WELCOME TO KENTERPRO:
EFFECT OF TEACHER ATTITUDE ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF STUDENTS WITH HEARING IMPAIRMENT IN PLATEAU SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF, BASSA

 CHAPTER ONE

INTODUCTION

• Background to the Study

Students with hearing impairment encountered difficulty in social interactions with regular class peers and teachers. Many people have little information about students with hearing impairment and this lack of knowledge could create fear and prejudice. Children with hearing impairment are often laughed at or devalued in many ways during interaction. Campbell, Dodson and Boss (2005) opined that teachers were less able to objectively observe, rate and plan appropriate intervention for their behaviours. Another factor that could contribute to the rejection of children with special needs by regular teachers is lack of special training. Many teachers are afraid that they don’t have skills necessary for teaching students with hearing impairment. Others feel that working with these children is not gratifying as working with normal individuals.

Generally, children with hearing impairment are seen as nuisance and second class citizens because they depend on their parents, community, and government for living. They are either partially or totally deaf as a result of many factors, including genetic, aging, exposure to noise, illness, chemicals and physical trauma. Their degree of impairment ranges from mild to profound (Ozoji, 2005). This also affects their development of language which makes them to have problem with interaction and some basic skills in life. Untreated hearing loss causes delays in the development of speech and language, and those delays then lead to learning problems, often resulting in poor school performance. Unfortunately, since poor academic performance is often accompanied by inattention and sometimes poor behaviour, children with hearing impairment are often misidentified by some teachers as having learning disabilities. What are the reasons behind this education gap? It’s certainly not a question of intelligence; just because a child has hearing impairment doesn’t mean he is less capable of doing well in school than his hearing peers. Sometimes the classroom environment itself doesn’t support a child with hearing impairment. A busy teacher who has many students to tend to, or a teacher with a poor understanding of hearing impairment, often is unable to alter his teaching style or keep a student’s hearing loss in mind while teaching a lesson or assigning homework (Antonak, 2015). If a teacher turns his back on the students while teaching, his voice will be directed toward the blackboard, causing a student with hearing loss to miss part of the lesson. Oral changes to homework assignments, an unfamiliar accent or a teacher who talks too rapidly without consideration can all hinder the learning progress of a student with hearing impairment. Researchers have observed that the hardest burden to bear by students with hearing impairment is not their exceptionality, but the attitudes of people toward them. Attitude is one of affective areas which had been very much studied.

An investigation by Ikpaya (2008) into the teachers’ attitude toward special needs children varied significantly. According to Mann (2002), attitude implies a relatively enduring organization to internalized belief that describes, evaluates and advances actions with respect to an object or situation with each belief having cognitive, affective and behavioural components. He further stated that each one of these beliefs is a predisposition that suitably activates results in some preferential response towards the attitude-object or situation or toward the maintenance or preservation of the attitude itself. Attitude in the context of the present study is belief, feeling, thinking, ideas or emotion that predisposes a teacher to respond negatively when faced with a particular educational challenge of a student with hearing impairment.

There are certain factors that prompt either negative or positive attitudes of teachers towards academic performance of students with hearing impairment. Allen (2008) identified three pertinent factors with regard to teachers’ attitude toward the special needs children: That the classroom teachers are generally not in favour of accepting the handicapped in regular schools, because they are afraid of the demands that may be placed on them. The teachers have lower expectations for the handicapped students. That the teachers tend to see their role as highly structured and group oriented, which runs counter to special education maxim of individualized differences. If a teacher appears not interested or careful about a particular subject or student, he/she will be unable to foster a supportive learning environment. Furthermore, teachers with negative attitudes may not be as approachable to students with hearing impairment as teachers who are positively motivated. So, students find it difficult asking such a teacher questions on the grey areas of the subject he/she teaches.

Oluremi (2015) on the attitude of teachers toward the inclusion of hard of hearing students revealed that the attitude of teachers indicated hesitancy of the teachers to accept the hard of hearing unless the communication barrier was obviated. many teachers who are in mainstreamed schools appeared to know little or nothing about children with hearing impairment. Many teachers demonstrate negative attitudes to academic performance of students with special needs in secondary schools. Sadly, this situation is seemed negatively affecting the education and performance of students with hearing impairment. Ngwokabuenui (2013) showed that the principals expressed positive attitudes towards inclusion of individuals with disabilities into regular schools and their positive attitudes led to the students’ positive results. The researcher concluded that, the principals’ knowledge of special education laws had a significant effect on the attitudes they had towards including students with special needs. In Nigeria, majority of the previous researches on attitudes focused on ‘the attitude of the community toward people with special needs’. For instance, Mba (1991), in his study on the attitude of the community toward individuals with mental retardation, indicated prominently that the attitude of Nigerians toward people with intellectual disabilities is negative. Gani (1981) in Muhammad (2019) in his study of the attitude toward individuals with special needs (visual and hearing impairment) found the following responses:  Send them to beg. I am shame of them. It is not my business. Something good ought to be done for them. Gani said that, the first two responses above are the attitudes of the relatives and families of the people with special needs. The third response represents the reactions of those who do not have people with disabilities in their family. The last response is for few people such as religious leaders, teachers of special need people and some of their parents/guardians. Ozoji (2005) recorded a lot of attitudes towards the education of special needs.

All people have the desire to achieve a good learning outcome because a good learning outcome is one of the indicators of successful learning process. However, in reality, not all students have a good learning outcome. In general, factors that affect the learning outcomes are divided into two kinds namely internal and external factors. One of the external factors is the teacher. The teacher is the most important factor in education and learning. Therefore, teachers indirectly affect the learning outcomes of their students with special needs. Plateau School for the Deaf has been chosen as the study location for this study because students with hearing impairment in the state complained regarding their inability to use of non-inclusive teaching methods by the regular teachers, non-inclusive assessment strategies. This therefore made them prefer going to the special schools than the inclusive secondary schools. It was against this background that the researchers evaluated the effect of teacher attitude on the academic performances of students with special needs in Plateau School for the Deaf, Bassa.

• Statement of the Problem

Student with hearing impairment in Plateau School for the Deaf, Bassa before now were educated in a segregated setting (special school) by special education teachers since. Currently, in compliance with the global mission on inclusive education and based on the provisions of the Nigerian National Policy on Education, some regular teachers are transferred to the school for the deaf there to assist the students in the same classrooms under inclusive education program. Most of the students with special needs in the state prefer the segregated special schools than inclusive education schools due to the underrating they receive from their teachers.

Many regular teachers in Nigeria are trained where special education courses are not part of the teacher training programs and those taught recently lacked adequate professional training to work with all categories of learners with special needs.

Deaf children do not differ from normal children. There is a study on the differences between normal and deaf children on perceptions of teachers’ behaviour, perspective taking ability and cognitive functioning. This prompted the researchers to ask what would be the effect of the attitudes of the teachers on academic performance of students with hearing impairment in Plateau School for the Deaf Bassa?

• Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the study will investigate effect of teacher attitude on academic performance of students with hearing impairment in Plateau School for the Deaf, Bassa. Specifically, the objectives include:-

1. To find out the causes of teachers’ attitudes towards students with hearing impairment.
2. To examine the effects of teachers’ attitudes on academic performance of students with hearing impairment.

• To find out the qualifications of teachers teaching students with hearing impairment in Plateau School for the Deaf, Bassa.

1. To make suggestions on how to improve the negative attitudes of teachers towards students with hearing impairment.
   • Research Questions
2. What are the causes of teachers’ attitudes towards students with hearing impairment?
3. To what extend has teachers’ attitudes affected academic performance of students with hearing impairment?

• What are the qualifications of teachers teaching students with hearing impairment in Plateau School for the Deaf, Bassa?

1. To what extent can the attitude of teachers towards students with hearing impairment be improved?
   • Significance of the Study

The findings from the current study may be significant to different stakeholders like school management, institutions offering special needs education among others.

The study will provide data on the nature of attitude towards academic performance of students with hearing impairment and how it relates with different factors.

It is also hoped that the school management will use the findings of the study in strengthening student-teacher partnership. Institutions offering Special Needs Education may use the findings of the study when developing or revising courses on how to assist teachers in handling children with hearing impairment especially teachers’ attitude on academic performance of students with hearing impairment.

The study findings may be of great contribution to the National Association of the Deaf in helping teachers to overcome the challenges they face with their children with hearing impairment.

Counselors may use the study findings when counseling teachers on how to overcome the challenges they face as they take care of students with hearing impairment. Finally,  other  researchers  may  find  the  study  helpful  while  developing  studies  on  attitudes  held towards other specific categories of persons with hearing impairment.

• Delimitation of the Study

The study was carried out in only one residential special school which is Plateau School for the Deaf, Bassa located in Bassa Local Government Area. The study will look at aspects of teachers’ attitude formation that influence academic performance of students with hearing impairment. The study involved only those students with hearing impairment. Students with other types of special needs were not part of this study. Teachers of students with hearing impairment were the respondents of this study.

• Definition of Terms

Attitudes: Attitude in the context of the present study is belief, feeling, thinking, ideas or emotion from the teachers that classified students with hearing impairment as those who cannot perform or compete their normal counterparts.

Negative attitudes: Intimidating attitudes (such as you are dull, not hearing well, you cannot go beyond this level) demonstrated by the teachers towards students with hearing impairment.

Positive attitudes: Encouraging attitudes (such as you can make it, you can do better, etc) demonstrated by the teachers towards students with hearing impairment.

Academic Performance: In this study, the term refers to task performance in every subject taken by students with hearing impairment.

Treatment: This simply refers to interventions given to learners with hearing impairment in the study.

Hearing Impairment: This is a generic term used to describe any level of hearing loss, ranging from mild to profound that their academic performance is affected by teachers’ attitudes.

Teachers: These are special trained instructors whose responsibilities are to teach students who have hearing impairment in the class.