Factors Leading To Poor Academic Performance Of Pupils With Hearing Impairment In Inclusive Primary Schools

ABSTRACT

The study explored the factors leading to poor academic performance for HI pupils in inclusive primary schools, which intend to identify the factors, associate the identified factors with the academic performance of pupils with hearing impairment and to suggest possible strategies to overcome the poor academic performance problems of pupils with hearing impairment in inclusive primary schools. The study was mostly used qualitative supplemented by the quantitative approach. Vygotsky social constructivism theory guided this study using participants selected from 6 inclusive primary schools in Dodoma Municipality. A total of 72 respondents of different categories were involved in the investigation. Data were collected through interviews guidelines, observation checklist, documentary review, and questionnaire (Likert scale). Qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis while quantitative data were analyzed by the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Findings of this study show that factors leading to poor academic performance for HI pupils in inclusive primary schools were categorized by various factors, like Unavailability of teaching and learning resources; Inappropriate pedagogical approach; Syllabus incompleteness and inappropriate instructional session, Reduced total communication skills, and inadequate skills on classroom management. Generally, this study recommended that the government should prepare a conducive learning environment, enough budgets and review the current Teacher Education Curriculum for HI to integrate content and competencies in Sign Language skills. Hence to enable every teacher trainees in special needs to have skills in sign language. vi TABLE OF