| dc.description.abstract | The purpose of this study was to determine the school based factors
influencing performance of children with disabilities in public primary
schools in Kajiado North District, Kajiado County, Kenya. It particularly
focused on the rationale of the teachers‟ attitude towards children with
disabilities, influence of resources and facilities in the performance of
children with disabilities influence of teachers‟ qualification in implementing
inclusive education and influence of learning/teaching resources on
performance of children with disabilities. This research was based on
Vyogotsky theory (1987-1998) of proximal development which discusses
learning and teaching of challenged children as a shared or joint process in a
responsive social context. The investigation was conducted using the
descriptive survey design which describes respondents‟ characteristics such
as abilities, opinions, attitudes, beliefs and/or knowledge. Two sets of
questionnaires, semi structured questionnaires and observations were used
for data collection. The semi structured questionnaire was used for the head
teachers. The design of the instruments was informed by the objectives and
the research questions of the study. The study yielded both qualitative and
quantitative data. Quantitative data was analyzed using SPSS while
qualitative data was organized into themes and patterns based on analysis of
meanings and implications emanating from respondents information and
documented data on Inclusive Education to improve performance of all
pupils. Quantitative results of data analysis were presented mainly in tables.
From the findings of the study, it was established that teachers must believe
that their behaviour can affect the education of their pupils. They must
recognize that they have the capacity and power to make key decisions which
affect their role and pupils´ performance. The findings also established that
there is need for both the classroom teachers and the subject teachers to get
trained in SNE to provide successful inclusive education. Besides, it was
established that inadequate/lack of materials and overpopulated classrooms
posed a great challenge to teachers from implementation of quality Inclusive
Education. The study recommended that public primary schools should be
equipped with adequate resources and facilities for children with disabilities
to fill several gaps that still exist. Besides, teachers need to be trained again
through in-service courses to be empowered with SNE skills to enable them
perform and also make them recognize that they have the capacity and power
to make key decisions which affect pupils´ performance. Head teachers
should be on the forefront to ensure Inclusive Education policy is
implemented in school. Given the scope and limitations of this study, the
researcher recommends a replica of the study to be performed in other public
primary schools in the country hardship areas in Kenya to establish the
variant challenges in inclusive education. | en_US |
