Special education teachers’ perceptions of using assistive technology in educating students with special needs in Northern Region-Ghana

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to examine how special education teachers perceive and use of assistive technology in educating persons with special needs in (state the number of schools here; e.g., 5 schools) selected schools in the Northern Region, Ghana. A descriptive research design was used for this study. Fifty teachers were randomly selected 5 special schools in the Northern Region of Ghana for the study. The instruments used to collect the data were questionnaires and interviews. The data was presented on SPSS tables and analyzed by calculating the standard deviation and the means of the responses. The results indicated that most teachers in the schools had positive opinions about the use of assistive technology, but they had inadequate knowledge and skills of the use of assistive technology. Teachers agreed that assistive technology were very effective in the teaching of persons with special needs. It was also proven that teachers encountered a lot of challenges in using assistive technology. However, the female teacher‟ faced more challenges than their male colleagues. Recommendations were made to include, more training in assistive technology to enhance teachers‟ capacity in order to adequately support children with special educational needs in Ghana. To address the problem of non-availability of some assistive technology which currently make it difficult to effectively teach children with special needs in the Northern Region, Government and for that matter the Ministry of Education and Ghana Education Service as well as the Special Education Division should collaborate to support the special schools in the Northern Region to acquire some assistive technology. Again, in terms of repairs, the Government of Ghana can help train a set of interested individuals who will readily assist the teachers in maintaining and repairing their devices instead of dumping them when they breakdown. Fresh courses on the acquisition and use of assistive technology should also be introduced into the school curriculum for special education teachers to possess these skills and abilities before being posted to the classroom.