Teaching Methods and Educational Psychology of Students with Special Educational Needs: The Self-Efficacy of Special Education Teachers. Communication between Teachers and Families in the Inclusion Process

Abstract

Self-efficacy of teachers in special education has been identified as the core of a successful process with effective practices related to inclusion. The prevailing situation in the school environment has proven to be one of the most important factors affecting the work performance of educators, including burnout and work-related stress, which is related to their perception of the prevailing situations within the structure (Carroll et al., 2022). The main objective is to investigate the self-efficacy of teachers working in special education and their attitudes towards parental involvement in their children's learning process. The use of the questionnaire was chosen in order to explore the research questions. Teacher’s self-efficacy was assessed with the use of the Teacher Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES, Tschannen-Moran & Hoy, 2001). The views of the teachers regarding the extent of parental involvement were collected with the use of the Parent-Caregiver Relationship Scale (PCRS) in the adaptation made by Rentzou (2011), of the original proposal by Elicker et al. (1997). The present investigation examined 600 teachers’ levels of self-efficacy and parental involvement in pedagogical work of children with special educational needs, as viewed by the teachers. It also gauged the relationship between self-efficacy of teachers and the involvement of parents in the education of their children, as well as the effects of demographic variables on each of those two factors. The population of the research is all primary and secondary school teachers working in the context of special education in Greece. The data were entered and coded in the statistical program for the social sciences, SPSS (v.27). According to the study's conclusion, teacher self-efficacy and teacher views on parental involvement in children's educational process have a significant correlation. The research indicates that teachers view parents as highly involved in their children's educational process, and that teachers frequently value the opinions expressed by parents. It has been demonstrated that teachers have positive views on parental involvement. Future studies may also benefit from exploring these relationships with teachers, students, and parents at different academic levels. In order to understand how these factors interact in various contexts.