TEACHERS’ PERCEPTION OF THE IMPACT OF INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES ON CHILDREN WITH READING DIFFICULTY IN SOME SELECTED DISTRICTS IN CENTRAL REGION

ABSTRACT The  study  investigated  teachers’  perception  of  the  impact  of  instructional strategies on  pupils  with reading difficulties in selected districts in the Central Region of Ghana.  A concurrent embedded mixed method design was used for this  study.  Proportionate  stratified  sampling  procedure  was  used  to  select ninety-five  (95)  upper  primary  teachers.  The  response  rate  was  100% representing  95  teachers.  Data  were  collected  using  a  questionnaire  andinterview  schedules  Statistical  tools  used  in  data  analysis  were  mainly frequency  distribution  and  percentages,  means  and  standard  deviations, independent samples t -test and One-Way Analysis of Variance. For all tests, the level of significance was  calculated  at 0.05. Thematic analysis was used in the  analysis  of  the  qualitative  data.  The  study  revealed  that  Teachers  had negative  perceptions  about  pupils  with  reading  difficulties.  Also,  role  play, read  aloud,  direct  instruction  and  group  activities  were  the  frequently  used strategies  teachers  used  in  teaching  pupils  with  reading  difficulties. Furthermore,  inadequate  teaching  and  learning  materials  and  low  parental involvement  were  the  two  major  problems  teachers  faced  when  teaching pupils  with  reading  difficulties.  It  is  recommended  that  Ghana  Education Service in collaboration with all the head teachers must organize a workshop on  reading  difficulty  for  teachers  in  the  three  districts and  the  Ghana Education  Service  find  means  of  providing  resources  to  support  teaching  of reading in the schools in all the districts.