Teaching Strategies Used By Teachers to Enhance Learning to Learners with Multiple Disabilities in Four Selected Counties in Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the teaching strategies used by the teachers educating learners with multiple disabilities in the counties of Baringo, Kiambu, Kisumu and Nairobi in Kenya. Multiple disabilities are a combination of two or more disabilities. In this study learners with multiple disabilities include; cerebral palsy intellectual disability, autism blindness and deaf blindness. The study adopted a triangulation mixed method design. The study targeted a sample of 9 headteachers and 57 teachers educating learners with multiple disabilities. Purposive sampling was used to sample the respondents. Piloting the instruments was done in schools that were not involved in the actual study. The research instruments that were used included interviews, observation guides and questionnaires with a Likert scale. Reliability of the instruments was determined by test-retest method. Content related validity was used as a measure to determine validity. The study used descriptive statistics for the quantative data where tables of frequencies, mean, standard deviation, and percentages were used to analyze data. Qualitative data were analyzed using descriptions and thematic text. Results revealed that majority of the teachers teaching learners with deaf blindness used the following instructional methods; tactile Kenyan sign language, task analysis, Tadoma, sign language among others. Majority of teachers teaching learners with autistic blind used the following instructional methods; braille, pre-braille activities, oral methods among others. Majority of teachers teaching learners with cerebral palsy intellectual disability used the following instructional methods; use of task analysis, activities of daily living, and real objects among others. The choice of the instructional method was determined by the needs of learners. Results also revealed that teachers were inadequately prepared to teach learners with multiple disabilities because their training was for a specific disability. The curriculum for learners with autism blindness and cerebral palsy intellectual disability was found to be ineffective. Teachers educating learners with deaf blindness used the final draft of an adapted curriculum from Kenya institute of Curriculum Development. Teaching resources and support services were found to be inadequate. The following were the recommendations that were made following the study findings to improve teaching; training teachers, provision of a functional curriculum, provision of adequate support services, provision of enough teaching resources among others.