Teacher experiences, awareness, and beliefs
about the children with reading and writing
Disability
Dr. Samudra Senarath
Department of Educational Psychology
Faculty of Education
University of Colombo
Overview

Rational of the Study

Research objectives of the Study

Methods and Sample

Results and Discussion

Conclusions and Suggestions
Rational of the study

Dyslexia related literature stated that some
children have great difficulty in learning to
read and write despite normal intelligence.

Dyslexia literally means difficulty in reading,
writing , spelling and pronouncing words.

Prevalence in school children 4-8%
Contd.

Research in this field highlighted that appropriate
teaching and support dyslexia children can make
progress, but
- teacher’s less knowledge and experiences
- inadequate teacher training program
- lack of time
-being overloaded with daily school routines and
responsibilities prevent helping for these children
- focuses on competitive three national exams,
Research objectives of the Study




Identify teacher experiences towards
dyslexic (reading and writing problem)
children
Examine teacher knowledge, and beliefs
relating to the dyslexic children.
Examine teacher job satisfaction
Examine teacher emotional status when
working with reading and writing problem
children
Research Design
Sample survey study
 Sample: purposive sample method,80 postgraduate
teachers
Primary teachers: 62
Special education teachers: 18
Instrument : Standardized test with five subscales
(German version)
 Dyslexia subjective knowledge : Smith,
Fabriger,Macdougal ,Wiesenthal (2008); test reliability
Cronbach α= .892

Contd.
Dyslexia objective knowledge: Wadlington
&Wadlington (2005); α= .536
 Job satisfaction test ; Kopp (2009), α= .876
 Emotional test ; α= .932
Data analyzing methods: Mean and SD,
percentage, and t-test,

Teaching Experience
40
38
40
Primary
35
35
Special
28
Percentage
30
23
25
20
15
12
10
8
10
5
5
1
0
0-1
6-10
11-15
16-20
No. of Years in Teaching
Above 20
Experiences in Teaching Children with
Reading and Writing Difficulties
100
100
Yes
90
Percentage
80
No
67
70
60
50
33
40
30
20
0
10
0
Primary
Special
Teacher Group
Teacher Training Experiences on Dyslexic Children
Training on Educational Psychology/
Psychotherapy
Participation of Training Programmes
100
100
100
100
Yes
No
80
No
80
62
70
Percentage
Percentage
90
90
90
70
Yes
60
38
50
40
30
60
50
40
30
20
20
0
10
0
Primary
Special
Teacher Group
10
10
0
0
Primary
Special
Teacher Group
Self-learning experiences about LRS children
72
80
60
70
Yes
Percentage
60
No
50
40
40
28
30
20
10
0
Primary
Special
Teacher Group
Level of knowledge - reading and writing difficulties
of children(subjective knowledge)
35
30.6
Primary
30
Special
Percentage
25
20
19.3
17.4
17
15
10
6.8
5
3.4
2.3
0
0
0
0
0
1.1
2.1
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Teacher Knowledge
1 = No Knowledge
7 = Higher Knowledge
Dyslexic characteristics
Unable to Pronounce Words
Correctly
Mixup Letters when Reading and
Writing
100
100
80
46.9
Percentage
80
60
53.1
40
20
0
0
Correct
Primary Teachers
100
100
Primary Teachers
Special Edu. Teachers
68.1
60
40
31.9
20
0
0
Incorrect
Special Edu. Teachers
Correct
Incorrect
Teacher beliefs about dyslexic characteristics
Teacher beliefs (Dyslexic Characteristics)
Have a low IQ level
Correct
%
Incorrect
%
Primary
96
4
Special
2
98
Primary
27
73
Special
82
18
Primary
34
66
Special
100
0
Primary
34
66
Special
100
0
Primary
13
87
Special
85
15
Teacher Group
Same word is written in differently in each and every time
Mix up consonants when they read and write
Children of any social level could be affected by this
condition
Have a good memory
Teacher Job Satisfaction
Salary
35
Primary
30.2
Special
30
Percentage
25
20
13.1
15
10
12.5
10.4
5
8
7.9
6.7
5.6
3.4
2.2
0
Very dissatisfied
Dissatisfied
Somewhat
dissatisfied
Not satisfied or
not dissatisfied
Satisfactory Level
Satisfied
Teacher Job Satisfaction
Number of Children in the Classroom
25
25
Primary
23
Special
Percentage
20
20
15
10
12
7.4
6.3
5
0
1.1
2
0
3.2
0
0
Very
dissatified
Dissatisfied Somewhat
Not
dissatisfied satisfied or
not
dissatisfied
Satisfied
Satisfactory level
Vert
satisfied
Mean
2
0
**
** *
Helpless to
confident
4
**
Stressed to
relaxed
6
*
Negative to
positive feeling
8
Fear to
fearlessness
Teacher’s Mental status
12
10
Primary Teacher
Special Edu. Teacher
Conclusions and Suggestions



special education teachers have higher subject
knowledge about dyslexia than primary teachers
through their teacher training and postgraduate diploma
professional courses.
Special education teachers have higher job satisfaction
level compare to the primary teachers
There is significant differences between primary and
special education teachers’ emotions when they are
working with reading and writing problem children.
Suggestions
Teachers need more training on dyslexia; more
facilities; teaching –learning aids, collaborative
works, additional assistant teacher for primary
grades etc.
 Necessity of increasing teacher job satisfaction
factors.
 Teacher student ratio should be suitable for the
primary grades.

Thank you !!!