The purpose of the MA thesis is to examine secondary school teachers’ competencies for teaching students with dyslexia. During schooling, dyslexia as well as teachers’ response and classroom adjustments can immensely affect an individual’s learning process. The MA thesis predominately focuses on teachers’ self-assessed competencies for working with dyslexic students and their beliefs about dyslexia that affect their actions in class. We aimed to assess the role of Slovenian language secondary school teachers and their competencies to reduce the impact of the condition on students’ ability to acquire and demonstrate their knowledge of the Slovenian language.
The theoretical part defines a heterogeneous group of learning disabilities as well as the concepts of integration and inclusion as the basis for working with students with learning disabilities. Furthermore, the field of learning disabilities was narrowed down to working with students with dyslexia. Dyslexia was examined through the prism of Slovenian language secondary school teachers. Firstly, the general goals/competencies for Slovenian language in secondary schools were defined, followed by linguistic and literary goals. Afterwards, we reviewed the required competencies, principles, and possible classroom adjustments for working with dyslexic students. Due to the fact that dyslexia manifests in a variety of ways, a teacher must select suitable classroom adjustments that enable students to achieve their learning objectives from a variety of teaching, testing, and assessing methods. Moreover, it is imperative that teachers improve their knowledge of working with dyslexic students by attending special training, reading appropriate literature, participating with other experts on the field, or through personal experience.
The empirical part examines the connection between the self-assessed Slovenian language teachers’ competencies for teaching students with dyslexia and teachers’ false beliefs about the condition. In addition, we were interested whether teachers recognize issues students with dyslexia have and if this correlates with teachers’ false beliefs about the condition. The MA thesis aims to investigate how Slovenian language teachers acquire competencies and knowledge for teaching students with dyslexia. Moreover, the thesis examines how teachers assess the quality of sources on dyslexia.
|
