Teachers’ Professional Knowledge on Identifying Dyslexic Students

Learning disability encompasses a broad range of academic problems, and its full understanding requires attention to the social, emotional, and behavioral aspects of the childchr('39')s life. This term emerged from the need to identify and serve students who consistently fail their tasks, i.e., not specified within the traditional context of exceptional children. The present research aimed to investigate the role of teacherschr('39') professional knowledge in identifying students with learning disabilities.

The present research was of applied nature in terms of its purpose and applied descriptive and survey methods. The statistical population of the current study included primary school teachers in Maragheh City (N=1000). The sample size was calculated as 278 by Cochran, and they were selected by stratified random sampling technique. In the present study, the evolution model of Beyerman and Boehman (2005), as well as Manis and et al. (2007), was presented to examine the role of teacherschr('39') professional knowledge in identifying students with learning disabilities in the Education Department of Maragheh City, Iran, in 2017. The data gathering tool was a standard questionnaire. After measuring the scale’s validity and reliability, it was provided to the statistical sample for completion. To determine the scale’s validity, its face and content validity was established. To test the reliability of the questionnaire, Cronbachchr('39')s alpha coefficient method was used. The value of these statistics for teacherschr('39') professional knowledge questions and the identification of students with learning disabilities were equal to 922.0 and 946.0, respectively. Descriptive and inferential statistics were implemented to analyze the obtained data. The descriptive statistic and inferential statistics were used to classify, diagnose, and describe the collected data. To test the research hypotheses, the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test, Pearson’s correlation coefficient, and regression analysis were used.

The archived results indicated that the professional knowledge of teachers and its dimensions (teacherschr('39') knowledge of professional skills of teaching (r=0.438, p<0.001), teacherschr('39') knowledge of modern methods of teaching (r=0.392, p<0.001), teacherschr('39') knowledge in applying educational technologies in basic science courses (r=0.242, p<0.001), teacherschr('39') knowledge in implementing instructional designs in the basic sciences (r=0.353, p<0.001), and teacherschr('39') knowledge in evaluating basic science courses (r=0.454, p<0.001) were effective in identifying students with learning disabilities.

The professional knowledge of teachers and its dimensions impacted the identification of students with learning disabilities in Education and Nursing Departments in Maragheh City.