The Perception of Special Education Teachers towards the Involvement of Audiologist in Special Education Classroom

Abstract

Audiologist plays vital roles work in supporting the individual with deaf and hearing impairment. In the school setting, an audiologist is one of the members involved in planning interventions for children. This research was conducted to study the perception of the special education teachers on the involvement of audiologists in special education schools. In this research, quantitative data which is a questionnaire is used as the research instrument. The data obtained were analyzed using Microsoft Excel XLstat. A total of 165 teachers are included in this research through snow-balling sampling. Results have shown that 149 (90.8%) of the teachers agreed that the role of audiologists is vital to improving the special education quality in Malaysia. In general, the teachers have a high viewpoint of the common function of the audiologists but a very worrying understanding of their specific role. It is proven when special education teachers are unsure about whether audiologists only work in hospitals (56 teachers (33.9%)), involved in balance problems (65 teachers (39.4%)) and vestibular problems (88 teachers (53.3%)). The research has shown that having an audiologist helps to reduce the impact of hearing loss for the deaf students when 152 (83.8%) special education teachers agreed that the involvement of audiologists in the education system benefits many teachers and students thus prepares a better and more conducive environment for them.