A Survey of General Education Teachers' Knowledge of Learning Disabilities in Jordan.

This study investigated the Jordanian regular education teachers' knowledge of learning disabilities and whether this knowledge differed as a function of selected variables. The sample consisted of 405 regular classroom teachers teaching 1stto 6th- grade students in 30 schools in three Jordanian districts. Teachers completed a 40-item test designed by the researcher, which had adequate psychometric properties. T-tests for independent samples and ANOVA were used to analyze the survey data. The results of the study revealed that teachers had a moderate level of knowledge of learning disabilities. Female teachers were found to be significantly more knowledgeable than male teachers. Teachers' level of knowledge was unrelated to teachers' age, teaching experience, or academic qualifications. The implications of these findings for inclusion and for future research in Jordan are provided. Like many other countries, Jordan has recently become interested in inclusion of students with special needs into regular education settings. Integration/inclusion efforts have been directed toward students with learning disabilities in particular. Students with other special needs (e.g., sensory impairments, mild intellectual and physical impairments) have not received similar attention yet. Although learning disabilities represent pervasive or severe learning difficulties presumed to arise from dysfunctions in the brain that significantly interfere with academic achievement (Hallahan & Kauffman, 2000), educational authorities tend to believe that students having these disabilities do not present major challenges to the school system. After all, learning disabilities are hidden and students having them possess average or above average intelligence (Hallahan & Kauffman, 2000; Mercer, 1997). That may explain why unlike most students with disabilities who are educated in special settings, students with learning disabilities, in many countries, are commonly educated in regular classrooms. However, inclusion of students with learning disabilities is more complex than it might appear to general education systems. To succeed in school, these students need a range of special support services. Typically, these services have been provided in specialized resource rooms to meet individual needs of students. In Jordan, resource rooms remain the only available service-delivery for students with learning disabilities. The resource room teacher and the regular classroom teacher must cooperate to establish an appropriate learning environment for each student in both educational settings. Further, efforts should be exerted to overcome barriers that may influence regular education teachers' willingness to include students with special needs in their classes. Some of these barriers are: inadequate professional preparation, lack of information regarding students with special needs, and negative attitudes toward these students (Pivic, McCombs, & Laflamme, 2002). The movement towards integration/inclusion in Jordan has not been supported by serious efforts to restructure the regular and special education relationship. Pre-service training programs for regular and special teachers have remained separate with little or no relationships. As mainstreaming efforts continued, resource room teachers have been assigned the sole responsibility of supporting students with special needs. Regular classroom teachers, on the other hand, have not been involved in addressing the needs of the included students.