Learning Disabled and Normal Achieving Students’ Causal Attributes for Their Performance Outcomes
Chapter One
Objectives of study
The objectives of this study were to:
- Establish comprehension errors that affect students‟ academic performance in Lagos Government mixed day public secondary
- To find out the effects of learning disabilities on students‟ academic performance in Lagos Government mixed day public secondary
- Identify challenges faced by secondary school English language teachers in dealing with learning disabilities regarding comprehension errors in Lagos Government mixed day public secondary
- Establish appropriate strategies that would enhance reading comprehension, in Lagos Government mixed day public secondary
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Definitions of Reading and Learning disabilities
Coining a definition of acceptable reading to all educators and psychologists has been difficult and problematic. This is due to many perspectives with which different professionals may approach the same issue. This study employed the Piaget‟s (1983) theory of cognitive development to define reading. According to this theory, mental development progresses as a result of learners‟ interactions with their surroundings. The role of the educator is to provide material and appropriate opportunities in which learners can interact (Piaget, 1983). The researcher, therefore, agreed with Manzo and Manzo‟s (1993) view of reading as the act of simultaneously “reading the lines”, “reading between the lines”, and “reading beyond the lines”. It is, therefore, concluded that the reader has to be critical and also creative. According to Wixon, Peters, Weber & Roeber, (1987),
Reading is the process of constructing meaning through the dynamic interaction among the reader, the text and the context of the reading situation.
Typical learning disabilities of adolescents with mild disabilities include problems with vocabulary, word recognition, reading comprehension and reading rate (Feagans, 1983; Hallahan, Kauffman & Lioyd, 1985). Reading problems stem from many causes, and is a complex process as many learning disabilities can exist (Kaluger & Kolson, 1978; Kirk et al., 1978). Bond, Tinkel and Wasson (1979) provide the following general classifications of the more prevalent learning disabilities: faulty word identification and recognition, inappropriate directional habits, deficiencies in basic comprehension abilities, limited special comprehension abilities (such as inabilities to locate and retain specific facts), deficiencies in ability to adapt to reading needs of content fields, deficiencies in rate of comprehension and poor oral reading.
Children and adolescents who are not proficient with the form, content and function of language have learning disabilities. Form includes phonologic, morphologic and syntactic skills. Content refers to semantic, or vocabulary and the relationship among words. Function means a student‟s ability to use a language for pragmatic social purposes. Adams (1990), Snow, Burns and Graffins (1998) attributed phonological awareness to skillful reading through their research. Regardless of the factors related to the reading disability, there are several types of reading problems that are typically found among students. These
include; problems related to reading habits; word recognition errors; comprehension errors and miscellaneous symptoms (Mercer, 1987). Smith (1988) lists several common problems experienced by some students who suffer from reading disabilities. These include; omitting letters, syllables or words; inserting extra letters, words or sounds; substituting words that look or sound similar; mispronouncing words; reversing word or syllables; transposing letters or words; repeating words or using improper inflection during oral reading.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Design
This study adopted descriptive survey research design. The researcher studied individuals and phenomenon in their natural setting hence chose quantitative approach (Creswell, 2005). Comparison tables and figures were used for data presentation.
Study Variables
Creswell (2005) describes variables as key ideas that researchers seek to collect information to address the purpose of their studies. These include independent, intervening and dependent variables.
Target Population
The study target population involved all students from the 10 public mixed day schools who were 500 in form three, 10 principals/deputy principals and 22 teachers. The sample was drawn from this population.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATIONS, ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS
Respondents’ Demographic Information
Respondents‟ demographic information was analyzed and presented in tables and figures along variables such as age, gender, educational level and the number of years the teachers had taught in their current school.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Summary
Demographic Information of Respondents
It was established that there was no gender balance in the staff teaching English in public mixed day secondary school with majority being (80%) teachers. Majority of the teachers teaching English are middle aged with a mean age of 36 years with majority falling in the age bracket of 31 to 40 years- which formed fifty percent of the teachers‟. Majority of the teachers (70%) had first degree which implied that most had adequate knowledge and skills to teach the subject. The result indicates that most teachers had a long stay (6 to 15 years in their current stations meaning that they had adequate experience with the students and the environment.
Effects of Comprehension Errors on Students’ Academic Performance
Analysis on the common comprehension errors revealed that words mispronunciation was the most common error with a mean of 1.2. Comprehension errors and ignored or misinterpreted punctuations seventy were the most common learning disabilities errors that the students committed which implied that the students have a problem with interpretation of literary materials and examination questions.
A significance relationship was established between words omitted, words substituted, word mispronounced, words added and academic performance of students end of term one examination (P>0.05). Students who committed a few comprehension errors had performed well in the end of term one examination. This implied that comprehension errors contributed a lot to the students not comprehending what they read and therefore failed to answer examination questions correctly. The study found that majority of the teachers of English (90%) agreed that poor reading skills affected academic performance in all the examinable subjects. they also agreed that library lessons were often ignored and that library resources and reference materials were not established in public mixed day secondary schools. A cloze test performance indicated that majority of the students (55%) scored below average. Mixed gender and ability grouping could have contributed to this performance.
A comparison of form three students‟ end of term one examination with WAEC results of 2010, 2011 and 2012 showed that there is a consistent trend of better performance with the current form threes in all the sampled schools. Majority of teachers (1.2 standard deviation) agreed with Ricket, List and Lerner (1989) that learning disabilities are principle cause of failure in schools.
Effects of learning disabilities on Students’ Academic Performance.
Forty percent of teachers indicated presence of dropout, twenty percent said there were repeaters, while forty percent indicated a chronic absenteeism of over 10-14 students being out of school each day of the week in schools that the research was carried out. On inquiry the researcher found out that those students had been sent home for schools fees which implied that the parents were not motivated to pay school fees in all the sampled schools. A likert scale procedure carried out on teachers‟ opinion on effects of poor academic performance on students learning consistency revealed that majority of the teachers (1.2 standard deviation) agreed with the statement that adolescent poor readers have low se-lf esteem and perceived themselves less valued members of their classes. This was an indication that poor academic performance affected students‟ throughout the week term and year.
Challenges Faced by Secondary School English Language Teachers in Dealing with Learning disabilities
Majority of the teachers said they were not comfortable in dealing with learners with learning disabilities in regular classes. More than a half of the teachers (60%) indicated that extra time should be created to attend students separately, an indication that they felt professionally unqualified to handle such learners. This has been confirmed by Runo (2010) who recommended to the ministry of education that special education should be included in all teachers‟ education. Half of teachers said that there were learners in their classes who lacked interest in all school activities. This was due to negative attitude towards school. Majority of the teachers indicated that they had problem in teaching reading comprehension. Majority of them followed the course book layout of answering comprehension questions after reading the comprehension passage. Asked how often they conducted library lessons, majority said they do not conduct at all while a few (30%) conducted once in a week. As a result students lacked comprehension skills and awareness of contemporary issue.
Strategies for Enhancing Reading Comprehension
Asked to state the strategies put in place to enhance comprehension abilities, majority of the teachers (60%) indicated that they used comprehension lessons. A need for teachers to be in-serviced was indicated by 60% of them saying that they had not been in-serviced since their initial training. Majority of the teachers (1.2 standard deviation) agreed with the statement that providing guidance and counseling services would be a strategy to enhance reading comprehension. Other suggested strategies were; supply adequate curriculum materials and equipments (1.3 standard deviation), offer library resource (1.6 standard deviation) and have quality staff who can differentiate instruction (1.4 standard deviation) among others.
Conclusions
Mispronunciation of words is the most common comprehension error. Other errors made by students are omission of words, addition of words, and substitution of words. Majority of teachers agreed that learning disabilities were the main cause of failure in schools and that library resources and reading material are not well-established in public mixed day government secondary schools. They also agreed that there is lack of learning consistency of students in Lagos Government mixed day public secondary schools due to poor reading abilities evidenced by the presence of dropouts, repeaters and absentees in school. The supply of adequate curriculum materials and equipment, and library resources were strongly recommended by majority of teachers in alleviating reading comprehension problems.
Recommendations
Based on the research findings the researcher made the following recommendations:
Recommendation to the Schools
The researcher recommended that; the school administrations should ensure that library resource is available and that library lessons are taught and they should come upwith strategies of supplementing government efforts such as income generating activities to supplement school fees.
Recommendations to the Government through the Ministry of Education and Other Stakeholders
The Ministry of Education and other stakeholders in the education sector should come up with compulsory methods of enhancing reading skills such as the use of library lessons; they should come up with policy guidelines on how to assess reading comprehension in order to raise performance in public and private schools; they should ensure that reading/learning materials in schools are adequately provided and library resource well stocked; should also institute compulsory and frequent in-service training programmes; put up measures to reduce absenteeism which result from lack of school fees as it deny the learners time and the opportunity to interact with the reading materials denying them creativity and criticism in their reading and finally, Nigeria Institute of Curriculum Development should ensure that the teachers training syllabus is sufficiently developed so as to prepare teachers for teaching of reading comprehension.
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