Effect Of Peer Tutoring and Teacher Centred Strategies on the Academic Performance of Hearing Impaired Students Comorbid with Learning Disabilities in Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

The presence of learning disability as a major comorbid disability associated with hearing 
impairment compounds the learning difficulties experienced by these students. Most teachers 
of learners with these conditions who do not realise their learning challenges find it difficult to 
use appropriate teaching strategy to meet the learning needs. This study, therefore, was 
designed to determine the effect of peer tutoring on the academic performance of hearing 
impaired students comorbid with learning disabilities in Oyo State, Nigeria. The moderating 
effects of gender and degree of hearing loss were also examined. Three hypotheses were 
formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. A pretest-posttest control group quasi 
experimental design with a 3x2x2 factorial matrix was adopted. Three schools for students with 
hearing impairment were purposively selected based on the availability of students with 
hearing impairment. Fourty students with hearing impairment were screened for learning 
disabilities with Myklebust rating scale. These students with mild and moderate hearing loss 
were further screened and selected with the use of AD629-Hybrid Diagnostic Audiometer. The 
schools were randomly assigned to treatment groups and control groups. The treatment lasted 
eight weeks. T-test was used to analyze the data collected. The study revealed peer-tutoring 
strategy more than teacher centered strategy improved the academic performance of hearing 
impaired students with learning disabilities in Ibadan, Nigeria particularly among females with 
moderate hearing loss. The study also revealed that females in the two treatment groups had 
better academic performance than the control group. This therefore implies that students learn 
better and faster when they learn together because they see themselves as equal without seeing 
anyone among them as being superior. Therefore, these strategies should be adopted by 
teachers of with hearing impairment whose notice that students exhibit traits of learning 
disabilities with poor academic performance