Attitude of Elementary School Teachers Towards the Dyslexia Students in East Kameng District of Arunachal Pradesh

This study attempts to understand the Attitude of Elementary School Teachers towards the dyslexia Students in East Kameng District of Arunachal Pradesh. It determines whether educators’ beliefs are situated negatively or positively towards the construct of dyslexia and provides insight into their conception of the disability, the perceived ‘helplessness’ of a dyslexic student and caregivers’ responses to the condition and finally, perceived barriers in terms of supporting these students. The purpose of this study is to assess the attitude of Elementary School Teachers towards the dyslexia Students. Therefore 100 teachers from 20 elementary schools were given sample of the study. The investigator also used a self-developed Likerts-5 point’s attitude scale having two sections. This scale includes 20 items (20 each for teachers) related to several dimension on attitude about dyslexia students.


Introduction
Children with disabilities are also known as slow learners or children with special needs (CWSN); generally, the teachers consider these children as mentally retarded. But that is not correct assumption. These children are not mentally retarded but these problems could be due to difficulty in expressing oneself, difficulty in attention and difficulty in concentration, etc. Generally, these children have normal or sometimes even above average intelligence. When someone who previously could read loses their ability, it is known as alexia. The difficulties are involuntary and people with this disorder have a normal desire to learn. The Dyslexia is one the common issues among students with learning disabilities. Dyslexia is a specific learning disability in the area of reading and writing. The term learning disability is derived from the Greek word "dys'' means poor or inadequate, and "lexis" means words or language.

Rationale of the Study
The studies conducted by Mihandoost (2013), Agarwal & Rao (2010), Singh and Deshprapbhu (2008), Kamala & Ramganesh (2015), Kormos, Sarkadi, and Csizer (2009), Duranovic, Dedeic, Huseinbasic, & Tinjic (2011), Furnham (2013, Hughes, Ball, Bissett, & McCormack (2009), Riddick (2003), Adebowale & Moye (2013), Reid (2011), and Ramaa (2000) reveals that it is a specific learning difficulty which is always associated reading disabilities. It offers itself as a big hindrance in the teaching of language. Therefore, dyslexia are a serious concern for every parent and teacher. The studies also found that the attitude play vital role in diagnosing the dyslexia in children and dealing with it effectively. But the studies reflect that most teachers are unaware of dyslexia and therefore shows unconcerned attitude towards it.
Investigator have done number of studies on dyslexia; its effect on learning, attitude of people, teachers in India and abroad. But no research has been done on attitude of teachers towards dyslectic students in context of Arunachal Pradesh. Therefore, the investigator is intended to carry out research in East Kameng District of Arunachal Pradesh about the attitude of teachers of Elementary Schools towards the dyslexia students in the district.

Attitude of Elementary School Teachers towards the dyslexia Students in East
Kameng District of Arunachal Pradesh.

Objectives of the Study
In view of the nature of the study and its research questions, the investigator has formulated the following objectives; i. To study the attitude of elementary school teachers towards dyslexia with regards to sex in East Kameng District of Arunachal Pradesh.
ii. To investigate the attitude of elementary school teachers towards dyslexia with regards to caste in East Kameng District of Arunachal Pradesh.

Hypotheses
As per the objectives of the current study, the investigator has formulated the following Null hypotheses: Ho 1 -There is no significance difference in the attitude of Elementary school teachers towards dyslexia students with regard to male and female.
Ho 2 -There is no significant difference in the attitude of Elementary school teachers towards dyslexia students with regard to tribal and non-tribal.

Population and Sample
A population refers to any collection of specified groups of human beings or of

Tools of the Study
An authenticity of data depends upon the selection of appropriate tools with the help of which data are collected. For the collection of data in the present study, the investigator used the attitude test. The selection of any tool is always considered as important because a significant part of the study depends and the data depend upon the accuracy of the tools through the establishment of validity and estimation of reliability as the characteristically good tools of evaluation. Therefore, the investigator in the present study used a self-developed awareness and attitude scale to measure the elementary school teachers' attitude toward dyslexic. Similarly, for the assessment of attitude of elementary school teachers towards the dyslexic learners the investigator also used a self-developed Likerts-5 point's attitude scale having two sections. This scale includes 20 items (20 each for a teacher) related to several dimension on attitude about dyslexia.

Procedure of Data Collection
In this step the investigator collected various aspects/dimensions and statements from different sources of literature relating to the content and aspects of attitude. These aspects or dimensions were discussed with some measurement experts and researcher on all 30 statements. All these statements were assessed and examined by both the content and language experts. Among these 30 statements 10 numbers of statements were rejected after thorough revision or review. Remaining 20 were kept in the initial draft (preliminary draft) of the attitude scale. It is important to be noted here that the language experts edited the statements in view of principles adopted for test construction and standardization.
The final questionnaire was then used to collect the data and was analysed through Mean, SD, and 't' value.

Analysis and Interpretation of Data
It is obvious that only the collection of data and its organization do not convey any To test the significance of the difference between the levels of awareness of elementary school teachers about dyslexia and dyslexic learners as per differences in the variables like gender and locality selected for the study, the mean, standard deviation and 't' values are found out. The interpretations are as follows: i. There is no significant difference in the attitude of Male and Female Elementary school teachers towards dyslexia with regard to sex.
ii. There is no significant difference in the attitude of Tribal and Non-Tribal Elementary school teachers towards dyslexia with regard to category For the purpose of achieving the objective 1.0, the investigators used the frequency distribution table (Table 1).  *Not significant at 0.5 level of probability.
The Table 2 reveals that the computed t-value came out to be 1.75 which is lesser than the criterion t-value (1.98) at .05 level of confidence for 98 df. Therefore, the computed t-value (1.75) has been considered not significant and the formulated.
Thus, the null hypothesis, namely, there is no significant difference in the attitude of Elementary school teachers towards dyslexia with regard to sex. It is interpreted that the male and female elementary teachers do not differ in their attitude on dyslexia. * Not significant at 0.5 level of probability.
The Table 3 reveals that the computed t-value came out to be 0.32 which is very lesser than the criterion t-value (1.98) at .05 level of confidence for 98 df. Therefore, the computed t-value (0.32) has been considered not significant and the formulated. Thus, the null hypothesis, there is no significant difference in attitude of elementary school teachers towards dyslexia with regard to category. It is interpreted that the tribal and non-tribal teachers really do not differ in their attitude, both the categories of Elementary school teachers have same attitude towards dyslexia.

Discussion of the Results
Regarding the attitude of teachers of elementary schools of East Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh, it is to be noted that there is no significant difference found in the attitude of teachers on dyslexia. The present study revealed that there is no variation in the attitude of elementary teachers towards dyslexia. The teachers are getting more time in observing and assessing the dyslexia children. Moreover, the teachers are better in terms of training and specialization. The other possible factor might be that teachers are more exposed to the knowledge about dyslexia in course of their service period.
In respect to the general understanding that all teachers are having more attitudes The attitude on dyslexia among male and female elementary teachers is found not significant. This proves that both the male and female elementary teachers of the East Kameng district had shown equality in their attitude towards dyslexia through responding the questionnaires. But when the mean value of both male and female teachers of the East Kameng district is revealed than we find male teacher is little bit higher than the female teachers. This implies that male teachers of elementary schools of East Kameng district have little higher attitude on dyslexia, but the difference is ignorable as the mean of male teachers is 64.90 whereas female's is 62.79. There is difference of only 2.11 which is quite ignorable.
It reveals that there is equality in the attitude of dyslexia among the tribal and non-tribal elementary teachers of East Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh. But the mean value of both tribal and non-tribal elementary teachers is slight difference. The mean of tribal elementary teachers is 63.76 whereas the mean of non-tribal elementary teachers is 64.21. So, the level of attitude of non-tribal elementary teachers is slightly higher than the tribal elementary teachers but this difference is negligible.
Thus, after going through the above findings and results it can be concluded that all the Null Hypotheses were accepted. There is no higher significant difference found in the awareness and attitude on dyslexia in East Kameng District of Arunachal Pradesh.
The overall mean scores of 100 elementary teachers of East Kameng District came out to favourable and good. From this it is interpreted that elementary teachers are well aware and having positive attitude towards dyslexia.

Educational Implications of the Study
The investigator has recommended some of the following pertinent educational implications in reference to the awareness and attitudes of elementary teachers towards dyslexia as under: i. Since the present study was conducted in order to test the awareness and attitude of teachers about dyslexia in East Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh. It has revealed that though there is no or less significant difference in their awareness and attitudes but their mean scores depict slight differ. Therefore, this study would help the teachers to develop more awareness about dyslexia. ii.
Teachers have to participate actively in orientation programs, workshops, RCI training programs and symposia for acquiring competencies to deal children with dyslexia in teaching learning process.
iii. The study would spread awareness among the parents and teachers that dyslexia, if diagnosed earlier can be corrected with special strategies in dealing with them.
iv. Teachers have to be well informed with latest techniques and technologies through in-service teacher education programs for teaching to dyslexic children.
v. It would help the teacher to use appropriate techniques and teaching aids in the teaching-learning process for the dyslexic learners. vi. Participatory research is necessary to the teachers in the field of specific learning disabilities, so that the teachers can develop intervention programmes for better progress of the dyslexics in their reading styles.
vii. Since dyslexia is a disability related to language learning, the study would help the language teacher to have more insightful nature into the problem of dyslexia.
viii. RCI, NCERT, NCTE have to take initiation to conduct various seminars/ conferences and special education courses to bring awareness attitudinal change among the teachers.

Suggestion for Further Research
The present piece of study is done with utmost sincerity and dedication by the researcher and during the study he felt that more studies may be done in the same research area, therefore he recommends the following for further studies: i. The present study was limited to awareness and attitudes of teachers of elementary school teachers of East Kameng District of Arunachal Pradesh. Therefore, the researcher suggests that such study should also be carried out in other Districts of Arunachal Pradesh.
ii. The present study confined only to Elementary school Teachers so, the researcher suggests that such type of study needs to be conducted on different stages of education.
iii. As the present study is limited to only awareness and attitudes, study on effects of dyslexia on academic performance among the learner can also be taken up.

iv. The awareness of dyslexia between trained and untrained teachers of East Kameng
District and of Arunachal Pradesh may also be taken up.
v. A comparative study may be taken up on dyslexia and other learning disabilities such as dyscalculia, Aphasia, dysgraphia, etc.
vi. Related study on the academic performance of dyslexic students of elementary and secondary schools.
vii. A follow up study may be taken up to verify the findings of the present study to determine degree of disparity among secondary school teachers regard to trained and untrained.

Conclusion
The present study was intended to establish the degree of awareness and attitude of parents and secondary school teachers of East Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh.
In total four objectives and eight Null Hypotheses were formulated in order to find out the target of the study. The researcher used descriptive cum survey method of educational research to carry out the study successfully. So far, the sampling procedure was concerned the investigator used stratified random sampling for the collection of data. One hundred numbers of elementary school teachers of East Kameng District of Arunachal Pradesh were selected and tested. Inferential statistics technique was used for analysing the collected data.
Thus, the present study signifies that there needs improvement in the awareness and attitude of teachers towards dyslexia and dyslexic learner. So, that these children can be diagnosed and appropriate measure could be taken up to improve the performance in their learning.