The influence of teachers’ classroom practices on the self-concept of primary school pupils with disabilities in tano north district

Abstract

In Ghana, children with disabilities in the regular schools seem to go through experience which is detrimental to their self-concept development. The study investigated the influence of teacher classroom practices on the self-concept of children with disabilities in upper primary schools in the Tano North District. The expost-facto research design was used for the study. The instruments used in gathering data for the study were questionnaire and observation guide and a structured interview guide. Purposive sampling and proportionate simple random sampling were used in selecting children with disabilities and the schools respectively for the study. A total number of 98 respondents were used. This comprises 30 teachers and 68 pupils with disabilities. One research question and four research hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The findings of the study were that Teacher’s social and physical practices were geared toward meeting the needs of children with disabilities in the classroom whilst instructional and organizational practices were not. Teacher classroom practices have a moderate relationship with the self-concept of children with disability. No relationship was found to exist between type of disability and self-concept. Gender of children with disabilities was found to be related to their self-concept. It is therefore suggested among others that Ghana Education Service (GES) should frequently organise in-service training for regular classroom teachers on how to take into account the characteristics of children with disabilities in their classroom practices so as to have a positive influence on the self-concept of such children.