Teachers' knowledge about developmental dyslexia: Educational implications

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to investigate the knowledge, misconceptions, and lack of information of pre-service and in-service Spanish teachers, in relation to specific areas of developmental dyslexia: general information, symptoms/diagnosis, and treatment. Also, to study the relationship between knowledge and sociodemographic variables. The study included 118 pre-service teachers and 110 in-service teachers who completed the knowledge and beliefs scale about developmental dyslexia (KBDDS). The results indicate that the knowledge of in-service teachers was significantly better than pre-service teachers in the full scale and in their respective sub-scales. However, lack of information was higher for pre-service teachers in the full scale and in the sub-scales of general information and symptoms. In the case of misconceptions, although the mean ranges were higher in pre-service teachers than in-service teachers, it did not reach statistical significance. The years of teaching experience, the self-efficacy, and direct experience with a child diagnosed with dyslexia, positively correlated with knowledge. The educational implications of our results in training teachers at the university and on the professional development of teachers are discussed.