Proceedings of The 6th World Conference on Research in Education
Year: 2023
DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.33422/6th.worldcre.2023.06.104
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Challenges with Students with Special Needs and Teachers’ Attitudes
Ambera DUKA (FERRI), Drita AVDYLI, Ermira TATI
ABSTRACT:
The purpose of this study is to analyze the problems that inclusive classes have. The factors affecting inclusive classes as well as the attitudes of teachers in these classes should be seen as a priority since the inclusion of students with special needs in the class unaccompanied by assistant/support teachers significantly increases the difficulties in these classes. The study suggests that the attitudes of teachers in inclusive classes are strongly related to: experience in teaching in these classes, professional development of teachers as well as conditions for adapting teaching depending on the learning abilities of students with disabilities. This study is a quantitative study regarding the method of data collection and processing. The SPSS program, version 20, was used to process the data collected from the teacher surveys. The sample taken for the study are the teachers of grades 6-9 in pre- university education schools in three cities such as Durrës, Kukës and Korçë (N=271). The instrument used in the survey is STATIC (Teachers’ Attitudes Toward Inclusive Classrooms Scale – Cochran, 1998, revised 2000). In this study, a sample consisting of 71 teachers was taken. This study describes some of the findings related to the analysis of factors that may influence the teaching of inclusive classes. The results of the study, after analyzing the data obtained from the teachers’ survey, as well as examining the hypotheses, in relation to the developed hypotheses, concluded that: “Teachers who have experience in teaching students with special needs have higher efficiency than teachers who have no experience in teaching students with special needs”, the first hypothesis was not confirmed. Also in relation to “Training related to contemporary teaching is a distinctive characteristic and shows high efficiency of those teachers who engage in these trainings, than teachers who are not continuously trained in contemporary teaching of students with special needs” the second hypothesis was proved that by ANOVA. The ANOVA analysis showed that there is a relationship between the training of teachers of contemporary teaching and its adaptation in the comprehensive education of students with special needs. Such data were also displayed in Cross Tabulations developed with the same variables. We can conclude: that although with few limitations in the study, the results of the research show a relationship between the effectiveness of teaching and the attitudes of teachers in comprehensive schools. The influencing variables are related to professional attitudes, teachers’ experiences with these students as well as the training received. The number of students with special needs in the same class with other students in the class affects and complicates teaching in these classes – it can be addressed in later studies. This study can serve and will positively influence as a guide for beginning teachers, who see working with students with disabilities as a challenge in their career.
keywords: students with special needs, training of teachers, experience in teaching