General And Special Education Teachers’ Perceptions Of Knowledge And Beliefs About Dyslexia

Abstract

This quantitative methods study aimed to explore the perceptions of the general and special education teachers' knowledge and beliefs about dyslexia. Also, this study investigated the differences between general and special education teachers' perceptions of knowledge and beliefs about dyslexia with their education level and special education training. Dyslexia is a learning disorder characterized by difficulty reading as a result of problems identifying articulation sounds and learning how to associate them with letters and words. Participants in the study completed an instrument that measures teachers' beliefs and knowledge about dyslexia. The research questions were answered using the survey instrument. The research questions guided the study and aided in explaining the dyslexia knowledge of general and special education teachers. The procedures for this quantitative methods study design included a survey in order to see how the dyslexia beliefs of teachers, as identified using the Dyslexia Belief Index (DBI), developed. The DBI (Wadlington & Wadlington, 2005) is a survey instrument that measures teachers' beliefs and knowledge about dyslexia. This quantitative methods study analyzed the survey data using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software in order to identify statistical variances among the survey respondents by running an analysis of variance. The results of this study showed that the educational training for general and special education teachers has more impact than their education level regarding their knowledge and beliefs about dyslexia. Additionally, the high level of education of general education teachers could increase their positive beliefs about dyslexia, unlike the high level of education that has no impact on the beliefs of special education teachers about dyslexia.