Journal of Education and Health Promotion

Assessing knowledge of primary school teachers on specific learning disabilities in two schools in India

Document Type : Original Article

Author

. Anand Lingeswaran
Abstract
Background: Evaluation of fund of knowledge about SLD among kindergarten and primary school
teachers is essential to avoid misdiagnosis of SLD and to plan for specific teacher education to
enable early identification of SLD among children. Aim: To assess the knowledge of learning
disability among primary school teachers in India and to investigate its psychometric properties.
Materials and Methods: An observational study was carried out 34 primary school teachers from
2 different schools in Puducherry town agreed to participate in this study with informed consent.
We used a multiple choice questionnaire format with a total of 50 questions, 5 choices for each
question and a total score of 50. The study was held at the schools where these teachers were
employed using pen and paper testing method and data were entered into the computer for
statistical analysis. Statistical Analysis: Total scores on the questionnaire of all teachers were
calculated. Content validity, reliability coefficient, discrimination factor, and facility factor were
analyzed using SPSS software. Results: 29% of the questions were correctly answered by all
34 teachers. The mean total score for this sample was 14.50 ± 9 and total item score for the 50
items was 9.90 ± 4. Cronbach’s (α) reliability was 0.89. Overall discrimination index was + 0.2 and
facility factor analysis score was 0.26. Conclusions: Validation of this new screening questionnaire
was successful in Indian setting. It has to be used in other settings to extrapolate our findings.

Keywords

Kindergarten
primary school
specific learning disability
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Journal of Education and Health Promotion
Volume 3, Issue 7
July 2013
Pages 1-5

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