Effectiveness of Instructional Strategies in Teaching Adaptive Skills to Learners with Intellectual Disabilities in Unit Special Schools in Ghana

Abstract

Examining the effectiveness of instructional strategies in teaching adaptive skills to learners with intellectual disabilities was the aim of this study. A descriptive cross-sectional design was chosen for the conduct of this study. The study targeted all teachers within the Unit Special Schools in Ghana, in this case, census approach was embraced and all teachers willing offered themselves for the conduct of the study. Questionnaire of six hypothetical dimensions was used as the main data collection instrument. The response rate for the data collection exercise was 100%. Data to answer the five research questions were analysed using descriptive statistics, specifically, percentages and frequencies, mean and standard deviations. Findings of the study revealed that teachers are implementing a comprehensive adaptive skills curriculum in Ghana’s Unit Special Schools. In addition, the study findings showed that cooperative method, direct instruction and interactive procedures were the predominantly used methods for teaching adaptive skills in the Unit Special Schools. Moreover, findings showed interactive and direct methods of teaching to be the most effective of all the instructional procedures in the teaching of adaptive skills. Based on the findings, the study recommended that Ghana Education Service in collaboration with all the head teachers must organize a workshop on ‘effective instructional methods for adaptive skills teaching’ to updates teachers regularly and to sustain their usage of students centered approaches to teaching. Further, the study recommended that head teachers of Unit Special Schools should at regular point in time encourage teachers through award schemes and recognition to continue using the effective methods such as cooperative and interactive methods together with the audio-visual resources.