Abstract:
Reading achievement is the ability to apply reading skills efficiently for success in academics
and daily activities. However, Pupils with Dyslexia (PswD) often experience severe difficulties
in reading in comparison to their peers without dyslexia, despite having comparable level of
intelligence. Evidence has shown that PswD in the Minna Metropolis have low reading
achievement, resulting in poor performance in school subjects. Previous studies focused more on
the interventions and socio-demographic factors that can improve reading achievement of PswD
than on teacher and pupil factors. This study, therefore, investigated the influence of teacher
factors — Self-efficacy (SE), Job Satisfaction (JS), Teacher Expectations (TE), and pupil factors
— Self-esteem (Sem), Home Background (HB) and Attitude towards Reading (AtR) on reading
achievement among PswD in the Minna Metropolis, Niger State, Nigeria.
The study was hinged on the Barlett‘s Schema and Bandura‘s Self-efficacy theories, while the
sequential mixed methods design (QUAN+qual) was adopted. The multi-stage sampling
procedure was utilised. The three Local Government Areas (LGAs) in the Minna Metropolis
were enumerated. The simple random sampling technique was used to select 27 public primary
schools (nine from each LGA). The purposive sampling technique was used to select 254 PswD
and 59 teachers. The instruments used were Slosson Intelligence (r = 0.86), Reading
Achievement (r = 0.65) tests, Niger Reading (r = 0.90), Minnesota Satisfaction (r = 0.83),
Reading Attitude (r = 0.70), HB (r = 0.73) questionnaires; Teacher Expectations (r = 0.85),
Teacher SE (r = 0.94) and Rosenberg Self-esteem (r=0.79) scales. In-depth interviews were
conducted with 10 experienced teachers of PswD. The quantitative data were analysed using
Pearson product moment correlation and Multiple regressions at 0.05 level of significance, while
the qualitative data were content-analysed.
The PswD age was 13.34±2.22 years and 50.8% were male. The SE 4.05); JS 3.39);
TE 4.05) were high against the threshold of 3.00, while Sem 2.96) and AtR 2.97)
were also high against the threshold of 2.50. There were significant positive relationships
between TE (r = 0.41), SE (r = 0.39), AtR (r = 0.31), JS (r = 0.25), Sem (r = 0.14) and the
reading achievement of PswD. There was a significant joint contribution of SE, JS, TE, Sem,
AtR and HB to the reading achievement of PswD (F (6; 257) = 21.91; Adj. R2 = 0.33), accounting
for 33.0% of its variance. The AtR (β=0.38), TE (β=0.32), SE (β=0.25) and JS (β= 0.03) had
significant relative contributions to the prediction of reading achievement of PswD. The paucity
of special education teachers, insufficient teaching materials, inappropriate teaching strategies,
population explosion in schools and poor management of PswD were major reasons for the low
reading achievement of PswD in the Minna Metropolis, Nigeria.
Pupils‘ attitude towards reading, teachers‘ expectations and self-efficacy influenced the reading
achievement of pupils with dyslexia in the Minna Metropolis, Nigeria. Stakeholders should focus
on these factors to improve reading achievement of pupils with dyslexia.
