Students with intellectual disabilities need high-quality special educational support for their development. Said support can best be provided by special and rehabilitation teachers who believe that they are competent in their work, namely they feel self-efficacious. The main aim of the master's thesis is to examine the self-efficacy of special and rehabilitation teachers (hereafter SRT) in their work with students with intellectual disabilities and to identify self-efficacy factors.
In the theoretical part, based on the scientific literature by domestic and foreign authors, we defined the characteristics of students with intellectual disabilities, the work of SRT, presented the theory of self-efficacy, and transferred it to the field of education. We presented the self-efficacy of teachers and SRT, collective efficacy, self-efficacy improvement and the factors of self-efficacy.
In the empirical part, we used a descriptive and causal non-experimental research method and a quantitative research approach. The survey was carried out on a sample of SRT (N = 140) employed in a special education programme and in an adapted programme with a lower educational standard. With a questionnaire we investigated the self-efficacy of SRT in their work with students with intellectual disabilities in relation to workplace, age, years of service, professional title, and the function of class teacher. We identified the area of work in which they felt most and least self-efficacious.
Based on the analysis of the results, we have found that SRT feel self-efficacious in their work with students with intellectual disabilities. They feel most efficacious in instruction strategies and least efficacious in managing student behaviour. We have found that there are statistically significant differences in the area of self-efficacy of SRT in working with students with intellectual disabilities depending on the years of service. The SRT with work experience of up to three years felt on average less self-efficacious than the other respondents. We have found that there are no statistically significant differences in the area of self-efficacy of SRT with regard to workplace, age, years of service, professional title, and the function of class teacher. Additionally, we have found that there is a statistically significant correlation between the professional title and the self-efficacy of SRT. However, we have not detected any correlation between the self-efficacy of SRT and the years of service.
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