Ensuring equal opportunities and respecting the diversity of children is a fundamental principle of education and schooling of children with special needs. Thus, children with typical development and children with special needs should have equal conditions for their optimal development. No child should be deprived of the right to be included in an appropriate education program.
The purpose of the research was to determine whether teachers, who teach children included in educational program with an adapted implementation and additional professional help, are familiar with basic characteristics and education of children with disabilities in specific areas of learning, who are included in educational program with an adapted implementation and additional professional help as well as children with mild intellectual disabilities, included in adjusted educational program with lower educational standard. We were also interested in their opinion on acquired knowledge standards of children with disabilities in specific areas of learning, opinion of the adequacy of inclusive education for some children with disabilities in specific areas of learning as well as their opinion on how they can influence to redirect children into more adequate educational programs.
The study included 95 teachers from three rural and three urban schools in the area of Ptuj and Ormož who teach children with disabilities in specific areas of learning included in educational program with an adapted implementation and additional professional help. The sample was ad hoc and it included teachers from primary and lower secondary education of both genders.
The study was conducted with a descriptive and causal-nonexperimental method. The study attitude was quantitative and qualitative. We used our own survey questionnaire.
The study showed that most teachers, who teach children, included in educational program with an adapted implementation and additional professional help, are familiar with the basic characteristics and education of children with disabilities in specific areas of learning, however, almost half of the teachers are not familiar with the basic characteristics and education of children with mild intellectual disabilities. They also believe that during their education, they did not gain sufficient knowledge of children with disabilities in specific areas of learning nor about children with mild intellectual disabilities and that they are having troubles distinguishing both groups of children. The vast majority of teachers agree that some of the children with disabilities in specific areas of learning do not meet the minimal standards of knowledge and think that these standards can be lowered and that school marks do not reflect the real knowledge of children. Almost all of the teachers agree that it would be better for some children, who are within the group of children with disabilities in specific areas of learning, to be involved with adjusted educational program with lower educational standard, performed by primary schools with an adjusted program. They also believe that their proposal about redirecting those children would not be considered.
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