السمات الشخصية للطلبة ذوي صعوبات التعلم وعلاقتها بالمشكلات النفسية والأكاديمية من وجهة نظر المعلمات في مدارس الحلقة الأولى والثانية بسلطنة عمان

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore female teachers’ perceptions of personal characteristics of students with learning difficulties and their relationship to psychological and academic problems in Oman. For achieving the purpose of the study, the researcher used two descriptive methods, quantitative and qualitative, where a questionnaire and semi-codified interviews were respectively used to collect data. The sample of the study consisted of 300 learning difficulty female teachers. To obtain the data of the study, stratified random sampling was used to choose 291 female teachers to answer the questionnaires, while purposive sampling was used to select 9 teachers for interviews. Data were analyzed using the quantitative analysis represented by the arithmetical means, standard deviation, MAVOVA, Pearson correlation and stepwise regression. For qualitative data, content analysis was used to analyze the interviews. The main results of the questionnaire and interviews showed that the personal traits of students with learning difficulties were at the moderate level and neuroticism is the most common problem. It further showed that the psychological problems of students with learning difficulties were at the moderate level as well, and depression is the most common problem. However, the interview showed that the sense of failure is the most common. Both questionnaire and interview showed that academic problems ranged from high to moderate level among which reading is the most common. The study revealed that there was a statistically significant correlation between personality traits, psychological problems, and academic difficulties. In addition, the results showed the contribution of the independent variable (personality traits) in predicting the degree of the dependent variable (psychological and academic problems). Furthermore, the results indicated that there were no statistically significant differences (at the level of ≥0.05) in the personality traits which is attributed to the variables of: educational level, gender, period of experience and the work of place-governorate- except for the type of difficulty, in which the study revealed a significant effect on the neuroticism pattern. In relation to psychological problems and academic difficulties, they did not show statistically significant differences (at the level of ≤0.05) which is attributed to the variables of: educational level, gender, period of experience, work of place-governorate- and type of difficulty. Based on the results of the study, a number of recommendations were presented. The most significant recommendation required the Ministry of Education to increase attention to students with learning difficulties by providing appropriate support and care that may enable them to build their proper personality, integrity of mental health and development of academic level.