Teachers’ Utilization and Transferability of Vocational Skills to Persons with Special Needs

Abstract

This study aimed at assessing teacher’s utilization and transferability of vocational skills to children with special needs in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. The purposive sampling technique was used to select 10 special educators and 20 special needs persons from the two special schools. Skills Utilization Questionnaire (SUQ), Teachers’ Acquisition Questionnaire (SAQ), observation and unstructured interview were the instruments for data collection. Two research questions and two null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. Data obtained were analyzed using simple percentages and t-test. The results showed that the level of teachers’ utilization of vocational skills for persons with special needs was not significantly high, but the level of teachers’ transferability of vocational skills was significantly high. Thus, we suggest that qualified teachers who are vocationally advantaged should be employed by the government and the missions to impart those skills to persons with special needs.

Keywords: Vocational skills, persons with special needs, utilization and transferability of vocational skills.