The Teachers’ Level of Knowledge, Awareness and Application of the Principles of Individualized Instruction among Autistic Children in Special Education Schools in the State of Kuwait

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Department of Special Education, Faculty of Basic Education, PAAET, Kuwait.

Abstract

The present study aimed to verify the level of awareness of the teachers working in the field of educating autistic children in the State of Kuwait in order to strengthen the principles of individulaized instruction and the extent of their knowledge with the foundations of the individual educational plan (IEP). A special scale had been developed in the form of a questionnaire and had been administered to a sample consisting of 9 teachers out of 23 teachers who are working in the field of educating children with autism in the State of Kuwait. Two case studies were also selected from the governmental school which provides educational services to those children with autism, one of them is a student with mild autism and with a high level of school abilities and the other is a child with severe  autism with a low level of school abilities in order to verify the level of enforcement of the individualization of education (i.e., differentiated instruction) that was completed by teachers on these cases in terms of teaching methods, the mechanism of planning lessons and the activities that were provided to them, the used curriculum and the evaluation mechanism. The study adopted semi-structered interviews, semi-structured observation and analysis of the contents of school documents. The results indicated that the teachers have a high level of awareness of the principles of individualized instruction and the level of their enforcement of the principles of indivdidalized instruction was average, while their knowledge of the foundations of indivdidalized instruction was weak. The results also indicated that there is no followed approved individual educational plan. The research recommended using the individualized instruction as well as providing special courses for the involved teachers in the education of children with autism in order to raise their level of knowledge of the foundations and goals of the individual educational plan.

Keywords

References

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