Regular teachers instructional approaches to teaching children with special needs in selected basic schools in Sunyani municipality, Ghana

Abstract

Introduction The regular classroom teacher needs to understand the uniqueness of every child and tailor the instructional process to meet the needs of all children.   Purpose: The purpose was to find out whether regular teachers in basic schools have the requisite knowledge about children with special needs in their classrooms. Again, it focused on the challenges related to available teaching and learning resources given to regular teachers in teaching children with special needs. Methodology: The study adopted the cross-sectional survey. In all, forty (40) teachers who had children with special needs in their classrooms were conveniently selected from (10) public basic schools for the study. The instrument used was a four point-point Likert-scale questionnaire supported with an observation guide. Cronbach’s Alpha was used to determine the reliability of the instruments with .71 index. Results: The study revealed that majority of the teachers (M=1.669, SD= 0.414) do not haveadequate knowledge to handle children with special needs in their classrooms. Further, (M=1.531, SD=0.485) of the teachers revealed that they did not use instructional strategies that meet the needs of children with special needs in their classrooms. This was confirmed by majority (M=1.634, SD=0.476) of the teachers when they were observed in their teaching to augment findings of the questionnaire item that sought to find out the instructional strategies regular teachers use in teaching. Recommendations: It is important to extend the course duration of pre-service teachers by the Colleges of Education, to have sufficient avenues for fieldwork or practical experiences about the learning needs of children with special needs.