A qualitative study of instructional strategies used by elementary general education teachers of inclusive classrooms in schools of male' / Fathimath Hushama

Abstract

This study explored how general education teachers describe their instructional planning and strategies when teaching students with special needs. This study investigated what supports and barriers general education teachers go through when they plan and implement instruction for students who have special needs.

As this is a qualitative study, the sampling method used for this research is purposeful and also what Patton (1990) calls deviant case sampling. For this research, eight participants were interviewed. The researcher selected four participants from schools of Male' with high special education population and four participants from schools of Male' with low special education. For this particular study, data was obtained through semi structured interviews. To begin the process, research questions were formed to explore and analyze how general education teachers describe and interpret the instructional strategies they use in their classroom when teaching students with disabilities.

From the findings it was observed that there are still many areas for development such as differentiated instruction need to be used to help teachers reflect and think about their student's level, interests, and learning style when planning instruction. Moreover, training needs to be given on how to use small group instruction in all content areas to provide individualized instruction and more support and development in peer tutoring and strategy instruction need to be given to increase the use of these practices in the general education classroom. In addition to this, parent involvement strategies need to increase which would lead to their participation in education.