Identifying Evidence-Based Teaching Strategies that Teachers Use in Inclusive Primary Classrooms in Southern Bangladesh

Abstract

Evidence-based teaching strategies are clearly specified teaching strategies that have been shown in controlled research to be effective in bringing about desired outcomes in a delineated population of learners. For teaching-learning process in inclusive classrooms, evidence-based teaching strategies can play a vital role for quality learning especially for the students with disabilities. Although implementation of inclusion in primary education was started in 2003 in Bangladesh, the classroom teachers are frequently struggling with the challenges in teaching-learning process in mainstream education. It is believed that teachers are not sufficiently well-prepared and supported to teach students with disabilities in their classroom. But undoubtedly, the hallmark of effective inclusion is well-trained teachers and teaching strategies that teachers use to teach students with disabilities. The present study was conducted to determine teachers’ teaching strategies they practice for students with disabilities in mainstream primary classroom in some selected primary schools of Southern Bangladesh. In this study, a questionnaire focusing on 18 evidence-based teaching strategies was developed for data collection. In the results, differences were observed in the extent to which teachers used teaching-strategies in their classrooms that are evidence-based. While some teachers reported using some of the strategies most often or sometimes, others indicated less frequent use. On the basis of the findings, recommendations were made to encourage teachers in mainstream education to use evidence-based teaching strategies that facilitate the actual inclusion.

DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2013.v3n7p639