young deaf children to enhance their learning experiences.