A Summer Class Exploring Computer Science with Educators of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students

The purpose of this research project was to design, deliver, and informally assess the content and methodology of an introductory course focused on the block-based coding language, Scratch, for educators of Deaf and Hard of Hearing students (N=20). Prior work by The Playful Learning Lab examined various STEM resources and their effect on student perception of STEM topics and content retention when utilized for Deaf and Hard of Hearing K-12 students. Previous research has shown that computer science and programming resources and curricula available today are not fully accessible for Deaf and Hard of Hearing K-12 students. Educators and teachers are faced with creating adaptations themselves, often limited by time constraints (Ladner, 2020). The purpose of the Summer 2023 “Playing with Coding” course was to provide the background knowledge and content to educators of Deaf and Hard of Hearing students so they are able to explore the possibility of teaching the programming language in their own classrooms. Through our research and participant survey reflections, we hoped to determine effective methods and resources that educators can use to successfully teach the Scratch programming language to Deaf and Hard of Hearing students.