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Towards Inclusion of All Learners through Science Teacher Education
STUDIES IN INCLUSIVE
EDUCATION
Series Editor

Roger Slee (University of South Australia, Australia)

Editorial Board

Mel Ainscow (University of Manchester, UK)

Felicity Armstrong (Institute of Education, University of London, UK)
Len Barton (Institute of Education, University of London, UK)
Suzanne Carrington (Queensland University of Technology, Australia)
Joanne Deppeler (Monash University, Australia)
Linda Graham (University of Sydney, Australia)
Levan Lim (National Institute of Education, Singapore)
Missy Morton (University of Canterbury, New Zealand)

ඏඈඅඎආൾ 36

The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/stie

Cover illustration: Drawing by Mindi Rhoades

All chapters in this book have undergone peer review.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Koomen, Michele, editor.

Title: Toward inclusion of all learners through science teacher education /
edited by Michele Koomen, Sami Kahn, Christopher L. Atchison
DQG 7L൵DQ\ $ :LOG
Description: Boston : Brill Sense, [2018] | Series: Studies in inclusive
education | Includes bibliographical references and index.
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Subjects: LCSH: Science--Study and teaching (Elementary)--United States. |
Science--Study and teaching (Secondary)--United States. | Science
teachers--Training of--United States. | Inclusive education.
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Copyright 2018 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.

Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf,
%ULOO 1LMKR൵ %ULOO 5RGRSL %ULOO 6HQVH DQG +RWHL 3XEOLVKLQJ
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written
permission from the publisher.
Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by
Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The
Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923,
USA. Fees are subject to change.

This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner.

 CONTENTS

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction xi
Sami Kahn and Michele Koomen

Section 1: Listening to the Inclusive Voices of Students with Disabilities

in the Science Education Classroom

Introduction to Section 1 3

1. Inclusion “Insight”: Voices of Students with Visual Impairments in the

6FLHQFH &ODVVURRP 
Lisa Johnson

2. '++ 9RLFHV 
Lisa M. Dembouski (with Kaitlyn Mielke, Johanna Lucht, Julie Pleski,
Norb Biderman and Misty Schomberg)

3. Tanglde in Tetx: :KDW , :DQW <RX WR .QRZ DERXW 0\ '\VOH[LF 6HOI 

Merrie Koester

 A Good Teacher Makes Science Light-Hearted: Experiences in Learning

6FLHQFH IURP $OHMDQGUR 
Alejandro and Michele Koomen

 ,QFOXGLQJ 6WXGHQWV ZLWK $XWLVP 6SHFWUXP 'LVRUGHU LQ D . &ODVVURRP 

Kourtney Bakalyar

6. Looking through the Window to Help Teach Others: Science Stories of

7KUHH <RXQJ :RPHQ 
Lauren Madden, Amy Schuler, Melissa Friedman, Shanaya Panday
and Danielle Koehler

 Synthesis of Voices from the Field: Implications for Practice 69

Tiffany Wild

v
CONTENTS

Section 2: Visions of Inclusion and Access: UDL, Strengths-Based

Approaches, and Online Learning

,QWURGXFWLRQ WR 6HFWLRQ  

8. 5HGH¿QLQJ ,QFOXVLRQ LQ (GXFDWLRQDO 6HWWLQJV DFURVV WKH /HDVW 5HVWULFWLYH

(QYLURQPHQW &RQWLQXXP 
Kathleen M. Farrand

9. Applying a Universal Design for Learning Framework to Mediate the

Language Demands of Science 91
Cathy Newman Thomas, Delinda van Garderen, Kate Sadler,
Mary Decker and Deborah Hanuscin

10. From Access to Assets: Strength-Based Visions for Inclusive Science

(GXFDWLRQ 
Sami Kahn

11. Inclusive Online Science Education: :KDW 7HDFKHUV 1HHG WR .QRZ 
Sheryl Burgstahler

12. Universal Design for Learning in Science: A Framework That Supports

WKH 1HHGV RI $OO 
Sarah Summy and Marcia Fetters

Section 3: Developing Disciplinary Core Ideas and Science Content

Knowledge

Introduction to Section 3 139

13. )URP $FDGHPLFLDQ¶V 2൶FH WR 3K\VLFV /DE IRU 6WXGHQWV ZLWK 6SHFLDO
Needs: $ *XLGH IRU 7UDQVIRUPDWLRQ 
0XVWDID ùDKÕլ n Bülbül

 Crosscutting through Science Education: Opportunities for Inclusion

5HVXOWLQJ LQ ([FHSWLRQDO /HDUQLQJ IRU $OO 
Terri Hebert, Jannike Jakobsen Seward and R. Lee Smith

 Learning Frog Calls When You Can’t Hear: Fieldwork with High School
6WXGHQWV :KR $UH 'HDI DQG +DUGRI+HDULQJ 
Lacey D. Huffling, Aerin W. Benavides, Catherine E. Matthews,
Mary V. Compton, Stephanie Kurtts and Heidi B. Carlone

vi
 CONTENTS

16. “Engineering Is for Everyone”: A Case Study of Elementary Engineering

'HVLJQ 
Elaine Silva Mangiante and Adam Moore

 Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers through First-Hand Perspectives

RI $ELOLW\ LQ DQ ,QFOXVLYHO\'HVLJQHG 6FLHQFH 0HWKRGV &RXUVH 
Christopher L. Atchison and Christina R. Carnahan

Section 4: Science Practice and Developing Explanations

,QWURGXFWLRQ WR 6HFWLRQ  

18. Increasing Science Learning and Engagement for Academically Diverse

6WXGHQWV WKURXJK 6FD൵ROGHG 6FLHQWL¿F ,QTXLU\ DQG 8QLYHUVDO 'HVLJQ IRU
Learning 201
Maya Israel, Saadeddine Shehab and Quentin M. Wherfel

19. 6FLHQWL¿F ,QTXLU\ DQG 'HYHORSLQJ ([SODQDWLRQV IRU $OO 

Kevin D. Finson

20. Learning Science by Doing Science: Developing Scientific Explanations

DQG (QJDJLQJ LQ $UJXPHQWDWLRQ LQ WKH ,QFOXVLYH 6FLHQFH &ODVVURRP 
Kevin Fleming and Dina Secchiaroli

Section 5: Promoting Literacy in Science

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21. 3URPRWLQJ (TXLW\ ,QFOXVLRQ DQG $FFHVVLELOLW\ LQ /LWHUDF\5LFK 6FLHQFH

/HDUQLQJ (QYLURQPHQWV 
William Lindquist and Rebecca A. Neal

22. Some of Them Have Problems, Too, Like Me: Science Disciplinary
/LWHUDF\ IRU $OO 
Michele Koomen

Section 6: Assessment in Science

,QWURGXFWLRQ WR 6HFWLRQ  

23. The Rise of Measurement: Assessing Science and the Implications for
6WXGHQWV ZLWK 6SHFLDO 1HHGV IRU ,QFOXVLYH 6FLHQFH (GXFDWLRQ 
Jonte’ C. Taylor, Karen Koehler, Karen Rizzo and Jiwon Hwang

vii
CONTENTS

 Assessing the Ultimate Goal of Science Education: Scientific Literacy

IRU $OO 
Judith S. Lederman and Selina Bartels

Section 7: Advocacy

,QWURGXFWLRQ WR 6HFWLRQ  

 Oh the Places You Will Go! But How Will You Get There? Examining
the Role of Social Feedback, Mentorship and Role Modelling in
STEM Career Pathways 291
Heather A. Pacheco-Guffrey

26. Exclusion from Participation in Science: Confessions from an Ally on

the Other Side of the Fence 301
Phillip A. Boda

Section 8: Science Teacher Education

,QWURGXFWLRQ WR 6HFWLRQ  

 Co-teaching for Inclusiveness: How Two Teacher Educators Collaborated

DFURVV 'LVFLSOLQDU\ %RXQGDULHV LQ DQ (OHPHQWDU\ 6FLHQFH 0HWKRGV &RXUVH 
Teresa Shume and Keri DeSutter

28. Voices and Practice of SEND in Science Initial Teacher Education 329
Lyn Haynes and Maria Turkenburg-van Diepen

29. A Collaborative Process for Preparing Pre-Service General Education

and Special Education Science Teachers 339
Jenna Porter and Kathy Gee

30. No Student Teacher Left Behind: Lessons Learned from a Science Student
7HDFKHU ZLWK D 3K\VLFDO 'LVDELOLW\ 
Catherine M. Koehler

31. Conclusion: Bringing the Book Together 363

Michele Koomen, Sami Kahn, Christopher L. Atchison and Tiffany Wild

About the Contributors 369

Index 381

viii
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We are grateful to the many individuals who supported the development of this work
through their efforts, insights, and inspiration. First, we wish to thank the following
scholars who assisted us with proofreading and other editorial tasks:

Tahnee Andrew Rachel Jackson

Leah Chamberlain Helen Meyer
Ying Ting Chiu Ryan Pigman
Diane Clouse Linda Plevyak
Sarah Cross Erin Rumpke
Sarah Everett Marek Samblanet
Danene Fast Matthew Schmidt
Leiflyn Gamborg Mandy Smith
Sarah Good Angela Webb
Susan Gregson Emily Wild
Kristen Haddad

Next, we wish to thank Mindi Rhoades, Assistant Professor of Teaching and Learning
at The Ohio State University, for designing our beautiful cover art. She expressed
through her artistry the power and vision that we hope emanates from our book.

We also wish to thank our families, friends, and colleagues for their encouragement,
patience, and wisdom.

Finally, we thank all of the students, teachers, teacher educators, and researchers
who have inspired us by working to ensure that ALL voices are heard and honored
in science.

With Gratitude,

Michele Koomen, Sami Kahn, Christopher Atchison, and Tiffany Wild

The Editors

ix
 SAMI KAHN AND MICHELE KOOMEN

INTRODUCTION

The idea and urgency for this book began at the national meeting of the Association for
Science Teacher Education in 2011 with a conversation between Tiffany Wild (The
Ohio State University), Sharon Dotger (Syracuse University) and Michele Koomen
(Gustavus Adolphus College). During an Inclusive Science Forum meeting at that
conference we lamented the absence of research and practitioner-based information
and texts regarding inclusion in the science teacher and science education literature.
Many publications have been written with the titles that contain words like “Science
Education for ALL Students”, but only contain a small paragraph or two about
teaching students with special needs.
As professional teacher educators, we were keenly aware of the fact that so
few teachers, whether in-service or pre-service feel prepared to teach all students.
Norman, Caseau, and Stefanich (1998) national survey of 189 elementary, middle
and high school teachers and college and university science educators found that
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with disabilities in the regular science classroom. Parsad, Lewis, and Farris, (2001)
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preparation program, the majority of these teachers felt that they were not prepared to
accommodate students with disabilities or exceptionalities in their future classrooms.
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DGHTXDWHO\ SUHSDUHG WR WHDFK VFLHQFH WR VWXGHQWV ZLWK VSHFLILF GLVDELOLWLHV 1RUPDQ
et al., 1998). More recently and similar to the research of Norman and colleagues,
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WDXJKW VWXGHQWV ZLWK GLVDELOLWLHV DW VRPH SRLQW LQ WKHLU FDUHHUV DQG VWLOO  RI WKHP
had no training on teaching students with disabilities. Many reported that on the
job training was the only instruction they received. Science teachers in the survey
overwhelmingly supported the need for additional training in teaching students with
disabilities. Obviously, the inclusion of students in general education classrooms is
preceding the establishment of training and assistance for teachers and support staff.
This book creates a bold vision for supporting all learners in science and serves
to unify the work of multicultural and special education with a focus on the ability
and strength of all students. Throughout this book, we seek to mediate the gap in the
research and published literature in inclusive science teacher education as a needed
educational resource for learning about how to educate students with exceptionalities

xi
S. KAHN & M. KOOMEN

in science. We use disability studies in education (DSE) as the conceptual framework

for the book. DSE is an interdisciplinary orientation to educational theory, research,
and practice that works from a social and cultural model of disability and challenges
the medical (or deficit) model to normalize difference.
Our vision for this book centers on the voices and stories of the experts: current
and former K-12 students with disabilities who have experienced education in the
general science education classroom and uses their stories as a platform to develop
insightful educational methods (Jones, 2011). We hope that this book will serve as
an indispensable educational resource by providing pre-service teachers, current
teachers, and teacher educators with leading insights on inclusive and accessible
science instruction.
In the following sections, we build on the call by recent national reform
documents for rigorous science experiences for all students. Throughout we develop
in greater detail our conceptual framework of DSE and make the case for what we
believe is a moral imperative for all science educators: to interpret and implement
inclusive science education in its broadest sense, ensuring access and excellence for
all students no matter where they are educated or by whom they are taught.

NGSS AND THE FRAMEWORK FOR K-12 SCIENCE EDUCATION

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States, 2013), and the
Framework for K-12 Science Education upon which the NGSS were based (National
Research Council, 2012), envision a rigorous foundation in science for all K-12
students through the application of three-dimensional learning comprised of
disciplinary core ideas, crosscutting concepts and eight science and engineering
practices. Both documents, in our opinions, make admirable attempts at emphasizing
success in science for all students, particularly students who have been traditionally
underserved within the education system (NGSS, Appendix D). Yet, since both the
NGSS and their supporting conceptual framework were developed during a time, and
in response to, strong emphases on accountability, many teachers may unwittingly
find themselves teaching to tests rather than teaching individual students. To
support teachers, the NGSS offer an introduction to the manner in which the three
dimensions can be integrated and implemented through curricula and instruction
for all students through a series of teacher-centered case studies that provide a
window into successful teaching for students from various underrepresented groups,
including “English Language Learners,” “Economically Disadvantaged,” and
“Students with Disabilities.” We applaud this thoughtful approach that undoubtedly
can provide current and future science teachers with a glimpse into “best practices”
for students who are seen as belonging within each of the delineated groups. Yet we
also acknowledge that such cleanly-organized attempts at presenting the depth and
breadth of human experience within even a single classroom can come up short.
This is true in part because individual students may well identify with more than
one underrepresented group within such an organizational structure. But more

xii
 INTRODUCTION

importantly, because socially-constructed terms, like disability, are ultimately just

shorthand and fail to provide meaningful insight into individual experience. For
these reasons, we felt this book was needed; we wished to give voice to a wide
range of students who have been labelled as having disabilities in order to hear
detail-rich stories of their experiences, and those of their science teachers. We also
hoped to gain insights into ways that key aspects of the Framework and NGSS’
three-dimensional learning can be implemented with all students with particular
attention on their abilities and strengths. We are heartened that the NGSS are devised
around learning progressions that increase in sophistication from grades K-12,
thereby offering “multiple entry points to build and deepen understanding” (NGSS
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upon all students’ strengths, backgrounds, and experiences.

DISABILITY STUDIES IN EDUCATION

Disability studies in education has attracted scholars from across the globe who are
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educational practices surrounding the phenomenon of disability (Baglieri, Valle,
Connor & Gallagher, 2011). DSE, a relatively new field of research and scholarship,
emerged from disability studies where scholars and practitioners:
Seek to reach beyond the parochial and persistently narrow boundaries within
which disability is all too often conceived. Broadly, the aim of DSE is to
deepen understandings of the daily experiences of people with disabilities
in schools and universities, throughout contemporary society across diverse
cultures, and within various historical contexts. (Connor, Gabel, Gallagher, &
0RUWRQ  S 
Disability studies (DS) emerged over thirty years ago both in the United
Kingdom (U.K.) and in the United States (U.S.). Collins (2013) describes DS as
an interdisciplinary orientation to educational theory, research, and practice that
works from a social and cultural model of disability and challenges the medical (or
GHILFLW PRGHO WR ³QRUPDOL]H GLIIHUHQFH´ S   ,Q WKH 8. '6 ZDV LQIOXHQFHG
by sociologists drawing from neo-Marxist philosophy. These DS researchers
theorized a social interpretation and model of disability “in which disability is
primarily understood as a result of oppressive social arrangements” (Connor et al.,
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lesbians, and gays, to name just a few, were influential to DS. Both the U.S. and
U.K. models of DS define this paradigm as a “rejection of the medical model of
disability and the advocacy of full inclusion of disabled people in all aspects of
VRFLHW\´ &RQQRU HW DO  S  

xiii
S. KAHN & M. KOOMEN

DSE centers on the following tenets in research, policy, and action:

‡ Contextualize disability within political and social spheres;
‡ Privilege the interests, agendas, and voices of people labeled as disability/
disabled;
‡ 3URPRWH VRFLDO MXVWLFH HTXLWDEOH DQG LQFOXVLYH HGXFDWLRQDO RSSRUWXQLWLHV DQG IXOO
and meaningful access to all aspects of society for people labeled as disability/
disabled; and
‡ Assume competence and reject deficit models of disability (Connor et al., 2008,
S  
The practice of DSE recognizes disability as a natural part of human diversity
and oppose context dependent beliefs about what is normal DSE research is an
emancipatory tool that allows those in our society who are underrepresented to
DFKLHYH PRUH HTXDOLW\ PRUH LQFOXVLRQ DQG XOWLPDWHO\ PRUH RI WKH KXPDQ GLJQLW\
they deserve (Baglieri & Shapiro, 2012; Connor et al., 2008). DSE scholars define
inclusive education as full participation in general education classrooms with
minimal or no segregation into special education classrooms or services (Connor
et al., 2008). We imagine education as a practice of access that originates in these
considerations:
‡ Perceiving ability and disability, and ideas about mastery and learning as fluid.
‡ Considering how the interactions and settings contribute to the creation of
disability (i.e., make markers of difference/impairment meaningful as dis-
ablement).
‡ Querying how pull-out, tracking, or containment practices both mark individuals
as disabled and/or limit their access to curriculum and learning (Baglieri et al.,
 S  
,W LV ZRUWK QRWLQJ WKDW WKLV ERRN LV TXLWH XQLTXH LQ GHGLFDWLQJ LWV HQWLUH ILUVW VHFWLRQ
to the “voices” of persons with disabilities. We were steadfast in our commitment
to ensuring that our readers were privy to experiences conveyed by those with
disabilities, not about them. In doing so, we sought both authenticity in the narrative
and empowerment of the storyteller. We were pleased to see that this section
developed as a natural and robust context for the sections on research and practice
which follows it.
In keeping with DSE, this book seeks to lift up and center the stories on persons
labelled with disabilities to understand and consider those experiences as we shape
instructional practices for all. Despite the Individuals with Disabilities Improvement
$FW¶V ,'($  SROLF\ RI LQFOXGLQJ VWXGHQWV ZLWK GLVDELOLWLHV DQG WKHLU IDPLOLHV
in educational planning, special education often privileges the discourse of the
professional rather than the true expert voices of the students with disabilities
(Section 1). Throughout this book we use people first language to resist labels that

xiv
 INTRODUCTION

emphasize the disability first, rather than the person (Baglieri & Shapiro, 2012). In
using person first language we state: “student with disability” rather than “disabled
student” or a “person who is hard of hearing” versus a “hard of hearing person.”
People first language allows us to focus on the whole person, rather than one aspect
of who they are. Some authors within our book go a step further and use language
such as, “students who are labelled with” a particular disability, to emphasize their
view that disability terminology is socially-constructed and put-upon others, rather
than being inherent to the person. In regard to language, we ourselves admit that, at
times during the development of this book, we faced a bit of an existential crisis. We
felt it necessary, for example, to include in our Call for Chapters terminology such
as “student with Autism Spectrum Disorder” or “student with learning disabilities”
recognizing that such language would be deemed “medical model” by many in
DSE circles. We did this in order to ensure that the book welcomed voices of all
VWXGHQWV DQG ZLWK IXOO XQGHUVWDQGLQJ WKDW QR ERRN FDQ HYHU DGHTXDWHO\ UHSUHVHQW DOO
experiences or escape all social conventions. Ultimately, we found that our collective
editorial voice landed in a place that resists unnecessary ideological fractures.
However, we include “labelled with” in this Introduction to emphasize our DSE
lens. While there are those who view special education and DSE as being antithetical
to each other, we see DSE and contemporary approaches in special education as
mutually beneficial. These approaches must be able to coexist when inclusively-
designed instruction values the totality of the individual and where teachers listen
carefully to the voices of their students. This book attempts to facilitate those
necessary conditions.

REFERENCES
Baglieri, S., & Shapiro, A. (2012). Disability studies and the inclusive classroom Critical practices for
creating least restrictive attitudes. London: Routledge.
Baglieri, S., Valle, J. W., Connor, D. J., & Gallagher, D. J. (2011). Disability studies in education: The
need for a plurality of perspectives on disability. Remedial and Special Education, 32    
Collins, K. M. (2013). A disability studies response to JTE’s themed issue on diversity and disability in
teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 64    
Connor, D. J., Gabel, S. L., Gallagher, D. J., & Morton, M. (2008). Disability studies and inclusive
education-implications for theory, research and practice. International Journal of Inclusive Education,
12     
,QGLYLGXDOV ZLWK 'LVDELOLWLHV (GXFDWLRQ $FW  86& †   
Jones, M. M. (2011). Awakening teacher’s strategies for deconstructing disability and constructing ability.
Journal of Ethnographic & Qualitative Research, 5  
.DKQ 6 /HZLV $ 5   6XUYH\ RQ WHDFKLQJ VFLHQFH WR .  VWXGHQWV ZLWK GLVDELOLWLHV 7HDFKHU
preparedness and attitudes. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 25    
National Research Council. (2012). A framework for K-12 science education Practices, crosscutting
concepts, and core ideas. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
NGSS Lead States. (2013). Next generation science standards For states, by states. Washington, DC:
The National Academies Press.
Norman, K., Caseau, D., & Stefanich, G. (1998). Teaching students with disabilities in inclusive science
classrooms: Survey results. Science Education, 82(2),  

xv
S. KAHN & M. KOOMEN

Parsad, B., Lewis, L., & Farris, E. (2001). Teacher preparation and professional development 2000.
Washington, DC: National Center for Educational Statistics.

Sami Kahn
Department of Teacher Education
Patton College of Education, Ohio University
Athens, Ohio

Michele Koomen
Department of Education
Gustavus Adolphus College
St. Peter, Minnesota

xvi
 SECTION 1
LISTENING TO THE INCLUSIVE VOICES OF
STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES IN THE
SCIENCE EDUCATION CLASSROOM
 INTRODUCTION TO SECTION 1

Disability doesn’t make you exceptional, but questioning what you think you
know about it does. (Stella Young)
Research suggests that when teachers feel more competent and believe in the power
of the teaching profession, they are more comfortable with providing instruction
WR VWXGHQWV ZLWK GLVDELOLWLHV %UDG\ :RROIVRQ   +RZHYHU UHVHDUFK DOVR
suggests that pre-service teachers that hold stereotypes of disability and have not
had close contact with persons with disabilities are more likely to oppose inclusive
WHDFKLQJ SUDFWLFHV &URZVRQ %UDQGHV   7HDFKHUV DW ERWK WKH SUHVHUYLFH DQG
in-service levels should be given the tools and information to ensure that all students
with disabilities can be included in their classrooms.
In an effort to provide educators with the best information on the topic of
inclusive science education, we sought guidance from those with the highest levels
of experience and expertise in the subject matter: persons with disabilities. We
asked authors to engage and write with persons with disabilities about their science
experiences. Together, they communicate experiences in the science classroom, the
good and the bad, in hopes that teachers will learn from their experiences.
&KDSWHUV ± RI WKLV ERRN are designed to provide teachers, both pre-service and
in-service, the opportunity to listen to persons with disabilities. Each chapter in this
section offers the voices of students who are not often given a platform for sharing
their personal experiences. Our hope is that by including their stories, teachers will
learn from the abilities of each of the students and not focus on their perceived
disabilities. It is our hope that this first section of the book helps readers to overcome
stereotypes that prevent the development of inclusive environments.
We urge you to read about each individuals’ experiences in the science classroom,
learn from their experiences, and reflect on the practical advice each person offers
while considering your own understanding of what it means to fully participate in the
learning environment and to make your classroom more inclusive of ALL learners.

REFERENCES
Brady, K., & Woolfson, L. (2008). What teacher factors influence their attributions for childrens’
difficulties in learning? British Journal of Educational Psychology, 78  
&URZVRQ + 0 %UDQGHV -   3UHGLFWLQJ SUH VHUYLFH WHDFKHUV¶ RSSRVLWLRQ WR LQFOXVLRQ RI VWXGHQWV
with disabilities: a path analytic study. Social Psychology Education, 17  

© KONINKLIJKE BRILL NV, LEIDEN, 2018 | DOI 10.1163/9789004368422_001

 LISA JOHNSON

1. INCLUSION “INSIGHT”
Voices of Students with Visual Impairments in the Science Classroom

Microscopes, chemical reactions, rock identification. Lessons in the science

FODVVURRP RIWHQ UHO\ KHDYLO\ RQ YLVXDO H[SHULHQFHV \HW IRU WKH  PLOOLRQ FKLOGUHQ
with visual impairments WKLV HQYLURQPHQW SUHVHQWV VRPH XQLTXH FKDOOHQJHV +RZ
can teachers create meaningful, inclusive, learning opportunities for students without
compromising integrity of the work regardless of one’s ability to see? While inclusion
PD\ UHTXLUH VRPH LQQRYDWLYH WKLQNLQJ LW LV LPSRUWDQW DQG DEVROXWHO\ GRDEOH ,Q 
during an address at the convention of the National Science Teachers Association,
Geerat J. Vermeij, a renowned blind marine biologist stated, “A conscious effort
PXVW EH PDGH DOO WKH WLPH DQG HYHU\ZKHUH DQG E\ HYHU\RQH WR DFTXDLQW D EOLQG
person with those aspects of the environment that cannot be heard, smelled, or easily
grasped by hands and fingers” (Vermeji, 2002).
Our current education system is ridden with examples of “facades of inclusion”
or soft inclusion in which students are put into general education situations but
not expected to succeed or are held to very low expectations (Benson, Wolford, &
Hyland, 2011). This often occurs when curriculum adaptations are decided without
input from students and based on a perception of what a student can accomplish.
Typically, this translates into watered-down educational experiences that do not
SURYLGH RSSRUWXQLWLHV IRU VWXGHQWV WR H[FHO %UDQWOLQJHU   $V D UHVXOW RQH PXVW
be wary of how we embrace inclusion because, in the end, the dominant group still
controls when, how, and for whom inclusion is appropriate. Even when students
are included, exclusion can continue because, as Ferri (2006) wrote, “students can
be physically included but not conceptually included in the mind of the teacher”
(p. 292), exclusion within inclusion. Instead, the ideal inclusive classroom should
be a place where:
students, regardless of ability … are integral members of classrooms, feel a
connection to their peers and have access to rigorous and meaningful education
curricula and receive collaborative support to succeed. It cannot be a surface
thing. It must go beyond providing accommodations but must respond to the
human need to feel as though they belong. Inclusion entails more than just
getting students into regular education classrooms but also involves changing
what we teach and who we think our students are. (Causton-Theoharis &
7KHRKDULV LQ )HUUL  S 

© KONINKLIJKE BRILL NV, LEIDEN, 2018 | DOI 10.1163/9789004368422_002

L. JOHNSON

Scholars in Disability Studies hold strong to the notion that inclusive spaces value
the expertise that individuals with disabilities bring to a situation and therefore
reject the tendency to elevate the expertise of professionals and their “right” to
make decisions related to how students should be educated without considering their
insights (Oliver, 1996).
To better understand the best ways to achieve a more fully inclusive science
classroom, it seemed natural to provide an opportunity for students with visual
impairments to inform our practices. Interviews were conducted with four college-
aged students with varying degrees of visual impairment. Participants were asked
to reflect on both what worked and what didn’t as it related to their experiences
in K-12 science classrooms and provide recommendations for teachers. Data from
these interviews was used to identify common themes that crosscut all student
interviews which, for the purpose of this chapter, will focus on the need to embrace
an inclusive mindset, the value of collaboration, and simple modifications of
materials, environment, and language use that result in more inclusive classroom
environments.
The term “visual impairment” is widely used to label a range of degrees of visual
abilities; therefore, there is not a single approach that will address the diverse needs
RI VWXGHQWV ZLWKRXW ILUVW XQGHUVWDQGLQJ WKH XQLTXHQHVV RI WKHLU H[SHULHQFHV ³7KH
impact of the visual impairment on individual learning is also tied to the onset, the
severity, and the type of visual loss, as well as to any coexisting disabilities that may
be present” (Texas Council for Developmental Disabilities, 2013). For example, a
student who had vision at one time may be able to conceptualize things like color,
depth, light, and dark because the child will have a visual history of this information,
whereas someone who has never had vision will not have this knowledge from which
to draw. There can be issues related to light sensitivity, lack of depth perception,
blindspots in the visual field, fatigue, or even environment (indoors or outdoors) that
can impact a student’s experiences (Texas Council for Developmental Disabilities,
2013).
To address this variance in visual experience, the students interviewed for this
chapter were selected in order to represent a diverse selection of visual abilities.
Ally identifies as totally blind since birth. She has never experienced color or depth
perception. A Braille user from an early age, Ally uses technology heavily to access
printed material through the use of voice software and a refreshable Braille display
that allows her to read in Braille what appears on the screen. Max also identifies
as totally blind, but unlike Ally, became blind after an accident he experienced at
WKH DJH RI  +H RIWHQ GUDZV RQ KLV DELOLW\ WR UHFDOO GHSWK FRORU DQG VSDFH +H DOVR
learned Braille but relied more on the use of screen readers and audiobooks to access
SULQWHG PDWHULDO .DWH LGHQWLILHV DV OHJDOO\ EOLQG DQG VKDUHG WKDW VKH¶V  :KDW
this means for her is that she has difficulty seeing things in the distance, cannot read
from the board or recognize small details but is able to read large print both from
books and on the computer when she is about three inches away. In environments
of low lighting, Kate is unable to see at all and as such identifies as having night

6
 INCLUSION “INSIGHT”

blindness. Sarah also identifies as legally blind, though her experience differs from
Kate’s in that she only has residual vision in her left eye. This vision fluctuates from
day to day and can be impacted by dry weather, lighting, lack of sleep, or stress.
6KH WRR FDQ UHDG ODUJH SULQW EXW WLUHV HDVLO\ DQG QHHGV IUHTXHQW EUHDNV 6KH UHOLHV RQ
screen reading software while using electronic devices. Ally, Max, Sarah, and Kate’s
varied experiences speak to the diversity represented in the simple phrase, “visually
LPSDLUHG´ (YHU\ VWXGHQW¶V H[SHULHQFH ZLOO EH XQLTXH $OO RI WKH VWXGHQWV DJUHH WKDW
WKH EHVW ZD\ IRU D WHDFKHU WR UHDOO\ XQGHUVWDQG WKHLU XQLTXH QHHGV LV WR DVN TXHVWLRQV

HONORING HUMAN DIGNITY

Historically, individuals with disabilities were seen as a burden and forever

dependent on the charity of others. Their flawed minds and bodies resulted in an
inability to succeed on their own accord. Because of their supposed inability to
be self-sufficient, individuals with disabilities needed the able-bodied for support
(Barnes & Mercer, 2003; Goffman, 1963). While there has been increased effort
to move beyond this deficit thinking, students in this study continued to confront
detrimental thinking in their classes. A commonality across all of the student
interviews was a desire to be treated as a valuable asset to the classroom rather than
a drain on resources, or a burden. Ally shared, “I often felt like I was considered
extra work for the teacher.” Max reported feeling the same way, particularly when
his eighth-grade science teacher would “dump” him into a different lab group each
week. He reported feeling like he was passed around like a trophy nobody wanted
because there was this perception that he would slow everybody down.
As someone with a visual impairment, I can recall instances of feeling devalued
and excluded even in my ‘inclusion’ science classes. When a paraprofessional
was available, she would come to class with me. I can recall instances of being
put at a table with my aide and never having any interaction with the teacher
or students. There were days when the teacher would only interact with my
DLGH DQG DFW DV LI , ZDVQ¶W HYHQ WKHUH 7KLV , IHHO FDOOV LQWR TXHVWLRQ ZKDW
inclusion looks like. Inclusion isn’t all the disabled kids sitting at their own
table. Inclusion isn’t allowing a child to be physically present but academically
under stimulated. Inclusion is embracing all students as integral members of
a classroom community. Teachers need to move away from the dichotomous
thinking that there are “my students” and “their” (special education) students.
Kate, the young woman who had difficulty with distance vision but who was able
to independently complete up-close tasks, shared a situation from her tenth grade
Chemistry class.
The teacher always seemed angry that I was even in her class. One day during
an experiment, I didn’t realize that I was near a sink because the lab table and
the sink were both black and I knocked a beaker into the sink and it broke. Even


L. JOHNSON

though it was an accident, the teacher made a big deal of it. She demanded I
pay for it or I wouldn’t be allowed to graduate. Another time, I was leaving the
classroom and someone tripped on my cane and it broke. Instead of helping,
she just walked away. I felt like I wasn’t worth her time.
Ally recalled a time from her high school Chemistry class when the teacher decided
that working with a flame would be too dangerous. For two weeks, while other
students got to make glass beads, Ally was assigned to write a twenty-page paper
about the properties and uses of glass, all because she was perceived as a danger to
herself and others.
The one thing that these stories have in common is a desire by the students to feel
welcomed and valued. The students were not asking for expensive, time-consuming
accommodations, they wanted to be allowed to learn without fear of judgment. An
LQFOXVLYH FODVVURRP LVQ¶W QHFHVVDULO\ URRWHG LQ H[SHQVLYH HTXLSPHQW :H VXJJHVW WKDW
an inclusive classroom starts with the teachers adopting the mindset that, regardless
of the visual nature of science concepts, students with visual impairments can and
should be encouraged to learn alongside their sighted peers. They should be able to
do so in an environment that upholds their dignity.

COLLABORATION TO IMPROVE INDEPENDENCE

Inclusion is more than just creating a classroom in which students feel as though
they are valuable members. Inclusive spaces also should embrace a student’s need
for independence, or the ability to work, think, and maintain ownership over oneself
and one’s work. Interviews unveiled variations of the statement, “I don’t always want
to rely on someone else to do things for me that I know I can do myself.” Students
reported feeling disempowered when decisions were made about what was best for
them without asking for their input or when someone did something for them that they
were capable of doing on their own. When teachers recognize students as “experts” of
their own needs, they become the teachers’ best resources. They bring knowledge to a
classroom about their specific visual impairments and what has or has not worked in
the past. When teachers open themselves up to learning from their students with visual
impairments, a collaborative working relationship can develop. While elementary-
aged children may not always be able to articulate what works best, or may not even
realize their needs are different than their classmates who are sighted, taking time
to ask their parents for guidance can still provide valuable information for teachers.
Max described an instance from a freshman year Biology lab when he was not
able to maintain ownership over one of his laboratory assignments because it relied
on the use of microscopes.
I was assigned a lab partner who supposedly was going to help me with our
lab. There were stations set up around the room and we had to move from table
to table and look at slides under the microscope that our teacher had prepared.
Then we were supposed to identify the organism we saw on our worksheet

8
 INCLUSION “INSIGHT”

and draw a picture of it. I obviously couldn’t see what was there so the teacher
asked my lab partner if he would fill out my worksheet. I mostly just did
nothing. I would ask what he saw but he didn’t really know how to describe
things. I didn’t really learn anything. When I got my paper back after it was
JUDGHG , JRW VHYHUDO TXHVWLRQV ZURQJ EHFDXVH P\ ODE SDUWQHU KDGQ¶W GUDZQ WKH
right things. I was really mad because, in my head I knew the characteristics of
the one-celled organisms we were working with but I was penalized because I
didn’t have the vision to do this work myself.
Sarah described an experience she had in a high school Earth Science course.
Students were expected to understand and be able to identify the three main rock
types as well as several minerals by looking at attributes like grain size, luster, and
hardness. Eventually, students were to develop an understanding of how Earth’s
processes worked together to create a particular land formation. On four occasions
students took field trips to visit different areas to examine specific geological features
and try to draw a picture and write a story that detailed what geological processes
may have taken place in that location. She stated:
During one of our field trips, I fell into a stream while being led by another
student. Because my cane really wasn’t helpful when we were climbing all over
rocks, the instructor selected someone to be my guide. The person didn’t really
know how to help me and had no experience with how to do sighted guide.
Instead of describing what was in front of me and around me, the student just
pulled me along like I was a little kid. Even though I could see a little, I didn’t
really have a sense of where I was. And then, to fall in a stream. I was wet and
really, really humiliated.
0D[ DQG 6DUDK H[SHULHQFHG WZR GLIIHUHQW EXW HTXDOO\ IUXVWUDWLQJ FODVVURRP
experiences that could have been avoided had the teachers capitalized on the
expertise that both students brought to the classroom. Max advised:
After going through the lab, I had an idea of how we could’ve done things
differently but I didn’t say that to the teacher because, you know, the teacher
is the expert and I was just a student. I think an easy fix would have been to
have the teacher prepare a written description of what was on each slide and
give that to me ahead of time. Then I could have read the descriptions and used
my own knowledge to figure out what was on the slide.
Max’s feelings represent an all-too-common experience for students and parents of
FKLOGUHQ ZLWK GLVDELOLWLHV 7HDFKHUV DUH SURIHVVLRQDOV DQG LW LV GLIILFXOW WR TXHVWLRQ
their expertise. Even when students are able of offering valuable advice, the
knowledge of the professional is often privileged over that of the disabled (Keefe,
Moore, & Duff, 2006; Oliver, 1996).
One method of developing a more fully inclusive classroom is through the
implementation of collaborative planning sessions between students with visual

9
L. JOHNSON

impairments and their teachers. The first step is to identify a consistent meeting time
whether that is weekly, bi-weekly, or even less often depending on course content.
The teacher, student, and other school personnel, if necessary, meet to preview
upcoming class activities. During this time, the teacher describes the lab activities
DQG HTXLSPHQW WKDW PD\ EH XVHG 1H[W WKH VWXGHQW DQG WHDFKHU ZRUN WRJHWKHU WR
anticipate challenges that may come up. For example, in a chemistry lab, the need to
measure chemicals in a beaker that the student cannot see would be problematic. If
handouts will be given or if a PowerPoint will be used, the teacher and student can
discuss how these documents can be shared in an accessible way so the student has
“real time” access. Finally, the teacher and student work together to discuss solutions.
For example, a beaker could be made accessible by using a tactile marking method
to create raised lines, enabling the student to independently perform measurements.
In this way, students are able to contribute successful ideas from past experiences to
support teacher’s content knowledge.
Kate shared a story of how meeting with her teacher ahead of time helped solve
problems and allowed her to participate more fully in her biology labs. She shared:
My teacher and I met each Monday morning to talk about that week’s activities.
She would explain what she planned to do and we would come up with
solutions. Like one week, we were learning about genetics. We brainstormed
and came up with using pipe cleaners and different shapes and sizes of beads to
represent different DNA strands. It helped me so much when we tried it in lab
that the teacher started using pipe cleaners and beads with all of the students.
She also started sending me an electronic copy of handouts so I could bring it
up on my laptop during class and type in my answers.
Sarah shared a similar story from her Earth Science class that affirmed the value
of collaboration.
My teacher and I met to work through a lab exercise and he showed me that I
could use other senses to help identify rocks. Sedimentary rocks if you kind of
put your teeth onto them, leave a gritty feeling. It sounds gross but it helped
me to know the difference between sedimentary rocks versus igneous or
metamorphic. Metamorphic rocks were hard and could cut glass and I could
sometimes feel a little ridge in the glass. Limestone fizzes when you put acid
on it and I could hear the fizz. After our meeting, I was able to bring this
knowledge with me to lab and I was able to help my group more, which was
a great feeling.

SIMPLE MODIFICATIONS, BIG IMPACT

Another way in which we can achieve more fully inclusive science classrooms for
students who are visually impaired is by doing away with the one size fits all mindset.
Regardless of whether students can or cannot see, there are inherent differences in

10
 INCLUSION “INSIGHT”

the way everyone learns. When the ways in which we set up our classrooms, deliver
content, and assess students’ understanding do not account for these differences, we
do a disservice to our students. By implementing Universal Design for Learning
(National Center on Universal Design for Learning  D IUDPHZRUN WR LPSURYH
and optimize teaching and learning for all people, educators:
(A) provides flexibility in the ways information is presented, in the ways
students respond or demonstrate knowledge and skills, and in the ways students
are engaged; and (B) reduce barriers in instruction, provides appropriate
accommodations, supports, and challenges, and maintains high achievement
expectations for all students, including students with disabilities.
Simple practices can be integrated into a classroom resulting in greater success for
all students. In doing so, we can achieve a more fully inclusive environment for
everyone.
Ally described a time in which simply handling objects allowed her to be more
involved in her fourth-grade science class. She shared:
We were studying properties of matter and I can remember our teacher asking
us to make observations of different objects. I got to do everything tactilely
and by using my other senses. By getting to handle the objects, I could make
P\ RZQ REVHUYDWLRQV DERXW VL]H ZHLJKW OLTXLG RU VROLG WHPSHUDWXUH DQG RWKHU
characteristics. When we were warming things up to see how temperature
changed the state of matter, I could listen for bubbles when water boiled, I
could feel the heat of steam. Or when we made water become a solid, I could
handle the ice. Most of the other students did most of their work through
observation and I thought what I got to do was so much better. I even had a
WDONLQJ WKHUPRPHWHU WKDW ZRXOG VD\ WKH WHPSHUDWXUH RI D OLTXLG RXW ORXG 0\
classmates all wanted to use it, too.
Ally reflected further by saying that looking back on her experiences in elementary
school, the most helpful things didn’t really cost her teacher extra money. “My
teacher had to be okay with me touching things and using my other senses because
that is how I learned about my world.”
Kate also enjoyed the opportunity to use her sense of touch to explore a topic. “My
fifth-grade science teacher had this plastic 3-D model of a plant cell and you could
actually feel the different pieces because they stood out, like the nucleus, the cytoplasm
DQG WKH PLWRFKRQGULD :KHQ LW ZDV WLPH IRU D TXL] RQ WKH SDUWV RI WKH FHOO P\ YLVLRQ
teacher created a tactile drawing of a plant cell so I could feel the drawing and label the
parts orally.” Kate went on to say that she would encourage teachers to have models on
hand, or create their own 3D or tactile diagrams for students. She advises that teachers
have these accommodations prepared so that, when a lesson starts, the student with a
visual impairment gets the modified materials at the same time that everyone else in
the class is receiving the traditional materials. “There’s nothing worse than having to
wait until after a lesson is over to get the modified materials.”

11
L. JOHNSON

Both Kate and Ally’s experiences speak directly to this concept of Universal
Design for Learning (UDL) in that when teachers employ flexible goals, methods,
materials, and assessments, they meet the varied needs of their students. Through
WKH XVH RI PRGHOV WDFWLOH UHSUHVHQWDWLRQV RU ³WRXFK HTXLYDOHQWV´ XGOFHQWHURUJ
teachers are able to get tactile feedback in the hands of learners who are non visual.
Kate, Ally, and Max’s teachers all found ways of creating inexpensive tactile
representations for their students through the use of glue, puffy paint, or even sand
paper and aluminum foil. Max suggests, “It probably will become even easier for
teachers to make tactile models now.” He explained that, when he was younger, 3D
printers were just coming out and his school wasn’t able to afford one so his teacher
relied more on creating drawings from inexpensive materials.
Drawings with glue or puff paint worked but they took time to dry and they
couldn’t be done at a moment’s notice. Now people can buy 3D drawing pens
and print models on 3D printers because they’re less expensive. These tools
will make things so much better for kids like us.
In addition to accessible materials, the way in which a teacher sets up the
environment and provides access to materials can also help facilitate an inclusive
classroom space. Kate shared, “When I was in fourth grade, my teacher took me
around and showed me where things were kept that I would need while in her
class. We also made a deal that whenever we were going to do an activity that used
materials, she would always put mine in a bin in the same place so I would know
exactly where to go to find my materials. No one else even needed to know she was
making that small change for me.”
Max’s high school Physics teacher did something similar. “My teacher gave me a
tour of our classroom. He showed me where the sinks and commonly used supplies
were kept. He also explained how the classroom was set up, by saying, there are
three rows of four tables. At each table, there are four stools. At the front of the
room is a teacher’s table used for demonstrations. On days when we’d be doing
experiments, he’d try to check in with me when I walked in to let me know if there
were materials at the lab table. This gave me a good idea of how the class was set
up. One other thing that he did that was so helpful is that he did not allow backpacks
on the floor in his classroom. Initially he did this for me, so I wouldn’t trip but at the
end of the semester, he made it a rule for all of his classes because it kind of helped
everyone because it isn’t always the blind person that trips on things.”
For Sarah, one small change helped her navigate the classroom without drawing
attention to herself. She explained:
Technology is a big help for people with visual impairments so I started
learning to use a computer when I was in first grade. I used it to type my
work and enlarge things. My third-grade teacher allowed me to choose my
desk so it was close to the computer so whenever I needed, I could get over to
the computer without anyone really noticing. I didn’t have to draw attention

12
 INCLUSION “INSIGHT”

to myself. I liked this because in sixth grade, my computer was at the front
of the room and every time I needed to use it, I had to walk in front of the
whole class. Sometimes I would just stay in my desk and not use the computer
because I didn’t want to walk in front of everyone and worry about tripping on
something on my way there. It may not seem like a big deal but choosing my
seat so I was close to the things I needed was a big help.
Not only can simple modifications to the environment and the materials facilitate
greater inclusion, but using descriptive language can also help. Ally shared an
example of how this assisted her in her Earth Science course. “At the beginning
of the semester, my teacher would often say things like, ‘look at the image on this
slide and tell me what it is.’ I told him that I couldn’t see the slide and asked if he
could describe it. So, he tried to do this during lectures. He started saying things
like, ‘in this image you will see a dark colored rock with large aligned crystals.’ He
wasn’t always perfect but his descriptions helped a lot.” By simply adding more
descriptions to his language, the instructor was improving access to content for Ally.

CONCLUSION

While science presents some undeniable challenges with its emphasis on the visual,
the stories of Ally, Max, Sarah, and Kate help us understand how we can achieve
more fully inclusive classrooms. We must move beyond the traditionally harmful
thinking of visual disability as deficit and embrace the human dignity and potential
in all students. To do this we must work toward more inclusive classrooms, not by
trying to “fix” our students with visual impairments, but by creating environments,
curriculum, and learning experiences that are designed to optimize the experiences
of every learner regardless of their ability to see.

REFERENCES
Barnes, C., & Mercer, G. (2003). Handbook of disability studies. Minneapolis, MN: Sage Publications.
Benson, B., Wolford, L., & Hyland, M. (2011, July 29). Identity dialogues Breaking through the silence
of disability. Lecture presented at Minnesota Symposium on Disability Studies at the University of
Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN.
Brantlinger, E. A. (2006). Who benefits from special education? Remediating (fixing) other people’s
children. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Causton-Theoharis, J., Ashby, C., & Cosier, M. (2009). Islands of loneliness: Exploring social interaction
through the autobiographies of individuals with Autism. Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities,
47     GRL  
Ferri, B. (2006). Teaching to trouble. In S. Danforth & S. L. Gabel (Eds.), Vital questions facing disability
studies in education SS    1HZ <RUN 1< 3HWHU /DQJ
Goffman, E. (1963). Stigma Notes on the management of spoiled identity. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice-Hall.
Keefe, E. B., Moore, V. M., & Duff, F. R. (2006). Listening to the experts Students with disabilities speak
out. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing.
National Center on Universal Design for Learning   How has UDL been defined? Retrieved June
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13
L. JOHNSON

Oliver, M. (1996). Understanding disability From theory to practice. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press.
Texas Council for Developmental Disabilities. (2013). Project ideal Visual impairments. Retrieved
-XQH   IURP KWWSZZZSURMHFWLGHDORQOLQHRUJYYLVXDO LPSDLUPHQWV
Vermeij, G. (2002, March 29). Teaching science to students with visual impairments. Lecture presented at
the National Science Teachers Association National Convention, San Diego, CA.

Lisa Johnson
Nebraska Methodist College of Nursing and Allied Health
Omaha, Nebraska


 LISA M. DEMBOUSKI
(WITH KAITLYN MIELKE, JOHANNA LUCHT, JULIE PLESKI,
NORB BIDERMAN AND MISTY SCHOMBERG)

2. D/HH VOICES

I was the only Deaf student, armed with just a sign language interpreter,
in my entire school. In sixth grade, I joined a special group mission at the
Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center. This trip was like Star Trek, a
simulation game complete with computers, big screens, live actors who joined
us kids, everything. We were directed to sit and listen to our crew assignments
through headphones; the interpreter wore mine and told me I had the job of
Communicator. As the mission progressed, I typed and sent out messages to
my crew, and helped to decode incoming or intercepted messages. At one
point the enemy Romulan Queen was aboard our ship asking me rude and
QRV\ TXHVWLRQV , VLPSO\ SRLQWHG WR P\ HDU DQG VKUXJJHG ZKLFK DQQR\HG KHU
so she left me alone. Then our crew captain shouted, “Don’t move!” I didn’t
hear him say that but, looking around, noticed everyone was frozen in place.
I turned to the interpreter and started signing to ask what was happening. She
carefully shook her head and mouthed, “don’t move!” but I didn’t understand.
The students around me hissed to the interpreter that she should not move
or talk, she turned her head to hiss back and say she was sorry, that she was
trying. Then red lights were flashing and an alarm was sounding. My captain
yelled at the interpreter, “Thanks for nothing! Now we’re all gonna die!”
(Kaitlyn, writer)
Kaitlyn and the rest of us, your chapter author and contributors, work as writers,
professors, engineers, parents, office assistants, teachers, and scientists. All of us
are bilingual in American Sign Language (ASL) and English, and most of us spent
the majority of our school years in general education settings. Each of us leads
rich, purposeful, and rewarding lives; we are also deaf or hard of hearing (D/HH).
As students, we experienced a variety of thoughtful and engaging lessons, learning
environments, and events like the “space mission” described above. We will discuss
themes we discovered were common among us in our schooling, and may therefore
reflect the science education experiences of D/HH learners like us. We use these
shared themes of self-advocacy, access and communication, and community as the
framework for this chapter.
We know there are not a lot of us out there and, as a result, we suspect you
are unfamiliar with D/HH topics or what it’s like to not hear in a world where most

© KONINKLIJKE BRILL NV, LEIDEN, 2018 | DOI 10.1163/9789004368422_003

L. M. DEMBOUSKI

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people generally don’t know much about deafness [emphasis added]. Further,
a noticeable number of hearing people appear to harbor unflattering opinions
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experiences of being the only deaf or hard of hearing person in the room, the school,
or that anyone has met. So, we appreciate if you feel uncertain or uninformed. If you
are D/HH, we attempt to accurately represent you and your experiences here. If you
are not, we hope you will use this chapter to better understand being D/HH, to learn
more about issues common to D/HH people, and, as teachers, to better recognize and
more effectively respond to D/HH student needs.

SELF-ADVOCACY: A CONSTANT NECESSITY

My younger brother and I are both deaf, though our needs are different. It was
a learning experience, figuring out how to advocate for ourselves, especially
during middle and high school. My brother’s hearing loss is more severe than
mine, so he always got an interpreter, whereas I went years without interpreters
before we could convince the school district I deserved and needed them, too.
We often had to explain that what worked for one of us did not always work
that way for the other. We had to prove that D/HH people are individuals, and
should be treated as such. (Julie, teacher of D/HH adults)
The need for strong self-advocacy skills is one we all recognized as critical and
non-negotiable. If we wanted to succeed, we had to look after ourselves and we had
to be proactive. This has not changed much over the years, and, because we rarely
encounter D/HH-inclusive practices in the hearing world, self-advocacy continues to
be a regular and necessary feature of our daily lives.
Having once been hearing and now hard of hearing, I am able to compare
these two ways of being and I can assure you: there is always extra time and
HIIRUW UHTXLUHG DV D '++ SHUVRQ , DP UHVSRQVLEOH IRU XQGHUVWDQGLQJ WKH FODVV
situation, or event, the venue, the schedule, and for anticipating what my needs
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I believe will be necessary for me to access the event, and I must make that
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a resource for where to find those service providers in the first place; most
schools or event organizers have no idea how to hire a real-time captioner,
for example. In the case of younger D/HH learners, these details must always
be managed by parents or by educators, without exception, every time. This
level of advocacy and effort is necessary for each situation, every instance,
ad infinitum. It’s such a hassle and so much extra work that I often make do
ZLWK QR VXSSRUW DW DOO HQGXUH LQDGHTXDWH VXSSRUW OLNH LPSURSHU XVH RI WKH
microphone, or I opt out and skip the event altogether. (Lisa, college professor)
16
 D/HH VOICES

Very commonly, our self-advocacy skills are most necessary when we seek access,
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automatically. We believe two reasons for the constant demands on our self-advocacy
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privileges hearing.

Underestimating Us

We all have memories of the ways we endeavour (ed) to prove ourselves.

Once in a computer science class, the instructor divided us into groups and
handed out a worksheet. I was the only Deaf person [I used an ASL interpreter]
and the only woman in my group; this intersectionality in a STEM class is also
ZRUWK SRLQWLQJ RXW , EHOLHYH $Q\ZD\ DV WKH PHQ GLVFXVVHG WKH TXHVWLRQ LW
was clear they were not certain where to begin. I wasn’t sure of my answer,
either, but my instincts told me I had it right, so I went ahead and shared my
thoughts with them. As I finished, they went right back to discussing the
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I called the instructor over and explained my thinking. He confirmed that my
process and answer was correct, so I added, “These boys don’t seem to agree.”
He then turned to the group and said, “Gentlemen, you’re all baffled, yet she
has the correct answer. I suggest you stop talking and pay attention to her.”
After that they listened, and wrote down my answers. (Johanna, electronics
engineer, NASA)
As Johanna’s narrative shows, many of us feel we must deliberately, explicitly,
and repeatedly demonstrate our capabilities. We regularly encounter negative
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GHVFULEHG DQG WKLV WHQGV WR KDSSHQ PRUH ZLWK RXU SHHUV LW ZDV IUHTXHQWO\ RXU
classmates’ attitudes we worked hardest to change. Today we continue to expend
considerable energy introducing ourselves, explaining how to work with us and our
respective accommodations, and reassuring others we belong there.

Hearing Privilege

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fact that those in the majority must extend effort to recognize and relate to what
makes us different, what it might be like to navigate the world another way. Most
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the world is readily available to those who can hear. This has certainly been our reality,
and it is known as hearing privilege (Grushkin, 2016; Hauser et al., 2010; Krentz,
 S  


L. M. DEMBOUSKI

I’ll always remember “sound waves week” in physics lab, because of how
effectively the teacher excluded me. I happened to have a cold that week,
and my ears were totally plugged up, so any residual hearing I could have
relied upon to at least help me a little was also gone. None of the auditory
demonstrations the teacher did to teach about sound waves translated well
through the interpreter, so none of the lessons made any sense to me. Naturally
, GLG YHU\ SRRUO\ RQ WKH SRS TXL]]HV KH JDYH RQ WKLV WRSLF WRR , VLPSO\ KDG
not been granted this content or information the same way my hearing peers
had, because the teacher took hearing sound wave patterns as the norm, the
standard. It wasn’t until later, when I got a different teacher who made sound
waves visible through various means (slinky toy, water tables, etc.) that I
actually learned and understood this concept. (Julie)
To move beyond hearing privilege and better understand being D/HH, what is
generally needed for the hearing majority is a dedicated mindfulness, an alternative
focus or mindset, and a willingness to think in ways that are not rooted in typical
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application on the part of hearing people, which is aggravatingly difficult to achieve.
I used to work in the field of D/HH education, with a team of highly trained
special educators who were veterans in their understanding of hearing
differences and D/HH issues. Despite their experience and knowledge, they,
accustomed only to their “hearingness,” never seemed to notice the racket they
made rattling their keys or slapping the table for emphasis when they spoke. It
ZDV MXVW DV FKDOOHQJLQJ WR KHDU DGHTXDWHO\ ZLWK WKHP DV ZLWK DQ\RQH DQG , KDG
to repeatedly ask them to speak one at a time or not rustle the bag of chips near
my FM microphone. They frustrated me more than most because I expected
professionals in this field to behave better! (Lisa)
Of course, our self-advocacy skills are still necessary in a variety of ways in our lives
today, including as a response to being underestimated and to hearing privilege; we
manage these regular occurrences with as much grace as we can muster. To help
PDNH WKH ZRUOG PRUH HTXLWDEOH IRU '++ SHRSOH DQG WR UHGXFH GHPDQGV IRU VHOI
advocacy from your D/HH students, please refer to our Top Eight Recommendations
later in the chapter.

ACCESS AND COMMUNICATION: ALWAYS A FOCUS

Because we live in a hearing-centric society where sound is valued as “theoretically

and practically foundational to educational experiences” (Gershon & Appelbaum,
2016), the issues that tend to loom largest for us as D/HH people usually involve
DFFHVV DQG FRPPXQLFDWLRQ HJ &ODUN   ZH KDYH KDG ERWK SRVLWLYH DQG
negative experiences with these issues.

18
 D/HH VOICES

When I transferred from the deaf school to my neighborhood school, I was

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interpreters; communication was never a barrier for me there. Resources like
these helped my success tremendously, and were conducive to my growing
interest in STEM. (Norb, materials scientist, L’Oréal)
In a world where most people use auditory input and spoken language as the
primary tools for communication, those of us who do not must therefore have that
information conveyed through an accessible format; generally, this happens via
sign language interpreters, real-time captioners and displaying subtitles, and/or
our hearing assistive technologies (HATs). Many of us use a combination of these
accommodations; we explore them further in the next sections.

Sign Language Interpreters

Not all D/HH people are fluent in American Sign Language (ASL); for these
individuals, interpreters would obviously be an inappropriate accommodation. For
many of us, however, interpreters are a regular feature of our attempts to navigate
the hearing world. Each of the chapter contributors has countless interpreter-
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HYHQ DIWHU UHTXHVWLQJ WKHP ZHOO LQ DGYDQFH  VWUXJJOHV ZLWK LQDGHTXDWHO\ VNLOOHG
LQWHUSUHWHUV DQG VXIIHULQJ WKH EXUHDXFUDWLF KRRSV UHTXLUHG WR VZLWFK WR LQWHUSUHWHUV
who sufficiently understand the content of whatever class or event we’re trying
to access. We pursue appropriate services tirelessly because we have to; if the
interpreter doesn’t understand what the speaker is saying, we won’t understand
either.
When an interpreter is unskilled and the information is literally lost in
WUDQVODWLRQ ZH DUH GHQLHG HTXDO DFFHVV WR WKH VDPH FRQWHQW DV RXU KHDULQJ
peers. Poor interpreting can lead to confusion, then a lack of attention, and
even an aversion to STEM disciplines for D/HH people. In the longer term,
this can result in a loss of interest in the sciences overall and fewer otherwise
capable people being attracted to and desiring to work in the field [see also
0DUVFKDUFN /DQJ $OEHUWLQL  SS ±@ -RKDQQD
In addition to suitable skills and training, we’d like to highlight other salient points
regarding interpreting and using interpreters in STEM classrooms. First, understand
that when we utilize interpreters, we are never getting information directly. Rather,
content is routed through the mind of someone else, someone who is not the teacher
or the person most knowledgeable on the topic. That information is heard, assembled
for meaning in the interpreters’ minds, and then conveyed to us through another
language, ASL. All of this happens in the moment, with a “lag” to account for the
interpreter’s processing time. It is amazing, the work interpreters do, but that lag means
we are always a few steps behind everyone else. We also must trust the interpreters

19
L. M. DEMBOUSKI

have understood and correctly conveyed information; oftentimes they have not. Or
we are mentally filling in gaps caused by interpreters’ misunderstandings, lack of
content knowledge, or by confusing English homonyms. Our own processing also
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“wait times” are part of a teacher’s pedagogical repertoire.
I often was expected to do five things at once: complete the dissection while
recording my observations while discussing with my partner while watching
the interpreter and watching the teacher! My eyes really can only just be in one
of those places at any given time. (Julie)
Next, and directly connected to processing time, is pacing. Hearing is a fast and
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auditory information from a full circle around themselves. They can do this while
simultaneously employing their other senses such as vision or touch. In the classroom,
these proclivities translate to demands for student skills like listening to the teacher
while simultaneously taking notes, or following a “popcorn style” class discussion as
ideas are verbally bounced from student to student around the room, often at a very
fast pace.
Vision, on the other hand, has a narrower accessibility arc and works more
slowly than hearing; we can only visually attend to a singular object, anything on
the periphery will be less clear. While we can also use our vision at the same time
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focus on, and comprehend, any one thing. If we are watching an interpreter or our
captioner’s screen, we cannot also see what the teacher is pointing at, know who
said what during the fast-paced discussion, or know when it’s our turn to make
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result.
It is crucial that teachers not do an action or demonstration and talk at the same
time. Describe what you’re going to do, tell us what to watch for, show us
what you’ll be using, demonstrate or perform the action, wait, then ask your
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classes because I was watching the interpreter and did not see the volcano erupt,
the objects glow, or the final result of the speed test. (Kaitlyn)
Lastly, with regard to STEM interpreting, it is worth noting that a large percentage
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series of extra challenges for D/HH learners and their interpreters, including
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hearing peers.
I always had to work more with my interpreters about the signs or fingerspelling
to use with STEM vocabulary and concepts. There was no consistency; I often
would see interpreters on the same team sign the terms differently. I also got

20
 D/HH VOICES

tired of interpreters voicing wrong for me, of not knowing the vocabulary they
needed to correctly verbalize my thoughts when I signed them. (Julie)

Captioning: Real-Time and Subtitles

Some D/HH people opt for communication across real time translation (CART) as
their means for accessing auditory information. This service provider works much
like a court reporter, whose typed information displays on a screen the D/HH person
reads in real time as the class or event happens. One distinct advantage of CART is
that a transcript is usually available afterward.
I was popular with my peers in statistics classes because I shared my transcripts
with anyone who asked. The international students in those classes often asked
me how they could get CART providers of their own; I so empathized with
them! (Lisa)
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closed captioning/subtitles be turned on when media is shown. Often this entreaty
is not granted because the film or documentary the teacher wants to show is not
captioned. Or no one wants to pay the costs of getting that media captioned. Or
“automatic captions” are used, which anyone can tell you are awful, distracting, and
typically worse than no captions at all. Auditory information and speech in media
happen exceptionally rapidly, enough to burn out even the best service providers
who can rarely keep up; subtitles are essential.
I had an AP teacher who made the class watch a video with the captions on
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WKDW RIWHQ LW ZRXOG EH RWKHU VWXGHQWV DQG QRW MXVW PH UHTXHVWLQJ WKH FDSWLRQV
be turned on. Another teacher of mine also saw many benefits to captioning,
particularly how it helped students take notes; she left the captions on for all of
her classes, not just mine. (Kaitlyn)
Relatedly, when we are watching our accessibility service provider, we are not
watching the screen; so, without closed captioning, we lose a great deal of visual
information and will miss the meteor strike and the baby whale being born every
time. We know subtitles benefit all learners and can mean the difference between
success and failure for D/HH people, as well as our multilingual brethren whose first
language is not English. In our opinion, they should always be on.

Hearing Assistive Technologies (HATs)

There are many kinds of HATs that function in a variety of ways; as
technology advances, you will likely see even more in the coming years. If we use
+$7V ZH FDQ H[SHFW WR KDYH WR H[SODLQ WKHP 2IWHQ %RWK KRZ WKH\ GR ± DQG GR
QRW ± ZRUN

21
L. M. DEMBOUSKI

One teacher I had let us listen to music as we worked independently. I was

able to plug my direct access cable from my cochlear implant sound processor
into the computer. Other students used headphones, with volumes so loud the
teacher would tell them they had to turn it down. Me? I was immersed in a
SLHFH RUFKHVWUD ZLWK WKH VRXQG WXUQHG DOO WKH ZD\ XS ± DQG LQ VXUURXQG ± DQG
nobody but me could hear it! (Kaitlyn)
, ZDV DOPRVW IRUFHG WR OHDYH D XQLTXH OHDUQLQJ RSSRUWXQLW\ RQFH EHFDXVH RI P\
HAT. The session focused on exciting new computer software, very cutting-edge.
However, when I introduced myself to the trainers and asked them to use my FM
mic, they freaked out. None of them had ever seen one before and thought I would
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technology they were planning to demonstrate. I felt great indignation that their
ignorance would cause my exclusion! I’m not sure how I convinced them the
FM was legit, but they ultimately relented and allowed me to stay. (Lisa)
Access and communication tend to be the most common barriers to our inclusion
as D/HH people; we therefore encourage you to devote yourselves to reducing or
removing those obstacles in your own classrooms. For ideas, please refer to our Top
Eight Recommendations later in the chapter.

STEM AND COMMUNITY: KEY ELEMENTS OF OUR SUCCESS

Many features inherent to the sciences served us as D/HH learners extremely

ZHOO LQFOXGLQJ WKH KLJKO\ YLVXDO LQTXLU\EDVHG H[SHULHQWLDO DQG GHPRQVWUDWLRQ
rich features common to STEM content and pedagogy. We also recognized how
essential a supportive community is, and the times the people in those roles helped or
hindered our progress. Family members, special education team members, teachers,
administrators, and peers were all mentioned as particularly key players in our
school lives; we have multiple narratives to illustrate. To begin, teachers naturally
figured prominently in our memories of science schooling:
I remember a wonderful biology teacher in high school who encouraged me
to really consider science. He said I had a knack for it that he did not often
see. He didn’t even care that I was deaf; he looked past that. He also went
above and beyond to include me, asking my parents what worked best, using a
longer wait time so my interpreter could catch up and I could contribute to the
discussion. I would not have entered the STEM field if it hadn’t been for him;
he was awesome. (Julie)
Positive peers were also recognized with gratitude and affection:
After learning we would mainly have labs in 11th grade physics, the teacher
allowed my two good friends and I to remain a group for the whole year
instead of switching it up for every lab. The reason? My two friends knew

22
 D/HH VOICES

sign, and the teacher recognized that the labs would go smoother with direct
communication, which wouldn’t have been possible if I were in groups with
non-signers. We had a slight advantage, even, especially during the contest-
type labs, as the other teams couldn’t “overhear” us plotting how to build the
best mousetrap car. Even better, my group mates could still hear them; they
always conveyed that information to ensure I was kept in the loop. (Kaitlyn)
One last, and lasting, element of community that we felt deeply was the dearth of
D/HH role models.
The lack of a Deaf role model, especially for those in the STEM field, is a
persistent problem in the Deaf community. I am a Deaf, female engineer and
have never really known anyone like me. Sure, I could have role models from
the history books and, even, from fiction, but it’s not like I can talk to dead
(or fictitious) people, and they cannot impart wisdom in real time. This is so
important! We need Deaf kids to see that Deaf people are capable of great things!
We need to share similar experiences with other Deaf people. These role models
can mentor us and give us tools to survive in the hearing world. (Johanna)
Below we offer our Top Eight Recommendations for ideas that optimize STEM and
supportive communities for your D/HH learners.

WRAPPING UP AND OUR TOP EIGHT RECOMMENDATIONS

Returning to the story that opened our chapter: The good news is Kaitlyn’s crew did
not die. The mission proceeded and everyone had a wonderful time. She remembers
that day positively, referring to it as a “most awesome!” field trip. On some levels,
Kaitlyn was included on that trip (e.g., selected to go in the first place, sign language
LQWHUSUHWHU SURYLGHG  ,PDJLQH WKRXJK KRZ PXFK PRUH UREXVW DQG HTXLWDEOH KHU
learning experience might have been had D/HH-inclusive considerations been more
a part of that event. Given what you now know about D/HH learners’ common
experiences, and considering your own reactions when you first read her story,
how might you have more meaningfully and intentionally included Kaitlyn on her
“mission” that day?
Since we assume you are already practicing strong, universally inclusive
classroom pedagogies, we will not suggest those tools of effective teaching here.
Instead, the following suggestions are positioned within our shared themes, and
written on behalf of your D/HH learners:

Our Top Eight Recommendations

Self-advocacy
‡ (GXFDWH \RXUVHOI ± DQG DOO \RXU VWXGHQWV ± DERXW \RXU XQLTXH '++ OHDUQHU V 
respond to them as individuals, include them in your decision-making and class

23
L. M. DEMBOUSKI

SODQQLQJ DVN TXHVWLRQV DERXW WKHLU DFFRPPRGDWLRQV DQG OHDUQLQJ SUHIHUHQFHV

collect and use a variety of D/HH-inclusive tools in your teaching like increasing
your use of visuals and allowing for longer wait times.
‡ 3HUPLW FRQVLVWHQW ODE DQG VPDOO JURXS SDUWQHUV ZKHQ UHTXHVWHG :KLOH ZH
understand teachers generally want to change partners around, for us it was much
easier to be grouped with people who already knew and understood us, and who
would give us a chance to contribute and show what we could do.
‡ Practice mindfulness with regard to hearing and the auditory demands on students
in your discipline. Are there ways to study echoes or whispers that do not rely on
actually hearing them? Are there alternative tasks a D/HH student can perform
while the hearing children count cricket chirps?

Access and communication

‡ Understand which specific accommodations or technologies your students need,
understand the limitations of those, learn how to use them properly, have a plan
IRU ZKHQ WKH\ DUH XQDYDLODEOH RU QHHG DGDSWLQJ DQG GHOLYHU WKHP ZLWK 
FRPSOLDQFH  RI WKH WLPH *HW FUHDWLYH DERXW DOWHUQDWLYH ZD\V IRU SURYLGLQJ
them (i.e., remote interpreting). Give D/HH students information about the class
or event and allow them input on the best plan for appropriate access (i.e., The
planetarium presentation will be in the dark, what can we do to make sure you see
the interpreter in that darkened space?)
‡ Find and use available resources. If you don’t know where to hire an interpreter
or how to caption your media, there are multiple ways to find out. Do not use
unfamiliarity, discomfort with the unknown, or fear of making mistakes as means
for exclusion.

Community
‡ Play to the strengths of the STEM discipline, which also correlate to typical
strengths in D/HH learners. The hands-on, visual, and demonstration-based
nature of the sciences are well-suited to many D/HH students’ skills, plus do
QRW UHTXLUH DQ RYHUUHOLDQFH RQ ODQJXDJHKHDY\ FRQWHQW IRU VWXGHQWV ZKRVH ILUVW
language is ASL.
‡ Encourage your D/HH students to try a variety of STEM pursuits and provide
multiple opportunities for their success. We might never have entered this contest
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do, nor would we have remained interested in the sciences if we had not also
found we could do them, and do them well. You are best positioned to recognize
our strengths; please let us know you see our promise and potential, as it can
greatly influence our career paths!
‡ Provide role models. In our case, we most craved stories about other D/HH people
who were successful in the sciences. Can you invite successful D/HH individuals


 D/HH VOICES

into your classrooms? Are there biographies or stories of famous D/HH scientists
you can add to your class reading list?

CHAPTER CONTRIBUTORS

Norb Biderman is a materials scientist with L’Oréal; Johanna Lucht is an electronics

engineer for NASA; Kaitlyn Mielke is a writer and also works for ThinkSelf Minnesota
Deaf Adult Education; Julie Pleski is a lead teacher for ThinkSelf Minnesota Deaf
Adult Education; and Misty Schomberg is an ASL announcer and scheduler for the
Commission of Deaf, DeafBlind, and Hard of Hearing Minnesotans.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am wholeheartedly grateful for a spirited, earnest, conscientious, lively, and often-

hilarious collaboration with this chapter’s gifted group of contributors. It was my true
pleasure and privilege to work with you, and I genuinely appreciate your willingness
to share your time, talents, and memories with us all: PAH! ILY!

REFERENCES
&ODUN - /   Where I stand On the signing community and my DeafBlind experience. Minneapolis,
MN: Handtype Press.
Gershon, W. S., & Appelbaum, P. (2016). Call for papers, special issue: Echoes, reverberations, silences,
and noise: Sonic possibilities in education. Educational Studies, 52    
Grushkin, D. (2016). What are some examples of hearing privilege? Retrieved July 31, 2016, from
KWWSVZZZTXRUDFRP:KDW DUH VRPH H[DPSOHV RI KHDULQJ SULYLOHJH
Hauser, P. C., O’Hearn, A., McKee, M., Steider, A., & Thew, D. (2010). Deaf epistemology: Deafhood
and deafness. American Annals of the Deaf, 154    
.UHQW] &   Writing deafness The hearing line in nineteenth-century American literature.
Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press.
Marschark, M., Lang, H. G., & Albertini, J. A. (2002). Educating deaf students From research to
practice. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
2OLYD * $   Alone in the mainstream A deaf woman remembers public school. Washington, DC:
Gallaudet University Press.

Lisa M. Dembouski
Department of Education
Gustavus Adolphus College
St. Peter, Minnesota


 MERRIE KOESTER

3. TANGLDE IN TETX
What I Want You to Know about My Dyslexic Self

INTRODUCTION

The signs are there: the mouthing of words while reading; the shutting down
when asked an on-the-spot question; the stumbling and confusion when asked
to read aloud; the poor memory for words; the failing of multiple choice
tests; the failure to complete written homework assignments, especially those
requiring the cold reading of informational text (as in read-the-chapter-and-
complete-this-worksheet/ solve-these-problems-and-show-your-work kinds-of-
assignments); the occasional acting out (Shaywitz, 2003) and yet, how many
science teachers have been trained to recognize the outward manifestations of
dyslexia? I certainly wasn’t.

PROLOGUE

I have never once been confronted by a red-pen-toting-teacher declaring, “Why

are you so lazy? We’ve been over this FOUR times. Why aren’t you listening? I
don’t think you’re even trying! You’ve not finished your homework again?” and
yet, every learner with dyslexia I have interviewed has reported being so demeaned.
In her lyrical text, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek $QQLH 'LOODUG  GHVFULEHV KRZ
as a child, she watched in horror as her teacher placed the pulsating cocoon of a
Polyphemus moth into a too-small Mason jar just as it was about to emerge. Like
cocoons trapped in a too-small jar, learners with dyslexia can start to believe there is
no way out. Without intervention, the less likely it will be that their future potential
will unfurl. During the critical developmental period, stuck in that jar (think resource
room being told to “practice” reading and fill out worksheets when you may also
have dysgraphia), the future butterfly/moth’s wings may harden in place against
their backs, and thus, land-bound, the individual is more in peril than ever of meeting
the bottom of an oncoming shoe or predator’s stomach.
For the longest time, I confess that all I knew about dyslexia was that it caused
people to read very slowly, and that, like so many disabilities, came with a stigma
attached. If not for a cast of real-life learners with dyslexia and specialists, I would
still be blind to the privilege my automatic reading ability confers on me. In the

© KONINKLIJKE BRILL NV, LEIDEN, 2018 | DOI 10.1163/9789004368422_004

M. KOESTER

fall of 2012, a middle school science teacher with dyslexia whom I have named
Mr. Marsh helped me to see behind the heavy curtain of dyslexia for the first time
in my life. He had enrolled in my action research study, Project Draw for Science,
sponsored by the University of South Carolina Center for Science Education. In a
TXLHW VHULRXV YRLFH GXULQJ RXU VHFRQG VHPLVWUXFWXUHG LQWHUYLHZ 0U 0DUVK RQH RI
the most verbally fluent individuals I have ever met, shared with me that when he
reads a block of text, “the white space glows and the lines jump around.” To this day,
he has to “hold a line of text still” by keeping his finger under it and cover up all but
the single line he is reading at the moment. He confessed that until the fifth grade,
KH VTXHDNHG DORQJ E\ PHPRUL]LQJ ZRUGV ZKRVH PHDQLQJ KH UDUHO\ XQGHUVWRRG %XW
then, he was “found out” by a teacher who confronted him. “Do you even know what
you just read?” she demanded. A battery of tests ensued, and the next thing he knew,
he was labeled BROKEN and DIS-ABLED. Pulled out from his regular classes to
“practice his reading,” a resource teacher (who was not a dyslexia specialist) simply
gave him more time to copy words he did not understand from texts he could not read
onto the lines of countless worksheets. Stranded in an outside portable classroom
away from his classmates, he fell further and further behind.
I was filled with both empathy and distress for Mr. Marsh’s situation and what our
educational system, of which I was a part, too, had done to him and other brilliant
dyslexics. “But you’re here!” I countered. “You made it through. You’re a master
science teacher, for goodness sakes! How have you done this?” Mr. Marsh, who,
like many dyslexics, is also ADHD, smiled broadly. “I am here because my middle
school science teacher ‘got me,’” he announced. “She saved me! She didn’t mark
my papers down when I misspelled words or make me read out loud. She appointed
me her official lab assistant! But mostly, she used art, stories, and the imagination
to help students like me SEE the meanings of words; just like you’re doing, Merrie!
In Project Draw for Science, we’re creating external and internal libraries of images
that can help learners with dyslexia make sense of the words. For students like me,
these drawings are like ‘personal visual memory aids.’ They also give us the context
we have to have to grasp a word’s meaning. You’re using drawing as language that
dyslexics can READ with our mind’s eye. I want to learn to teach this way, too, so
my students with dyslexia never have to suffer like I did.”
I was too moved to even speak at first, but when I finally did, it was to ask Marsh
to share his story during our next whole group reflection session. A few months later,
Ms. Maya, a newly certified teacher in our study, shared the remarkable academic turn-
DURXQGV DFKLHYHG E\ 0XKDPPDG D VWXGHQW ZLWK SURIRXQG G\VOH[LD .RHVWHU  
Ms. Maya. Muhammad taught me that all good teaching
begins with and is sustained by care.
He started sixth grade with the science test scores
of a third grader.
He is severely dyslexic.
He spent much of last year

28
 TANGLDE IN TETX

In the principal’s office for

behavior referrals.
By the end of the year, Muhammad’s science test scores
were at the sixth-grade level.
I asked, “How did this happen, Muhammad?”
Muhammad. Well, Ms. Maya.
I am dyslexic, but I am not stupid.
Also, I tried because you cared.
You drew for me,
even though you were bad at it!
In science, matter is defined as anything that has mass and takes up physical
space $ODQ +RGNLQVRQ  ZULWHV RI safe spaces in education. He weighs in on
physical space (like containers and rooms), but also addresses the phenomenon of
cultural space, within which power drives the nature of interactions. What if, in that
space inside our heads, we do not feel safe to express our natural creativity? What
if we are told there is only “one right way” to do something? To learn something?
What if we discover that in the school science classroom, there is no space or time to
move within metaphorical space, the one where art is born and profound scientific
discoveries are made? What if we feel so shamed in science classes (because we
struggle to read or follow written procedures) that science no longer matters to us?
.RHVWHU  
Recently, in an effort to learn more about the impact of reading disabilities on
educational achievement in general, I attended a community forum given by the
advocacy group, Understood.org, whose researchers UHSRUW WKDW  LQ  FKLOGUHQ
in the U.S. struggle with issues related to reading, writing, math, focus, and
organization (https://www.understood.org/en). Strong performance in all five
areas is practically essential for success in a traditional, test-driven, didactically
oriented science classroom, and yet, each can be incredibly difficult for those
who struggle to de-code words, read them fluently, and understand their meaning.
From my reading of Eide and Eide’s (2012) and Shaywitz’s (2013) ground
breaking texts on learners with dyslexia, I learned that the dyslexic brain cannot
automatically decode words into sounds, in the ways that some eighty percent
of us can accomplish effortlessly. Instead, dyslexic brains devise alternative
strategies in order to read for meaning, recruiting alternative neural pathways,
especially those associated with creative thinking and problem solving. As a
result, many learners with dyslexia have well above average IQ, superior visual-
spatial reasoning, pattern-identification skills, and the ability to make logical,
best-fit predictions based on working hypotheses (Eide & Eide, 2012). These
same abilities are highly prized in the STEM workforce, and yet, how many
science teachers are unwittingly marginalizing some twenty percent of their most
gifted students by presuming that they can automatically make sense of science

29
M. KOESTER

vocabulary, delivered primarily through text and talk? I used to be one of these
kind of science teachers, too. I did not know what I did not know.

READERS’ THEATRE PERFORMANCE ETHNOGRAPHY

What follows is a Readers’ Theatre performance ethnography, synthesized from

SRHWLFDOO\ WUDQVFULEHG LQWHUYLHZV ZLWK OHDUQHUV ZKR DUH G\VOH[LF DJHV  WR  
their families, and reading specialists, each trained in the Orton Gillingham
approach (http://www.ortonacademy.org/approach.php). Through Readers’ Theatre,
the performed narrative serves as framework for entering into a character’s lived
experience and as an opportunity for reflective interpretation. Each interviewee
was asked, “what do you recall your favorite science teachers having done that
connected with you? and what is the worst thing a science teacher can do?” I hope
the performers’ voices will evoke empathy, awareness, and a collective call to action
to create inclusive science curriculum which validates, lifts up, and empowers the
learner with dyslexia.
Imagine a dimly lit stage, revealing eight standing figures, their faces hidden by
rectangular cardboard screens, which resemble closed books with blank gray covers.
The screens dangle from ceiling wires. On hearing her/his name and occupation
announced by the Researcher Learner (heard only as a voice offstage), each actor
steps from behind the dangling screen and takes a confident step forward in the
downstage direction. With a single spotlight illuminating her/his face, each speaker’s
voice fills the dark void, inviting the audience to see with their ears and hear with
WKHLU KHDUWV DV WKH\ HQWHU LQWR WKH ³VXSUHPH RUGHDOV´ &DPSEHOO  HQFRXQWHUHG
on the hero’s journey. The scene plays out in tableau, with each performer stepping
back behind her/his screen after speaking.

Laney. Forty-seven years old, on welfare, recently enrolled in an inner-city

program for learners with dyslexia – from her own journal, in her own words.
My name is Laney Willis, and
I am determine NOT
to have another child pass through the school system,
graduate from high school AND
still cant read any better
then an elementary student.
That’s what happen to me.
I have ADHD and
I’m also dyslexic.
At the time(in the seventy),
NO ONE KNEW WHAT IT WAS.

30
 TANGLDE IN TETX

You didn’t hear anything

about learning disability, AND
my teacher didn’t know HOW
to help me.
they thought that
I WAS SLOW, so
they just put me back a grade.
I remember teacher sending notes home
with my report card saying
Laney day dream all the time.
little did they know
I couldn’t concentrate.
As I got older
it became apparent to me that I had
A VERY SERIOUS PROBLEM.
so I did the only thing I could think of,
call it “Fake it till you make it.”
I did whatever I had to, to fit in –
I became a class clown with certain teacher,
and with other,
I was quiet as a church mouse,
terrified they call on me
to read or
answer a question.
My experience with science was pretty much the same with all my subjects.
You get what you pay for.
I mean really –
free public education is just what it is –
it sucks.
And it’s sad that it’s like that.
I’ve always enjoyed learning new things.
Especially when the instruction are clear and precise.
A good day for me was when I could catch on and
keep up with what the teacher was teaching –
Which didn’t happen very often.
But when I did, I latched on like
a cowboy riding a bronco horse.
I love it whenever we got to do fun activities.
Where we can be hands on with our experiments,
in and out the class.

31
M. KOESTER

And the instruction are symplified.

Here’s an example.
I can remember the first time
I had to dissect A frog.
The smell was just awful.
Worse than my dog Red Barron breath,
after he eats some unfamiliar items.
The frog was already dead, and
cut open and placed on a tray for us.
The class was in teams of two. We open it up.
We looked at kermit’s organs and parts, discussed it.
And that was it.
Even though I felt that most of the work was done for us.
And that grose smell.
It was still a cool project.
Another project I can remember was where the class
had to draw a picture of the heart.
I really liked that one because it gave me the chance
to show off me creative abilities.
We had instructions to color each section differently.
“Well dah.” I did something different!
Ensted of coloring, I wanted to use glitter,
but I had none.
So I got creative and
cut up construction paper of varius colors.
Put glue on my poster board.
And sprinkled the colored construction paper on it.
Separating the left and right ventricle.
Showing where the oxygenated blood coming into the heart,
and the deoxygenated blood leaving out the pulmonary orties.
It was really cool how my teacher boasted about it to the entire class, and gave
me a big fat “A.”
And that felt great!
I don’t ever remember getting a “A” before or since.
I remember things about the heart better, because I created it.
I drew it, I understood what I need to do, and
how I was going to create it.
But till this day I can’t tell you what else I learned
in science in our work books
nor what the lesson was on.

32
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
impression respectively. Oblique rows of prominent cushions wind
round the surface of the stem and branches: each cushion is
prolonged upwards and downwards in the form of a narrow ridge
with sloping sides which connects adjacent cushions by an ogee
curve. At the upper limit of the broader kite-shaped portion of the
cushion the ligular pit forms a conspicuous feature; immediately
below this is the leaf-scar with its three small scars,—the lateral
parichnos strands and the central leaf-trace. The two oval areas
shown in fig. 185, D, just below the lower edge of the leaf-scars,
represent the parichnos arms which impinge on the surface of the
cushions on their way to the leaves, as explained on a previous
page. It is possible that these areas were visible on the living stem
as strands of loose parenchyma comparable with the lenticel-like pits
on the stipules of Angiopteris[372] and the leaf-bases of Cyatheaceous
ferns, or it may be that their prominence in the specimen before us is
the result of the decay of a thin layer of superficial cortex which hid
them on the living tree. Fig. 185, B, illustrates the appearance of a
stem in a partially decorticated condition (Bergeria state). A further
degree of decortication is seen in fig. 185, A, which represents the
Knorria condition.
 Fig. 185. Lepidodendron Veltheimianum. From specimens in Dr Kidston’s
Collection. (Approximately nat. size.)
Fig. 157 shows a Ulodendron axis of this species; in the lower part
the specimen illustrates the partial obliteration of the surface features
as the result of the splitting of the outer bark consequent on growth
in thickness of the tree. By an extension of the cracks, shown in an
early stage in fig. 157, the leaf-cushions would be entirely destroyed
and the surface of the bark would be characterised by longitudinal
fissures simulating the vertical grooves and ridges of a Sigillarian
stem. The large stumps of trees shown in the frontispiece to Volume
I. are probably, as Kidston[373] suggests, trunks of L. Veltheimianum
in which the leaf-cushions have been replaced by irregular
longitudinal fissures. In old stems of Sigillaria the enlarged parichnos
areas constitute a characteristic feature (p. 205), but it does not
follow that the absence of large parichnos scars is a distinguishing
feature of all Lepidodendra.
In this species, as in others, the form of the leaf-cushion exhibits a
considerable range of variation dependent on the thickness of the
shoot; the contiguous cushions of young branches become stretched
apart as the result of increasing girth of the whole organ, and casts
of still older branches may exhibit very different surface-features[374].
The leaves as seen on impressions of slender branches are
comparatively short, reaching a length of 1–2 cm. It is important to
notice that leafy twigs of this species may bear terminal cones[375]
resembling in form those of Picea excelsa and other recent conifers,
though differing essentially in their morphological features.
The fossil stumps of trees represented in the frontispiece to
Volume I. bear horizontally spreading and dichotomously branched
root-like organs having the characters of Stigmaria ficoides[376].
Geinitz has suggested that Stigmaria inaequalis Göpp. may be the
underground portion of Lepidodendron Veltheimianum.
It is unfortunately seldom possible to connect petrified
Lepidodendron cones with particular species of the genus based on
purely vegetative characters, but it is practically certain that we are
justified in recognising certain strobili described by Williamson[377]
from the Calciferous Sandstone series of Burntisland on the Firth of
Forth as those of Lepidodendron Veltheimianum. Williamson
believed that the cone which he described belonged to the plant with
shoots characterised by the anatomical features of his species
Lepidodendron brevifolium (= L. Veltheimianum), a conclusion which
is confirmed by Kidston[378]. The cone of L. Veltheimianum, which
reached a diameter of at least 1 cm. and a length of 4 cm., agrees in
essentials with other species of Lepidostrobus; the axis has a single
medullated stele of the same general type as that of the vegetative
shoots of Lepidodendron fuliginosum and L. Harcourtii. The
sporophylls are described by Williamson as spirally disposed, and
Scott notices that in some specimens they are arranged in alternate
whorls; as in recent Lycopods both forms of phyllotaxis may occur in
the same species. The heterosporous nature of this strobilus, to
which Scott first applied the name Lepidostrobus Veltheimianus, is
clearly demonstrated by the two longitudinal sections contributed by
Mr Carruthers and figured by Williamson in 1893[379].
Each sporophyll, attached almost at right angles to the cone-axis,
bears a radially elongated sporangium seated on the median line of
its upper face; its margins are laterally expanded as a thin lamina;
from the middle of the lower face a narrow keel extends downwards
between two sporangia belonging to a lower series. From the base
of a sporangium a mass of sterile tissue penetrates into the spore-
producing region as in the large sporangia of Isoetes (cf. fig. 191, H,
a, and fig. 133, H). The distal and free portion of the sporophylls is
bent upwards as a protecting bract. Some of the sporangia in the
upper part of the cone produced numerous microspores, while 8–16
megaspores occur in the lower sporangia. The megaspores, having
a mean diameter of 0·8 mm. “quite 40 times the size of the
microspores[380],” are characterised by tubular capitate appendages,
and by a conspicuous three-lobed projection (fig. 191, E)[381] which,
as Scott suggests, may represent the outer spore-wall which has
split as the result of germination. It is not improbable, as shown in
fig. 191, I, that this cap was present before germination. The
megaspores represented in fig. 191, I, illustrate their characteristic
form as seen in a section of a megasporangium, Sm; the open beak-
like portion of the larger spore is probably the apical region which
has split along the three-rayed lines. These lines form a
characteristic feature of both recent and extinct spores and denote
their origin in tetrads. The spore shown in fig. 191, E[382], illustrates
the external features. The apical region of the prothallus of a
megaspore of Lepidodendron Veltheimianum described by Mr
Gordon[383] consists of smaller cells than those occupying the greater
part of the spore-cavity, a differentiation which he compares with that
of the prothallus of Selaginella.
 Fig. 186.
A, B. Lepidodendron Veltheimianum. (Botany School, Cambridge.)
C. Lepidodendron macrophyllum. (British Museum. No. 377.)
x, Primary xylem; x2, secondary xylem; s, Stigmarian rootlet.

There can be little doubt that the petrified shoots described by

Williamson[384] from the Calciferous Sandstone beds of Burntisland
as Lepidodendron brevifolium are identical with specimens
possessing the external features of L. Veltheimianum. In 1872
Dawson expressed the opinion that Williamson’s species should be
referred to L. Veltheimianum, and evidence subsequently obtained
confirms this view. The stele of this species is of the medullated type,
differing from that of L. fuliginosum and L. Harcourtii in the absence
of prominent ridges on the external surface of the primary xylem, and
from L. vasculare in the possession of a parenchymatous pith. In
younger twigs the cortex consists of fairly homogeneous tissue, but
in older branches there is a greater distinction between a delicate
middle cortex and a stronger outer cortex. Fig. 186, A, represents a
stem in which the vascular cylinder is composed of a primary xylem
ring, x, 1·5 mm. broad, succeeded by a zone of secondary wood 1·2
cm. in breadth. The junction between the primary and secondary
xylem is shown on a larger scale in fig. 186, B. The tissues abutting
on the secondary xylem have not been preserved; the outer cortex,
which consists chiefly of secondary elements, is divided superficially
into unequal ridges corresponding to the leaf-cushions which have
been more or less obliterated as the result of growth in thickness of
the stem.

9. Lepidodendron Pedroanum (Carruthers).

In 1869 Mr Carruthers described some specimens of vegetative
stems and isolated sporangia, collected by Mr Plant in Brazil, as
Flemingites Pedroanus[385]. From a more recent account published
by Zeiller[386] it is clear that Carruthers’ species is a true
Lepidodendron; an examination of the type-specimens in the British
Museum confirms this determination. The contiguous leaf-cushions
have rounded angles similar in form to those of Lepidodendron
Veltheimianum and L. dichotomum, but it is not unlikely that the
Brazilian plant is specifically distinct from European species. A figure
of one of the specimens on which Carruthers founded the species is
given by Arber[387] in his Glossopteris Flora. The Brazilian plant is
chiefly interesting as affording proof of the existence of
Lepidodendron in the southern hemisphere; the species has also
been recognised in South Africa from material collected by Mr Leslie
at Vereeniging[388].
As Zeiller[389] has suggested, it is not improbable that the fossils
described by Renault[390] from Brazil as Lycopodiopsis Derbyi may be
the petrified stems of Lepidodendron Pedroanum. The structure of
the central cylinder of Renault’s species is of the type represented by
L. Harcourtii; the xylem forms a continuous ring and does not consist
of separate strands of tracheae as Renault believed.

10. Lepidodendron australe (M’Coy). Figs. 187, A–C.

Specimens described under this name are interesting rather on
account of their extended geographical range and geological
antiquity than on botanical grounds. The drawings reproduced in fig.
187 illustrate the characteristic appearance of this Lower
Carboniferous and Upper Devonian type, as represented by a
specimen recently described[391] from the Lower Karroo (Dwyka)
series, which is probably of Carboniferous age, near Orange River
Station, South Africa. The surface is divided into polygonal or
rhomboidal areas (figs. A and B) 8–9 mm. long and 7–8 mm. broad,
arranged in regular series and representing leaf-scars, comparable
with those of Sigillaria Brardi and other species, or possibly partially
decorticated leaf-cushions. A short distance below the apex of each
area there is a more or less circular prominence or depression (fig.
187, B) and on a few of the areas there are indications of a groove
(fig. A, g) extending from the raised scar to the pointed base, as at g,
g.
 Fig. 187. Lepidodendron australe. Fig. A, nat. size.
In examining the graphitic layer on the surface of the South African
specimen shown in fig. 187, A, use was made of a method recently
described by Professor Nathorst[392]. A few drops of collodion were
placed on the surface, and after a short interval the film was
removed and mounted on a slide. The addition of a stain facilitated
the microscopic examination and the drawing of the collodion film.
The cell-outlines (fig. 187, C) on the surface of the polygonal areas
may be those of the epidermis, but they were more probably formed
by a subepidermal tissue; the scar, which interrupts the continuity of
the flat surface, may mark the position of a leaf-base, or, assuming a
partial decortication to have occurred prior to fossilisation, it may
represent a gap in the cortical tissue caused by the decay of delicate
tissue which surrounded the vascular bundle of each leaf in its
course through the cortex of the stem. If the impression were that of
the actual surface of a Lepidodendron or a Sigillaria, we should
expect to find traces of the parichnos appearing on the leaf-scar as
two small scars, one on each side of the leaf-bundle. In specimens
from Vereeniging described in 1897[393] as Sigillaria Brardi, which
bear a superficial resemblance to that shown in fig. A, the parichnos
is clearly shown. On the other hand, an impression of a partially
decorticated Lepidodendroid stem need not necessarily show the
parichnos as a distinct feature: owing to its close association with the
leaf-trace in the outer cortex, before its separation in the form of two
diverging arms, it would not appear as a distinct gap apart from that
representing the leaf-bundle. The absence of the parichnos may be
regarded as a point in favour of the view that the impression is that
of a partially decorticated stem. Similarly, the absence of any
demarcation between a leaf-cushion and a true leaf-scar such as
characterises the stems of Lepidodendra and many Sigillariae is also
favourable to the same interpretation.
In 1872 Mr Carruthers[394] described some fossils from
Queensland, some of which appear to be identical with that shown in
fig. 187 under the name Lepidodendron nothum, Unger[395], a
species founded on Upper Devonian specimens from Thuringia. The
Queensland plant is probably identical with Dawson’s Canadian
species, Leptophloeum rhombicum[396]. In 1874 M’Coy[397] instituted
the name Lepidodendron australe for some Lower Carboniferous
specimens from Victoria, Australia: these are in all probability
identical with the Queensland fossils referred by Carruthers to
Unger’s species, but as the identity of the German and Australian
plants is very doubtful[398] it is better to adopt M’Coy’s specific
designation.
Krasser[399] has described a similar, but probably not specifically
identical, type from China; from Devonian rocks of Spitzbergen
Nathorst[400] has figured, under the name Bergeria, an example of
this form of stem, and Szajnocha[401] has described other specimens
from Lower Carboniferous strata in the Argentine.
 Lepidodendron australe has been recorded from several
Australian localities[402] from strata below those containing the genus
Glossopteris and other members of the Glossopteris, or, as it has
recently been re-christened, the Gangamopteris[403] Flora.

viii. Fertile shoots of Lepidodendron.

A. Lepidostrobus.
The generic name Lepidostrobus was first used by Brongniart[404]
for the cones of Lepidodendron, the type-species of the genus being
Lepidostrobus ornatus, the designation given by the author of the
genus to a Lepidostrobus previously figured by Parkinson[405] in his
Organic Remains of a Former World. The generic name Flemingites
proposed by Carruthers[406] in 1865, under a misapprehension as to
the nature of spores which he identified as sporangia, was applied to
specimens of true Lepidostrobi. Brongniart also instituted the generic
name Lepidophyllum for detached leaves of Lepidodendron, both
vegetative and fertile; the specimen figured by him in 1822 as
Filicites (Glossopteris) dubius[407], and which was afterwards made
the type-species of the genus, was recognised as being a portion of
the lanceolate limb of a large single-veined sporophyll belonging to a
species of Lepidostrobus.
In an unusually large Lepidophyllum, or detached sporophyll of
Lepidostrobus, in the Manchester University Museum, the free
laminar portion reaches a length of 8 cm.
It is not uncommon to find Lepidodendron preserved in the form of
a shell of outer cortex, which has become separated along the
phellogen from the rest of the stem; as the result of compression the
cylinder of bark may assume the appearance of a flattened stem
covered with leaf-cushions. A specimen preserved in this way was
described by E. Weiss as a cone of Lomatophloios macrolepidotus
Gold., and is quoted by Solms-Laubach and other authors[408] as an
example of an unusually large Lepidostrobus. An examination of the
type-specimen in the Bergakademie of Berlin convinced me that
Weiss had mistaken the partially destroyed leaf-cushions for
sporophylls, and Stigmarian rootlets, which had invaded the empty
space, for sporangia[409].
In external appearance some species of Lepidostrobus bear a
superficial resemblance to the cone of a Spruce Fir (Picea excelsa),
but the surface of a lycopodiaceous strobilus is usually covered by
the overlapping and upturned laminae which terminate the more or
less horizontal sporangium-bearing portion of the sporophyll.
Fig. 188 affords a good example of a long and narrow
Lepidostrobus. This specimen from the Middle Coal-Measures of
Lancashire has a length of 23 cm.; like other Lepidostrobi it is borne
at the tip of a slender shoot. The fossil is sufficiently well preserved
to show the characteristic radially elongated form of the large
sporangia and the long and upturned distal portions of the
sporophylls.
We may briefly describe Lepidostrobus as follows:—Cylindrical
strobili consisting of an axis containing a single cylindrical stele
which agrees generally with that of the vegetative shoots of L.
Harcourtii and other species. The amount of parenchymatous pith
varies in different forms; in some the primary xylem is almost solid.
The middle cortical region, which has usually been destroyed before
fossilisation, possesses the loose lacunar structure characteristic of
this region in the vegetative branches. The thicker walled outer
cortex is continued at the periphery into crowded, usually spirally
disposed sporophylls, each of which consists of a more or less
horizontal pedicel, which may be characterised by a keel-like median
ridge on its lower surface, while to the central region of the upper
face is attached a large radially elongated sporangium. One of the
chief differences between a Lepidodendron cone and those of the
recent genus Lycopodium is the greater radial elongation of the
sporangia in the former. Some species of Lepidostrobus may have
been homosporous; some are known to be heterosporous. In the
latter the megasporangia borne on the lower sporophylls usually
contain several megaspores as in Isoetes (cf. fig. 133, E). Beyond
the distal end of the sporangium the sporophyll becomes broader in
a horizontal plane and is bent upwards as a lanceolate limb; it may
also be prolonged a short distance downwards as a bluntly triangular
expansion.

Fig. 188. Lepidostrobus. Middle Coal-Measures, Bardsley, Lancashire.

From a specimen in the Manchester Museum. (½ nat. size.)
There can be little doubt that the Palaeozoic Lepidodendra, like
Lycopodium cernuum (fig. 123) and other recent Lycopods, usually
bore their cones at the tips of slender shoots. The fertile shoot of
Lepidophloios scoticus shown in fig. 160, B, affords one of several
instances supporting this statement; similar examples are figured by
Brongniart[410], Morris[411], and by more recent writers. The apparently
sessile cone figured by Williamson[412] from a specimen in the
Manchester Museum is certainly not in situ, but is accidentally
associated with the stem.
The general absence of secondary wood in the steles of
Lepidostrobi is, as Dr Kidston[413] points out, consistent with the view
that the cones were shed on maturity and that fertilisation probably
took place on the ground, or perhaps on the surface of the water
where the slender hairs of the megaspores (fig. 191, F, I) may have
served to catch the microspores.

Fig. 189. Lepidostrobus. Section through the apical region of a cone

above the axis. (Manchester University Collection.)
Fig. 189 is an accurate representation of a transverse section, 6
mm. in diameter, of what is no doubt the apical portion of a
Lepidostrobus from the Coal-Measures of Shore, Lancashire. The
section cuts across the upturned free laminae above the level of the
apex of the cone-axis. Each lamina contains a small vascular bundle
composed of a few tracheae and some thin-walled cells surrounded
by delicate mesophyll tissue. Immediately in front of the distal end of
a sporangium a small ligule is borne on the upper face of the
sporophyll (fig. 191, A, B, l) occupying the same position as in
Selaginella (cf. fig. 131, F). Strands of vascular tissue pass in a
steeply ascending course from the xylem to the pedicels of
sporophylls, finally curving upwards and ending in the upper limb.
Each vascular bundle consists of a strand of xylem, apparently of
mesarch structure, accompanied by a few layers of parenchyma on
its outer face and by a group of cambiform elements, the whole
being enclosed in a sheath of parenchyma continuous with the inner
cortex of the cone axis. The vascular bundle is accompanied by a
parichnos in the outer cortex and in the sporophyll.
Reference has already been made to the belief on the part of
some palaeobotanists that the large scars of Ulodendron represent
attachment-surfaces of sessile cones, and reasons have been given
against the acceptance of this view.
There is considerable range in the size of Lepidostrobi. An
incomplete specimen, 33 cm. long and 6 cm. broad, which may have
been 50 cm. in length, is described by Renault and Zeiller[414] from
the Commentry Coal-field. The larger cones afford a striking
demonstration of the enormous spore-output of some species of
Lepidodendron.
Among the earliest accounts of the anatomy of Lepidostrobus are
those by Hooker[415] and Binney[416]. One of the specimens described
by the former author (fig. 190) affords an interesting example of an
unusual manner of fossilisation; a hollow stem or Lepidodendron is
filled with sedimentary material containing several pieces of
Lepidostrobi in an approximately vertical position.
 Fig. 190. Lepidodendron stem with Lepidostrobi. (After Hooker.)
A. Side-view showing leaf-cushions on the left-hand side and the
Knorria condition on the right.
B. View of transverse section; s, sections of Lepidostrobi.

The fact that Lepidostrobi usually occur as isolated specimens

renders it impossible in most cases to refer them to particular
species of Lepidodendron. Neither external features nor anatomical
characters afford satisfactory criteria by which to correlate vegetative
and fertile shoots; in some measure this is due to the imperfection of
our knowledge as regards the range of structure within the limits of
species; it is also due to lack of information as to the extent to which
the transition from sterile to fertile portions of a shoot is accompanied
by anatomical differences. Prof. Williamson wrote: “I have for many
years endeavoured to discover some specific characters by which
different Lepidostrobi can be distinguished and identified, but thus far
my efforts have been unsuccessful[417].” In a few cases, such as
those mentioned in the description of Lepidodendron Veltheimianum
and L. Wünschianum, it has been possible to correlate cones and
vegetative shoots.
The most complete account we possess of the anatomy of
Lepidodendron cones is that by Mr Maslen[418], who first
demonstrated the occurrence of a ligule on the sporophylls, and thus
supplied a missing piece of evidence in support of the generally
accepted view as to the homology of the sporangium-bearing
members and foliage leaves.

i. Lepidostrobus variabilis (Lindley and Hutton).

1811. “Strobilus,” Parkinson, Organic Remains, Vol. i. p. 428,
Pl. ix. fig. 1.
1828. Lepidostrobus ornatus, Brongniart, Prodrome, p. 87.
1831. L. variabilis, Lindley and Hutton, Foss. Flora, Pls. x. xi.
1831. L. ornatus, Lindley and Hutton, Foss. Flora, Pl. xxvi.
1837. L. ornatus var. didymus, Ibid. Pl. clxiii.
1850. Arancarites Cordai, Unger, Genera et Spec. Plant. foss.
p. 382.
1875. Lepidostrobus variabilis, Feistmantel,
Palaeontographica, Vol. lxiii. Pl. xliv.
1886. L. variabilis, Kidston, Cat. Palaeozoic Plants, p. 197.
1890. L. ornatus, Zeiller, Flor. Valenciennes, p. 497, Pl. lxxvi.
figs. 5, 6.
—— L. variabilis, Zeiller, Flor. Valenciennes, p. 499, Pl. lxxvi.
figs. 3, 4.

Under this specific name are included strobili from Upper

Carboniferous rocks which, in spite of minor differences, may be
considered as one type. The cylindrical cones vary considerably in
size, some reaching a length of 50 cm. or more. The sporophylls are
attached by a pedicel, 4–8 mm. long, at right angles to the axis,
while the distal portion forms an oval lanceolate limb 10–20 mm. in
length. The sporangia are 4–8 mm. long.
The branched example figured by Lindley and Hutton[419] as a
variety (L. ornatus var. didymus) illustrates a phenomenon not
uncommon in both Palaeozoic and recent lycopodiaceous strobili.

Fig. 191. Lepidostrobus.

A–D. L. oldhamius.
B, C, D. From sections in the Binney Collection, Cambridge.
E. Megaspore. (After Kidston.)
F. Megaspore (Coal-Measures, Halifax). (After Williamson.)
G. Megaspore of Lepidostrobus foliaceus. (After Mrs Scott.)
H. Tangential section of sporangium. (After Bower.)
I. Part of sporangium wall, Sm, of the cone of Lepidodendron
Veltheimianum, enclosing two megaspores. (Cambridge Botany
School.)
ii. Lepidostrobus oldhamius Williamson[420]. Fig. 191, A–D.
Williamson[421] instituted this term for strobili previously described
by Binney[422], without adequate evidence, as the cones of
Lepidodendron Harcourtii. In shape and in the main morphological
features this type resembles L. variabilis, which is however known
only in the form of casts and impressions. A cone of L. oldhamius, 2–
3 cm. in diameter, possesses a medullated stele consisting of a ring
of primary xylem (fig. 191, D, x) with exarch protoxylem and no
secondary elements. Maslen found several short tracheae at the
periphery of the xylem and states that these led him to compare the
cone with the vegetative shoots of Lepidodendron vasculare, but the
common occurrence of such elements in different types of shoot
renders them of little or no specific value. The inner cortex is like that
of vegetative shoots of Lepidodendron and the middle cortex, which
was no doubt of the type described in Lepidostrobus Brownii, is
represented by a gap in the sections, beyond which is the stronger
outer cortex (fig. 191, D) passing into the horizontal pedicels of the
sporophylls. The section of the axis reproduced in fig. 191, D, was
figured by Binney[423] as Lepidodendron vasculare. The leaf-traces,
several of which are seen in the middle cortical region in fig. D, lt,
consist of a strand of scalariform tracheae, with a mesarch
protoxylem, succeeded by a few parenchymatous cells; beyond
these there is usually a small gap which was originally occupied by a
strand of thin-walled cells. It is important to note that in one
sporophyll-trace figured by Maslen[424] there is a strand of thin-walled
elongated elements abutting on the xylem, which he describes as
phloem. This tissue is certainly more like true phloem than any which
has hitherto been described in the leaf-traces of vegetative shoots.
The state of preservation is not, however, sufficiently good to enable
us to recognise undoubted phloem features.
In such cones as I have examined no tissue has been seen which
shows the histological features characteristic of the secretory zone of
vegetative shoots: the “phloem” (Maslen) occupies the position in the
sporophyll bundle which in the vascular bundles of foliage leaves is
occupied by a dark-celled and partially disorganised tissue in
continuity with the secretory zone of the main stele. It may be that in
the strobili this tissue occurred in a modified form, but even
assuming that the section figured by Maslen shows true phloem, an
assumption based on slender evidence, this is not sufficient
justification for the application of the term phloem to a tissue
occupying a corresponding position in vegetative shoots and
distinguished by well-marked histological features.
The sporophyll-traces, as seen in the outer cortex in fig. 191, D,
are partially surrounded by a large crescentic space, p, which was
originally occupied by the parichnos. The sporangia are attached
along the middle line of the sporophyll and, as in Lepidostrobus
Brownii, a cushion of parenchyma projects into the lower part of the
sporangial cavity (fig. 191, A, a; C, a).
The diagrammatic sketch of part of a section in the Binney
Collection reproduced in fig. 191, B, shows the position of the ligule,
l. No megaspores have been discovered in any specimens of this
type; the microspores, which occur both singly and in tetrads, have a
length of 0·02–0·03 mm.
The drawing shown in fig. 191, A, based on a section in the Binney
Collection, illustrates the general arrangement of the parts of a
typical Lepidostrobus. I have made use of this sketch instead of that
given by Maslen, as his figure conveys the idea that the sporophylls
are superposed, whereas, whether they are verticillate or spiral, a
radial longitudinal section would not cut successive sporangia in the
same plane.

iii. Lepidostrobus Brownii (Brongn.).

In 1843 a specimen of a portion of a petrified cone was purchased
by the British Museum, assisted by the Marquis of Northampton and
Robert Brown, for £30 from a French dealer. This fossil, from an
unknown locality, was briefly described by Brown in 1851[425] and
named by him Triplosporites, but in a note added to his paper he
expressed the opinion that the generic designation Lepidostrobus
would be more appropriate. Brongniart afterwards named the cone
Triplosporites Brownii[426], and Schimper[427] described it in his Traité
as Lepidostrobus Brownii. The type-specimen is preserved in the
British Museum and the Paris Museum possesses a piece of the
same fossil.
The central axis of the cone has a stele of the type characteristic
of Lepidodendron fuliginosum and L. Harcourtii, and the xylem is
surrounded by a thin-walled tissue described by Bower[428] as
possibly phloem; but in the absence of longitudinal sections it is
impossible to say how far the tissue external to the xylem agrees
with that in Lepidodendron stems. The sporophylls consist of a
horizontal portion, to the upper face of which the radially elongated
sporangia are attached, one to each sporophyll; beyond the distal
end of the sporangium the sporophyll bends sharply upwards as a
fairly stout lamina. The wall of the sporangium is composed of
several layers of cells, as shown in a drawing published by
Bower[429]; in the interior occur groups of microspores, and from a
ridge of tissue which extends along the whole length of the
sporangium irregular trabeculae of sterile tissue project into the
sporangial cavity, as in Isoetes (fig. 191, H: cf. fig. 133, H).
Further information in regard to Lepidostrobus Brownii has
recently been supplied by Prof. Zeiller[430], who recognises the
existence of a ligule, and draws attention to some interesting
histological features in the tissue of the sporophylls[431].

Spores of Palaeozoic Lycopodiales.

The calcareous nodules from the Coal seams of Yorkshire and
Lancashire are rich in isolated spores, many of which are
undoubtedly those of Lepidostrobi. Examples of spores were figured
by Morris[432] in 1840, and their occurrence in coal has been
described by several authors, one of the earliest accounts being by
Balfour[433]. The drawings of Palaeozoic and recent spores published
by Kidston and Bennie[434] demonstrate a striking similarity between
the megaspores of existing and extinct Lycopods, the chief
difference being the larger size of the fossils.
The general generic name Triletes, originally used by Reinsch[435],
is a convenient term by which to designate Pteridophytic spores
which cannot be referred to definite types.