Audio-Tutorial Approach

Audio Tutorial Approach: Reflection on Research and practical applications

As a teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing I am always concerned with accessibility. Any and all tutorial materials created with public money should be accessible. The audio instructions in an AT modual should be available in a text version and in American Sign Language. A video of a teacher signing the material could be added to the tutorial.

I am somewhat surprised by the conclusion of the Kulik article finding basically no significant difference in performance between students engaged in courses presented via audio- tutorial and conventional college courses.

In the AT approach students had some measure of control of the information presented by having the ability to control the pace. They had the opportunity to repeat presented information which should have assisted in comprehension. The students were also expected to present information orally, which should have helped them to retain what they were learning and therefore they should have performed better on examinations. The AT approach had more hands activities and was more interactive then conventional classes which should have assisted in comprehension, and retention of information resulting in higher examination scores, however the use of AT did not lead to significanlty improved or reduce scores.

There were only a few studies with elementary, middle or high school students, but if the college students did not have a significant difference in performance I would not expect that K-12 students would have results indicating a great difference in performance using the AT method when compared to traditional methods.

For students to benefit from the AT method consistently I think they would need training and practice on how to learn via AT. I can see the benfit of incorporating AT into the K-12 curriculum by using short tasks and short units in elementary school and increasing the length and complexity of the AT units in a systematic way.

In conclusion AT is another tool to use to reach students.