Special Education Teachers’ Understanding of The Implementation of Year One Transition Program for Special Needs Students with Learning Disabilities in Primary School

Abstract

The implementation of the year one transition program helps special needs students with learning disablities (LD) to transition from informal schooling in kindergarten to more formal education setting in primary schools. This study is aimed to identify the level of teacher knowledge and the relationship between special education teachers’ gender, teaching experience and the implementation of the transition program. This study used Cognitive Development Theory pioneered by Jerume Brunner and the Aisberg Competency Model. This study is a quantitative study in the form of a descriptive review. The instruments used is a questionnaire adapted from Mohonan, Marino and Miller (2006) and validity was tested using Cronbach's Alpha (0.947). The study’s sample comprises of 45 teachers who were selected using the simple sampling technique. The data were analyzed using software (SPSS) version 23 and the analysis used is mean comparison and descriptive analysis. The findings show that teachers' knowledge level is at a moderate level (mean = 3.35, SD = 0.806) while the correlation analysis results (r = 0.168, p> 0.05) showed no significant relationship between special education teachers’ gender, teaching experience and the implementation of the year one transition program. Overall, the Year One Transition Program for special needs with LD can be effectively implemented by providing more training to special Education teachers on how to handle the Year One Transition Program. Furthermore, a Year One Transition Module for special needs with LD could be developed to help increase the Special Education teachers’ level of knowledge and competency.