TEACHER AND PUPIL FACTORS AS CORRELATES OF READING ACHIEVEMENT AMONG PUBLIC PRIMARY SCHOOL PUPILS WITH DYSLEXIA IN THE MINNA METROPOLIS, NIGERIA

Abstract

Reading achievement is the ability to apply reading skills efficiently for success in academics and daily activities. However, Pupils with Dyslexia (PswD) often experience severe difficulties in reading in comparison to their peers without dyslexia, despite having comparable level of intelligence. Evidence has shown that PswD in the Minna Metropolis have low reading achievement, resulting in poor performance in school subjects. Previous studies focused more on the interventions and socio-demographic factors that can improve reading achievement of PswD than on teacher and pupil factors. This study, therefore, investigated the influence of teacher factors — Self-efficacy (SE), Job Satisfaction (JS), Teacher Expectations (TE), and pupil factors — Self-esteem (Sem), Home Background (HB) and Attitude towards Reading (AtR) on reading achievement among PswD in the Minna Metropolis, Niger State, Nigeria. The study was hinged on the Barlett‘s Schema and Bandura‘s Self-efficacy theories, while the sequential mixed methods design (QUAN+qual) was adopted. The multi-stage sampling procedure was utilised. The three Local Government Areas (LGAs) in the Minna Metropolis were enumerated. The simple random sampling technique was used to select 27 public primary schools (nine from each LGA). The purposive sampling technique was used to select 254 PswD and 59 teachers. The instruments used were Slosson Intelligence (r = 0.86), Reading Achievement (r = 0.65) tests, Niger Reading (r = 0.90), Minnesota Satisfaction (r = 0.83), Reading Attitude (r = 0.70), HB (r = 0.73) questionnaires; Teacher Expectations (r = 0.85), Teacher SE (r = 0.94) and Rosenberg Self-esteem (r=0.79) scales. In-depth interviews were conducted with 10 experienced teachers of PswD. The quantitative data were analysed using Pearson product moment correlation and Multiple regressions at 0.05 level of significance, while the qualitative data were content-analysed. The PswD age was 13.34±2.22 years and 50.8% were male. The SE 4.05); JS 3.39); TE 4.05) were high against the threshold of 3.00, while Sem 2.96) and AtR 2.97) were also high against the threshold of 2.50. There were significant positive relationships between TE (r = 0.41), SE (r = 0.39), AtR (r = 0.31), JS (r = 0.25), Sem (r = 0.14) and the reading achievement of PswD. There was a significant joint contribution of SE, JS, TE, Sem, AtR and HB to the reading achievement of PswD (F (6; 257) = 21.91; Adj. R2 = 0.33), accounting for 33.0% of its variance. The AtR (β=0.38), TE (β=0.32), SE (β=0.25) and JS (β= 0.03) had significant relative contributions to the prediction of reading achievement of PswD. The paucity of special education teachers, insufficient teaching materials, inappropriate teaching strategies, population explosion in schools and poor management of PswD were major reasons for the low reading achievement of PswD in the Minna Metropolis, Nigeria. Pupils‘ attitude towards reading, teachers‘ expectations and self-efficacy influenced the reading achievement of pupils with dyslexia in the Minna Metropolis, Nigeria. Stakeholders should focus on these factors to improve reading achievement of pupils with dyslexia.