MST-Department of Special Needs Education

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Browsing MST-Department of Special Needs Education by Author "Gatumu, H. N."

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    Analysis of guidance and counseling programme at Thika High School for the blind
    (2011-12-05) Irungu, Mary Wangari; Wamocho, F. I.; Gatumu, H. N.
    Youth with visual impairments need guidance and counseling more than their sighted peers because in addition to the normal turmoil of adolescence, they experience other problems emanating from their disability. The purpose of this study was to analyze the guidance and counseling programme in Thika High School for the Blind. This is the only special residential secondary school for students with visual impairments in Kenya. The study looked at the content of the existing guidance and counseling programme. It identified problems faced by students and analyzed how the teacher counselor identified youth with specific problems and tried to solve those problems. It also tried to find out if the guidance and counseling personnel were adequately trained to handle youth with visual impairments, how supportive the administration, teachers and support staff were towards the guidance and counseling department and how responsive the students were towards the programme. The research adopted Erikson's psychoanalytic theory (1975), in which he divided the life cycle into eight stages of development. The main interest of this study was the fifth stage of Erikson's theory, "Identity versus Role Diffusion", under which adolescents fall. At adolescent stage children with visual impairments may experience a major crisis because many have faced rejection, negative attitudes and social stigma from family, peers and the society. The researcher adopted an observational descriptive survey design. A sample of 22 subjects comprising 16 students, 4 teachers, the deputy principal and the head of guidance and counseling department were selected through purposive sampling and simple random sampling. The study dealt with few numbers because of low incidence population among the girls who are totally blind in form 2N and 3N. Data were collected using questionnaires for students and teachers, an interview schedule for the deputy principal, unstructured interviews for students and observation checklists for human resources and physical facilities. The obtained data were analyzed through descriptive statistics in three stages: data reduction, data display and conclusion drawing. After analyzing data and drawing conclusions, the researcher made various recommendations including suggestions for further research in other areas of disabilities. The major finding of the study is the need to strengthen guidance and counseling services in Thika High School for the Blind. An attempt has been made to put guidance and counseling services in place but there is limited knowledge as to what is expected. There is no specific time set apart for individual guidance and counseling and very limited voluntary response of students to individual guidance and counseling services in the school. The study also found out that there had been no school-based inservice courses, workshops or seminars in guidance and counseling, organized for the members of the school. Due to these findings, the researcher recommended provision of skills through training, in-service courses and workshops in guidance and counseling. The department also needs more attention and financial support from the school administration and from the Ministry of Education.
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    Impact of Pre-vocational Rehabilitation Training on Personal Adjustment of Adventitiously Visually Impaired in Machakos Technical Institute for the Blind, Kenya
    (2014-01-16) Mbwiko, Leonard Mutuku; Njoroge, M.N.; Gatumu, H. N.
    The purpose of this study was to find out the impact of pre-vocational rehabilitation training on personal adjustment of the persons who were newly blinded. The study investigated the effects of age at onset of visual impairment, severity of vision loss, gender and level of education on personal adjustments. Purposive sampling techniques were used to select Machakos Technical Institute for the Blind as a case study among other rehabilitation training institutes in Kenya which are offering rehabilitation services to persons with visual impairments. Convenience sampling techniques were used to select all students who were adventitiously visually impaired admitted in the first term of 2006. Two similar psychometric test instrument interview schedules entitled "Personal Adjustment Level Status" adapted from both modified Semantic Differential Scale (SDS) constructed by Osgood et al. (1959) and Mwathi (1998) were used to the collect data. The major findings of the study were that pre-vocational rehabilitation training had significant effect on personal adjustment levels (PAL) of the adventitious visually impaired (AVI) with a p-value of <0.001. The age at onset: of the visual impairment had significant effect on personal adjustment of the AVI with a pvalue of 0.034, with the younger ones portraying higher adjustment levels. The severity of vision loss had no significant effect on personal adjustment of the AVI. with a p-value of 0.270 after training but the totally blind (ill) attained higher PAL mean scores (71.89) than low vision (LV) (63.50). The gender had no significant effect on PALs of AVI (p-value = 0.684) after pre-vocational rehabilitation training but males exhibited higher adjustment levels (M=71.40) than the females (68.64). The level of education had no significant effect on PAL of the AVI (p-value = 0.746) after training though the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) subjects had higher PAL mean scores (71.67) than Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) subjects (69.17). The researcher recommends that; All adventitious visually impaired should be referred to rehabilitation centres soon after they are identified by the ophthalmologists in hospitals. Kenya Institute of Education (K.LE) should adapt the existing curriculum to include "Pre-vocational rehabilitation skills" as a distinct subject for learners who are visually impaired from pre-school to secondary schools. The same study to be replicated on other persons with special needs in order to enable generalization of the findings. A study should be undertaken to establish the preparedness of the teachers in institutions for the visually impaired in handling pre-vocational rehabilitation training in Kenya among others.