Preparing Malaysian Pre-Service Teachers to Teach Students with Autism Using E-Module ‘The Story of Khamdy’
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37134/bitara.vol14.sp2.5.2021Keywords:
Autism Spectrum Disorder, e-Module, Teacher Training, Special EducationAbstract
Despite increased awareness about autism, knowledge and skills to teach students with autism remains low among pre-service teachers globally. An e-module called ‘The Story of Khamdy®’ was developed to provide a means of introducing as many as 140 information and pedagogical strategies to teach students with ASD in inclusive environments. The entire module is presented through online platforms, via Facebook and Openlearning. Inspired by the pictorial narrative approach, each component in this module is specially designed to optimise the learning outcomes. This module, the first of its kind, delivers the content via pictorial narration, in which over 200 illustrations are presented sequentially for a systematic learning on the topics of identifying autism, early diagnosis and intervention, disputing the myths of autism, family and inclusion support, social communication strategies, differential instructions, preventing of bullying, and transition to puberty and adulthood. This study was conducted to assess the efficacy of this e-module to improve autism knowledge and reduce autism-related stigma among 91 pre-service teachers who had completed this online module. The pre-training and post-training autism knowledge and stigma scores were measured using Autism Stigma and Knowledge Questionnaire (ASK-Q). Significant changes in etiology and treatment knowledge scores, together with a significant reduction in stigma endorsement were recorded. Overall, the findings pointed to the efficacy of this module to better prepare pre-service teachers to teach students with autism.
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