Exploring Foundation Phase teachers’ strategies to enhance the reading skills of intellectually challenged learners.
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Date
2018
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Abstract
All learners need to receive quality education irrespective of their race, gender and disability status. Any learner who is intellectually challenged ought to be granted access to appropriate and quality education and no learner should be discriminated against because of a disability. Efforts have been made to provide relevant support to learners who encounter barriers to learning. Thus, to grant an opportunity for learners with intellectual impairments to live independently within their societies, they need to acquire reading skills.
It was in this context that this study explored strategies used by Foundation Phase (FP) teachers to enhance reading skills to intellectually challenged learners. Understanding the various strategies the teachers employed, was essential for comprehending how they organised and presented information in order to assist these learners as they function at a level of development that is below that of their peers. It was discernibly clear that teachers who teach these learners in mainstream classrooms encountered problems. The study was conducted in a public school in Jozini, an area in the northern part of KwaZulu-Natal. Purposive sampling was employed to select the six teachers with first-hand experience of teaching in the Foundation Phase. An interpretivist paradigm was employed for this study, to comprehend participants’ experiences of classroom practices in their authentic settings. The qualitative data were generated using focus group interviews, lesson observations and document analysis. To capture the exceptionality of actual situation in the school exploratory case study design was adopted.
The findings of the study revealed that FP teachers struggled to use creative strategies when teaching reading to learners who were intellectually challenged due to overcrowded classrooms. Thus, the learners in the school were marginalised as they were only peripherally included in teaching and learning activities in the overcrowded classrooms. The challenges these learners face and the struggles they experience within themselves need to be taken into consideration in the education process and therefore strategies need to be developed and utilised to create a learning environment in which these learners can reach their full potential. With reference to reading, it is an undeniable fact that learners with special education needs require systematic instruction to enable them to make meaning of the texts that they read. The study findings highlight the importance of utilising creative and innovative strategies in teaching intellectually challenged learners to read. Moreover, these reading strategies should be varied, and they should be adapted to address the special needs of learners so that they will reach their maximum potential. The study also stresses the application of inclusive education policies and practices in FP teacher training programmes and teacher development courses.
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Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.