Perspectives of secondary school teachers on inclusive education towards the development of a training program

Abstract

This survey-correlational study aimed to ascertain the preparedness for inclusive education of Junior High School English teachers in terms of their knowledge about inclusive education, teaching skills, and comfort levels regarding inclusion and use it as a basis in the development of a training program for in-service teachers in the Division of Iloilo City based on the ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation) Model. The participants in this study were the fifty-eight (58) junior high school English teachers of the public secondary schools in the Schools Division of Iloilo City which were obtained through cluster sampling. The researcher utilized a researcher-made questionnaire for Knowledge and Teaching skills and the Sentiments, Attitudes and Concerns about Inclusive Education - Revised (SACIE-R) for Comfort Level, respectively, where it underwent a reliability testing using the Cronbach's Alpha result, 0.803. Furthermore, the variables namely knowledge, teaching skills, and comfort level were correlated to find out their significant relationship. The statistical tools employed in this study were means, standard deviation, Pearson's r Correlation, and Cronbach's alpha. Significance level was set at .05 alpha. All statistical analyses were computed with the use of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 software. Results of the study were as follows: the knowledge level about inclusive education of the Junior High School English Teachers was fairly knowledgeable, their teaching skills level was skillful; and, their comfort level was fairly comfortable. Furthermore, results on the correlation of the variables showed that there was a positive significant relationship between the knowledge about inclusive education and comfort level of the teachers. However, there were no significant relationships among the knowledge about inclusive education, teaching skills, and comfort level of the teachers. From these results, a training program for the Junior High School English Teachers in the Schools Division of Iloilo City was developed based on the needs analysis. The program underwent validation which resulted to an overall mean of 4.77. The pilot implementation of the training program was attended and evaluated by forty (40) Junior High School English teachers of the Schools Division of Iloilo City based on the following components: program management; attainment of objectives; delivery of content; provision of support materials; program management team; and, venue. The participants shared that they gained new learnings, and their hearts and minds were opened to understand learners with special needs in the classroom. Overall, the training program was Outstanding. Thus, it is recommended that the training program may be adopted and implemented for this may prepare and provide teachers with extensive skills and knowledge for them to be competent, equipped, and comfortable in handling learners in an inclusive classroom environment.