Knowledge and attitudes of special education teachers towards students with hearing impairment in the northeast region

Abstract

Teachers play important roles in educational rehabilitation of hearing impaired children. Therefore, they should have good knowledge in this area and should have positive attitudes towards hearing impaired children. The objectives of this study were: 1. To find out attitudes and knowledge of teachers in deaf schools in Northeast region 2. To compare knowledge and attitudes of the teachers according to ages, educational level, fields of study, experiences in teaching hearing impaired children, frequency of getting information about hearing impaired children from radio, television, newspaper, training/seminar 3. to find relationship of knowledge to attitudes. The instrument of this study was questionnaire. Samples were 144 teachers in deaf schools in Northeast region. The study found that teachers in deaf schools in Northeast region have knowledge about psychology of hearing impaired children and teaching methods for hearing impaired children at the medium level and have attitudes toward hearing impaired children at high level, which means they have positive attitudes toward hearing impaired children. Their knowledge about hearing-impaired children was different, with statistical significance 0.05 according to the frequency of getting information about hearing impaired children from radio, television and newspaper. Their attitudes toward hearing-impaired children are different with a statistical significance of 0.05 according to the frequency of getting information about hearing impaired children from television. Their knowledge and attitudes have a positive relationship with a statistical significance of 0.05. Suggestions of this study are : -There should be training for teachers in deaf schools about psychology of hearing impaired children and teaching methods for hearing impaired children. -The curriculum for students who major in special education or teaching should include the content on psychology of hearing impaired children and teaching methods for hearing impaired children.;