Faculty Preparedness to Teach Students with Learning Disabilities: Developing an Instrument to Assess Faculty Perceptions

Abstract

Despite increasing rates of entry, students with learning disabilities (LD) continue to face barriers to completing post-secondary education. Faculty attitudes and knowledge are important factors in supporting students with LD, yet little is known about faculty preparation. No valid, reliable, easy-to-administer inventory exists to assess the perceptions of faculty about their preparedness for the task of teaching students with LD. The Faculty Preparedness Questionnaire (FPQ) was developed to measure faculty perceptions of preparedness for teaching students with LD based on two factors: knowledge and attitude. For this study, 101 community college instructors completed the original questionnaire consisting of 22 items. After factor analysis, the 17-item FPQ was determined to be a reliable and valid instrument for the measurement of instructor attitudes and knowledge as components of their perceptions of preparedness. This research contributes to the current dialogue regarding best practice for inclusive post-secondary education.

Experiences matter: Educators’ attitudes toward disability in higher education

“…There is a substantial discrepancy, however, between these findings and what students with disabilities report on this matter (e.g., Dowrick et al, 2005). Other scholars have found that attitudes do not always predict educational practices (Hansen et al, 2017;Hansen & Dawson, 2020). In other words, there may also be inconsistencies between reported attitudes and behaviour.…”

“…Theoretically, a faculty's willingness to accommodate or implement inclusive education strategies should be correlated with their attitudes toward disability. In fact, measures of educators' attitudes toward disability often include items and/or subscales related to these educational practices (Hansen et al, 2017;Lombardi & Murray, 2011;Freer, 2018).…”

“…In addition, quantitative attitude scores may not tell the whole story. For example, Hansen and Dawson (2020) found that professors expressed concerns about their readiness to teach college students with disabilities, despite reporting positive attitude scores (Hansen et al, 2017).…”

“…Researchers have also investigated attitudes toward different disabilities. For example, researchers have examined professors' attitudes toward dyslexia (Stampoltzis et al, 2015), attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (Buchanan et al, 2010), and learning disabilities (Hansen et al, 2017). Some have also examined post-secondary teachers' attitudes toward disability categories.…”

“We can do better”: Community college faculty preparedness for teaching students with learning disabilities.

“…The current study builds on previous research by Hansen, Dawson, & Specht (2017) where researchers developed the Faculty Preparedness Questionnaire (FPQ) to measure faculty attitudes and knowledge as components of their preparedness to teach students with LDs. This new instrument consists of 17 statements rated on a 6-point Likert scale; 9 comprise the knowledge subscale, and 8 comprise the attitude subscale.…”