The Reality of Professional Development for Teachers of Students with Intellectual Disability from their Point of View

Abstract

     This study aims to investigate the current vision of the professional development for teachers of students with intellectual disabilities from the teachers’ point of view in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This study has followed the analytical descriptive approach. The population of the study is the teachers of students with Intellectual Disability at schools that have partial integration programs in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The sample consists of 26 respondents from different regions in Saudi Arabia. A purposeful sampling method has been used to select participants in this study.  A self-reported questionnaire has been developed based on two parts and submitted online to the targeted teachers in the institution according to the variable of qualification, experience and gender. The questionnaire includes some demographic information about the participants, such as gender, educational stage, academic qualification, number of years of experience. The second part includes three distributed areas. The study has concluded that teachers with more years of experience in teaching are more likely to have positive perceptions towards professional development programs.