Relationship Between General Educators Beliefs and Teaching Performance in Teaching Students with Learning Difficulties in Intermediate Schools in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Although Saudi Arabia has committed to inclusive education for students with learning difficulties (LD), limited research has focused on general educators’ beliefs and their teaching performance. Moreover, the best implementation of inclusion is not only placement of students with LD in general education classroom, but first and foremost is focusing on educators’ beliefs towards having LD students in their classroom in order to improve those practices. Thus, all educators should seek the belief that all students even with disabilities belong to regular classrooms. This investigation examines the relationship between teachers’ beliefs and their teaching performance along with the moderating effect of gender on this relationship. A sample of 401 general educators from intermediate schools in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia was included in this study. This quantitative research project used a questionnaire to gather information on the educators’ demographic information, beliefs and teaching performance. By using structural equation modelling (SEM) via AMOS, all valid 401 questionnaires were analyzed. The findings revealed that educators’ beliefs were correlated positively with their teaching performance. However, the results showed that gender did not moderate the relationship between educators’ beliefs and their teaching performance. The findings of this study may offer perception for stakeholders in the Ministry of Education in Saudi Arabia to rethink ways to develop teaching performance of teachers in inclusive practices. The recommendations from the study and the suggestions for further studies are discussed. This limited research about educators’ practices has created the need for a thorough investigation of the factors that predict their teaching performance.