Reddy, G Lokanadha. (2000). ROLE PERFORMANCE OF SPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHERS. Unpublished. ERIC, Education

Objectives of the study:

1. To develop tools to measure the role performance of special education teachers dealing with visually impaired children, hearing impaired children, mentally retarded children and orthopedically handicapped children.

2. To develop problem checklists to identify the problems faced by the special education teachers dealing with visually impaired children, hearing impaired children, mentally retarded children and orthopedically handicapped children.

3. To find out the significant differences, if any, in the role performance of teachers facing and not facing the each problem, in teaching children with visual impairment, hearing impairment, mental retardation and orthopeadically handicapped.

4. To find out the effect of gender, age, educational status, special training, marital status, years of experience, vocational training and salary on the role performance of special education teachers dealing with children with visual impairment, hearing impairment, mental retardation and orthopaedically handicapped.

5. To find out the effect of gender, age, educational status, special training, marital status, years of experience, vocational training and salary on the problems faced by the special education teachers dealing with children with visual impairment, hearing impairment, mental retardation and orthopaedically handicapped.

6. To find out and predict to what extent and how far the independent variables (gender, age, community, educational status, special training, marital status, vocational training, total years of experience and salary of the special education teachers) influence the dependent variables. (i.e, Role performance and Problems in the performance of roles by the special education teachers).

Hypotheses of the Study

• There is significant difference in the role performance of special education teachers facing and not facing each problem, in dealing with visually impaired children.

• There is significant difference in the role performance of special education teachers facing and not facing each problem, in dealing with hearing impaired children.

• There is significant difference in the role performance of special education teachers facing and not facing each problem, in dealing with mentally retarded children.

• There exists significant difference in the role performance of special education teachers facing and not facing each problem, in dealing with orthopaedically handicapped children.

• There exists significant difference in the role performance of special education teachers dealing with visually impaired children due to variations in their gender, age, educational status, special training, marital status, years of experience, vocational training and the salary they are receiving.

• There exists significant difference in the role performance of special education teachers dealing with hearing impaired children due to variations in their gender, age, educational status, special training, marital status, years of experience, vocational training and the salary they are receiving.

• There exists significant difference in the role performance of special education teachers dealing with mentally retarded children due to variations in their gender, age, educational status, special training, marital status, years of experience, vocational training and salary they are receiving.

• There exists significant difference in the role performance of special education teachers dealing with orthopaedically handicapped children due to variations in their gender, age, educational status, special training, marital status, years of experience, vocational training and salary they are receiving.

• There exists significant difference in the problems in performance of roles by the special education teachers dealing with visually impaired children due to variations in their gender, age, educational status, special training, marital status, years of experience, vocational training and salary they are receiving.

• There exists significant difference in the problems in performance of roles by the special education teachers dealing with hearing impaired children due to variations in their gender, age, educational status, special training, marital status, years of experience, vocational training and salary they are receiving.

• There exists significant difference in the problems in performance of roles by the special education teachers dealing with mentally retarded children due to variations in their gender, age, educational status, special training, marital status, years of experience, vocational training and salary they are receiving.

• There exists significant difference in the problems in performance of roles by the special education teachers dealing with mentally retarded children due to variations in their gender, age, educational status, special training marital status, years of experience, vocational training and salary they are receiving.

Sample:

There are 65 schools for hearing impaired, 29 schools for for visually impaired,87 schools for mentally retarded and 16 schools for orthopedically handicapped functioning in the two states, i.e A.P. and T.N. states as per the directories available.

For the purpose of the study, 20 schools for VI, 24 schools for HI and 35 for MR are randomly selected from the existing schools of that category using simple random sampling technique. As there are only 16 schools for orthopaedically handicapped, all the schools are taken for the study. All the teacher from the sample schools form the sample of the study.

At this stage, the total number of teachers sample consists of 210 from VI, 220 from HI, 240 from MR and 120 from OH. Thus, the total sample consists of 790 teachers working in the four categories of special schools in AP and TN states and their respective school Heads.

Tools of the study:

• Rating scale to measure the Role performance of teachers dealing with VI children.

• Rating scale to measure the Role performance of teachers dealing with HI children.

• Rating scale to measure the Role performance of teachers dealing with MR children.

• Rating scale to measure the Role performance of teachers dealing with OH children.

Design of the study:

Survey method.

Statistical Techniques:

Mean, Standard Deviation, Percentage Analysis, t-test, F-test and Step-wise Multiple regression analysis.

Findings:

1. There is significant difference in the role performance of special education teachers facing and not facing each problem, in dealing with visually impaired children.

2. There is significant difference in the role performance of special education teachers facing and not facing each problem, in dealing with hearing impaired children.

3. There is significant difference in the role performance of special education teachers facing and not facing each problem, in dealing with mentally retarded children.

4. There exists significant difference in the role performance of special education teachers facing and not facing each problem, in dealing with orthopedically handicapped children.

5. There exists significant difference in the role performance of special education teachers dealing with visually impaired children due to variations in their gender, special training, marital status, years of experience,and the salary they are receiving.

6. There exists no significant difference in the role performance of special education teachers dealing with visually impaired children due to variations in their age, educational status and vocational training.

7. There exists significant difference in the problems in the performance of roles by the special education teachers dealing with visually impaired children due to variations in their gender, special training, marital status, years of experience,and the salary they are receiving.

8. There exists no significant difference in the problems in the performance of roles by the special education teachers dealing with visually impaired children due to variations in their age, educational status and vocational training.

9. There exists significant difference in the role performance of special education teachers dealing with hearing impaired children due to variations in their gender, community, educational status, years of experience, vocational training and the salary they are receiving.

10. There exists no significant difference in the role performance of special education teachers dealing with hearing impaired children due to variations in their age, special training, and their marital status.

11. There exists significant difference in the problems in the performance of roles by the special education teachers dealing with hearing impaired children due to variations in their gender, community, educational status, years of experience, vocational training and the salary they are receiving.

12. There exists no significant difference in the problems in the performance of roles by the special education teachers dealing with hearing impaired children due to variations in their age, special training, and their marital status.

13. There exists significant difference in the role performance of the special education teachers dealing with mentally retarded children due to variations in their community status, educational status, special training, marital status and vocational training.

14. There exists no significant difference in the role performance of the special education teachers dealing with mentally retarded children due to variations in their gender, age, years of experience and salary they are receiving.

15. There exists significant difference in the problems in the performance of roles by the special education teachers dealing with mentally retarded children due to variations in their community status, educational status, special training, marital status and vocational training.

16. There exists no significant difference in the problems in the performance of roles by the special education teachers dealing with mentally retarded children due to variations in their gender, age, years of experience and salary they are receiving.

17. There exists significant difference in the role performanceof the special education teachers dealing with orthopedically handicapped children due to variations in their Community, educational status, special training and salary they are receiving.

18. There exists no significant difference in the role performance of the special education teachers dealing with orthopedically handicapped children due to variations in their gender, age, marital status, years of experience and vocational training.

19. There exists significant difference in the problems in the performance of roles by the special education teachers dealing with orthopedically handicapped children due to variations in their Community, educational status, special training and salary they are receiving.

20. There exists no significant difference in the problems in the performance of roles by the special education teachers dealing with orthopedically handicapped children due to variations in their gender, age, marital status, years of experience and vocational training.

Keyword(s): Visually Impaired Children (VI), Hearing Impaired Children (HI), Mentally Retarded Children (MR), Orthopedically Handicapped Children (OH)