Characteristics of Students with Emotional/Behavioral Disorders: Perspectives of General Education Teachers in Saudi Arabia

Abdulrahman A Abaoud,Nabil S Almalki

doi:10.4236/psych.2015.65050

Abstract

Students with emotional/behavioral disorders (EBDs) have a number of characteristics that distinguish them from other students with special needs. Some teachers may be aware of these problems through their teaching level, level of education, and/or experience in education but others are not. This study was conducted through a survey to determine teachers’ perspectives of students with EBDs because an important relationship exists between what is believed by teachers about such students and what is practiced concerning them. Participants in this study included 296 general education teachers from Saudi Arabia. The results showed that the participants who responded to the survey have neutral perspectives on the characteristics of students with EBDs. The study has found additional significant differences between male and female teachers regarding their perceptions of characteristics of students with EBDs. No significant differences were discovered in the level of education, the number of years of teaching experience, or the school level taught. Implications and conclusions are discussed.

Highlights

In any school, teachers anticipate students’ violating the rules of appropriate behavior
Through the results described below it was clear that the study sample members were neutral in their agreement about 20 items delineating the characteristics of students with emotional/behavioral disorders (EBDs) on average (2.80 of 5.00)
The most neutral figures in the phrases were (12.18, 20, 8, 21), which were arranged in descending order according to the neutrality of the study sample as follows: Students with EBDs suffer from mood disorder cases (2.97), several students with EBDS seem to have disturbances in oppositional defiant (2.95), many students with EBDS seem to have disturbances in hyperactivity (2.95), students with EBDs have difficulty complying with the task their teachers assigned (2.95), and many students with EBDS have severe impulsive tendencies (2.94)

Summary

Introduction

Teachers anticipate students’ violating the rules of appropriate behavior. These violations range from mild disturbances such as interrupting teachers to rude, disturbing behavior. Love (1997) notes that in. How to cite this paper: Abaoud, A. Characteristics of Students with Emotional/Behavioral Disorders: Perspectives of General Education Teachers in Saudi Arabia.

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion