LEARNING BEHAVIORS RELATED TO DEAF STUDENTS’ SUCCESS IN COLLEGE

Some deaf students who have basic level reading and writing skills upon entry to college are successfuland graduate and others are not. Summers (2003) reported that learning behaviors and study habits exhibitedby hearing students provide useful information relative to college persistence. We do not have similarinformation relative to deaf students’ success. This article presents data describing three in-class and threeout-of-class learning behaviors of 134 first-year deaf college students enrolled in basic-level Englishreading and writing courses. The in-class behaviors included class attendance, attentiveness, and participation;the out-of-class behaviors included completing assignments, using tutorial support, and doingoptional work. The data for these six behaviors were studied to determine their relationships to thesestudents’ persistence in college after three to five years. Students who had graduated or were still registeredin college after three years were those who were already practicing strong study skills and habits intheir first year. This finding has implications for fostering the development of these skills before deafstudents enter college and very early in their college careers.