Teachers’ Attitude and Competence in the Use of Assistive Technologies in Special Needs Schools

Abstract

This study examined teachers' attitude and competence in the use of assistive technologies in special needs schools. The descriptive survey method was employed for the study among 100 teachers who were drawn using purposive sampling technique from special needs schools in Osun State, Nigeria. Six research questions were generated while four hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. A researcher-constructed questionnaire tagged "Teachers' Attitude and Competence in the Use of Assistive Technology Questionnaire (TACUATQ)" was used for data collection. The instrument was administered on 20 selected teachers outside the sample location through test-retest method; it yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.85 through Pearson Product Moment Correlation statistics. Data were analysed with percentage, mean and rank order, t-test and ANOVA statistical tools. The findings revealed that teachers have a positive attitude towards the use of assistive technologies. However, teachers were not competent in the use of assistive technologies. Gender and teaching experience did not influence teachers' attitude and competence in the use of assistive technologies. It was recommended among other things that teachers should be trained and re-trained on the use of assistive technology for students with speech disorders, visual impairments, hearing impairments, physical impairments and emotional and behavioural disorders.

Teachers’ Perception and Factors Limiting the use of High-Tech Assistive Technology in Special Education Schools in North-West Nigeria

“…This is indeed alarming considering the significance of technology to the teaching and learning of students with disabilities. Also, this finding agreed with the finding of Onivehu, Ohawuiro, and Oyeniran (2017) which discovered that teachers of students with physical disabilities were not using assistive devices to teach because of their high-tech nature and because they were not adequately available and accessible by teachers.…”

“…Furthermore, the potential of high-tech assistive technologies for students with special needs is likely to be found not in the technologies themselves but in the way these technologies are used by the teachers and students as teaching and learning tools. Onivehu, Ohawuiro, and Oyeniran (2017), opined that the extent of use of assistive technologies in the classroom is determined by the attitude, experience and quality of teachers. This will require both teachers and students to get familiar with assistive devices and software available in their schools which they can use to provide needed accommodation, substitution, modifications, adjustment, and adaptations that will help special needs students to access environment, curriculum, instruction, or assessment practices.…”

“…Thus, the need to investigate teachers' perceptions is crucial in determining the extent of use of high-tech assistive resources (Onivehu, Ohawuiro, & Oyeniran, 2017). In essence, when teachers perceived the use of high-tech devices like Dragon speak (software that converts speech-to-text) as good for students who have trouble with listening to spoken words or Word Q (software that converts text-to-speech) as useful for the visually impaired students they will be motivated to facilitate the use in the classroom.…”

An in-depth look into perceived technology proficiency of Turkish teachers of English and their technology practices

“…The results indicate that male and female teachers are equally competent in using technology, and sex is not a factor affecting technology competence. Likewise, Akturk and Ozturk (2019), Arslan (2015), Gökçek et al (2013), Kahraman and Yılmaz (2018), Onivehu, Ohawuiro andOyeniran (2017), andÖzer (2018) found that inservice teachers' sex and technology competence are not significantly related. Yielding contradicting results, Ardıç and Çiftçi (2019), Bas and Senturk (2018), Kaarakainen, Kivinen and Vainio (2018), Şimşek andYazar (2017), andTeo, Fan andDu (2015) found that male teachers outperform their female counterparts; and Anderson and Maninger (2007), Basargekar and Singhavi (2017), Buabeng-Andoh (2019) and Çakır and Oktay (2013) found vice versa.…”

Assessment of Cyberloafing, Job Satisfaction and Job Productivity of National Youth Service Corps Members in Bayelsa State, Nigeria

“…On the one hand, workers and indeed the organization stand to gain immensely from the productive application of the internet in the workplace. In other words, the appropriate application of the internet to carry out tasks that are beneficial to the attainment of the goals of the organization could improve the level of performance, productivity and output of workers in particular and the generality of the organization (Onivehu, Ohawuiro & Oyeniran, 2017;Yıldırım & Karabey, 2017;Onivehu, Adegunju & Ohawuiro, 2018). But, on the other hand, the inappropriate use of the internet by workers in the workplace is a contemporary workplace behaviour, which is often called cyberloafing.…”