Instructional approaches used in teaching learners who are facing severe to profound intellectual disabilities

Abstract

This qualitative, interpretive study is founded on the problem that the South African special schools authority has been grappling with customising the curriculum and issues of “what” and “how” to teach learners who are facing severe to profound intellectual disabilities. This is exacerbated by a lack of consistent standard of service delivery that is supposed to be formalised through policy. It is, therefore against this background, that the purpose of this study was to explore and explain the nature of instructional approaches used in teaching learners who are facing severe to profound intellectual disabilities in special schools, in Soweto. This study also aimed to find out as to the different ways in which instructional approaches are implemented and how they address the educational support needs of learners in special schools.

The multiple realities from the participants were collected using focus group discussions, individual interviews, document analysis and classroom lesson observations. Throughout, all methods of data collection field notes were taken. The thematic data analysis revealed that the nature of instructional approaches is a function of (1) the combination of instructional models, strategies, methods and skills used by (2) agents that are involved in the provision of education for learners with severe to profound disabilities to teach (3) learners with different types educational support needs through a (4) curriculum informed by a legislative framework. Given the four themes identified, this study has the potential to provide a framework for provisioning of needed educational support services for learners who are facing severe to profound intellectual disabilities.