Exploring the Knowledge and Beliefs that Teachers Have About Dyslexia in the Eastern Region of Texas

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (Ed.D)

Department

Curriculum and Instruction

Date of Award

Spring 2021

Abstract

A vast amount of research exists on the lack of teacher knowledge in areas relating to reading including dyslexia, but there is a limited amount of research dedicated to honing the belief systems teachers who have developed as the result of their experiences in and out of the classroom (Binks-Cantrell, Washburn, Joshi, & Hougen, 2012; Moats, 1994). The purpose of this mixed methods study was to explore the dyslexia knowledge of teachers in Texas in terms of their beliefs and how those beliefs developed. Participants in the study completed an instrument that measures the beliefs and knowledge that individuals have about dyslexia. The overarching question for the study was as follows: What beliefs do educators have about dyslexia? The overarching question was answered by means of the survey instrument. The research questions guided the study and aided in explaining the dyslexia knowledge of general education teachers. The procedures for this mixed methods study design included a survey and a focus group interview in order to see how the dyslexia beliefs of teachers, as identified using the Dyslexia Belief Index (DBI), developed. The DBI (Wadlington & Wadlington, 2005) is a survey instrument that purports to measure the beliefs that individuals have about dyslexia. The survey consists of 30 items related to knowledge of dyslexia. This mixed methods study analyzed the survey data using Statistical Package for Social Sciences 25 (SPSS) software in order to identify statistical variances among the survey respondents by running an analysis of variance (ANOVA). The researcher incorporated a focus group interview as a means of further explaining the survey responses by answering the sub-questions. An ANOVA was conducted as the statistical test to find significance in the data provided by the survey responses. For each question, the p-value was greater than the alpha level of .05; therefore, the researcher failed to reject the null hypothesis due to the data not being statistically significant for all questions on the DBI.

Advisor

Juan Araujo

Subject Categories

Curriculum and Instruction | Education | Special Education and Teaching

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