Promoting primary school teachers’ awareness of dyscalculia

Abstract

The main aim of this study was to reveal the awareness of mathematics learning disorder (Dyscalculia) according to the opinions of the primary school teachers. Based on this aim, the general question was expressed as: “To what extent were Turkish primary school teachers aware of dyscalculia and dyscalculic children in their mathematics lessons?” Teachers' awareness about dyscalculia most likely might have a great importance in terms of communicating more effectively with those students in their classrooms and hence, implementing the mathematics education more efficiently. With that purpose, data from 16 different primary schools in the Çankaya district in Ankara from 113 primary school teachers were solicited through a questionnaire. The main result indicated that the majority of primary school teachers involved in the study were not aware of the concept of dyscalculia. Moreover, the majority of the primary teachers lacked the knowledge to deal effectively with dyscalculic children.