Enhancing Graduate and Undergraduate Training in Speech and Hearing Sciences

Purpose

Speech pathology students at both the undergraduate and graduate level have trouble relating the scientific principles that underlie their profession to the therapy they practice. This project created the software for microcomputer-based laboratory work and designed activities that allowed students to perceive and experience the relationship between scientific theory and therapeutic practice.

Innovative Features

The instructional modules and accompanying software are intended for graduate and undergraduate courses in speech science and for an undergraduate course in phonetics. Each student, at his or her own pace, completes the weekly computer laboratory assig nment, which illustrates the week's lectures. Students manipulate the visual representation of the speech wave associated with various acoustical phenomena and hear the resulting effect. They are also able to break the speech wave into individual components. This simultaneous visual and auditory experience allows students to connect the problems they encounter in clinical situations with their scientific knowledge. It represents a significant departure from conventional practice because it gives studen ts hands-on experience with acoustic phenomena, which increases their understanding of the separate systems in speech production, as well as their integrated nature.

Evaluation

Project staff measured the performance of students in the three courses on tests taken at the beginning and end of each semester, and before and after each laboratory exercise. Staff also compared overall learning gains and, in the case of the laborato ry tests, specific gains in scientific knowledge. All scores in all three courses showed substantial and statistically significant learning gains.

Staff then compared scores on the end-of-course tests for the Washington State undergraduate students with those on the same test administered to students taking the same courses at St. Cloud State University. Students in the introductory speech scienc e course at Washington State did significantly better than comparable students at St. Cloud (t equals 8.91, p is less than .05), where the laboratory exercises were not used. the Washington State students also did better in the phonetics course, but the difference was not statistically significant. this result may in part be due to the fact that participation in the laboratory activities was optional in the phonetics course at washington state, whereas it was required in the speech science courses.

Lessons Learned

The ability to manipulate visual representations of acoustic phenomena and to experience their auditory effect enhances students' scientific knowledge and renders them better able to link basic science with therapeutic practice.

In the course of the project, the director learned that students were most satisfied with the laboratories when the instructor was present to discuss issues as they performed the exercises. The project director also found that group activities requiring graduate students to explain real cases in terms of scientific principles helped to make the difficult connection between principle and practice. At the undergraduate level, audio-tapes were used for similar purposes.

The number of graduate students electing to complete research projects involving acoustical measurement has increased markedly since the laboratories were introduced. The project director attributes this change to the laboratories' success in helping students overcome their fear of mathematics and hard science.

Project Continuation

The laboratories are now a permanent feature of the courses in which they were piloted. Laboratory materials, including software programs and documentation, have been distributed to the more than 100 speech sciences programs (out of 200 in North America) that requested them.

Available Information

Software programs and laboratory activities for the three courses, sound files and set-up files supporting those activities, and documentation of the software and laboratory tasks are available from:

J. Anthony Seikel
Dept. of Speech and Hearing Sciences
201 Daggy
Washington State University
Pullman, WA 99164-2420
509-335-4525

An article that arose from the project was published in 1995: Seikel, J.A., Drumright, D.G., Whites, M.M. & Seikel, P. J. (1995). "A 'hands-on' approach to speech science." Computers in Education, 24 (2), 107-116.

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