Abstract:

The most important objective of the educational system is to help find a solution to all possible problems that individuals can encounter during their development processes and to provide the individuals with the educational services they need. Special-needs education, as a part of this system, aims at providing equal opportunities to the individuals, who do not comply with the conditions of normal education because of any reason. Since greater importance has been attached to the needs as central to the learning experience of individuals, learner-centered approaches have been widely implemented for the individuals having disabilities or special needs. The developments in educational sciences emphasize a need for getting beyond the traditional approaches for the education of hearing impaired students. This study investigates the respective impacts of active learning and traditional teaching approaches on the academic achievement of hearing-impaired students related to the subject topic of Main Landforms in Geography lesson. The aim of the study is to analyze the differences of the achievement levels of 9th grade hearing impaired students in Geography lessons while teaching main landforms by employing active learning and traditional techniques. Pre-test and post-test experimental design with control group was used. The findings emerged from the administration of relevant techniques led to the conclusion that active learning method has proved to be particularly effective in increasing final grades of students than traditional teaching method. Accordingly, active learning method is a method that would increase achievement levels when used in Geography lessons with hearing impaired students.

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