Awareness of learning disability in urban and rural school teachers

Abstract

Learning disability is one of most common problems seen in school going children. Teachers play an instrumental role in identifying children with learning disability. Awareness in teachers is an essential pre-requisite in enabling identification of LD. Fewer studies have been carried out in Indian context to determine awareness in teachers. The present study attempted to compare awareness in urban and rural school teachers in the Indian state of Karnataka. A questionnaire was formulated by the researchers after extensive literature review about learning disability, its causes, characteristics and intervention. This questionnaire was administered on 60 primary school teachers (30 rural and 30 urban) and their responses were analysed. The results were analysed for the two groups. It was observed that the knowledge and awareness of the rural teachers was almost equal to the urban school teachers, although there was a low level of knowledge about some aspects of learning disability for both the groups. Knowledge and awareness did not vary as a function of teaching experience. With the advance in technology and due to various sensitization programs primary school teachers have gained awareness about learning disability. However several myths about learning disability which still exist among them needs to be cleared