The role of the primary school teacher in detecting learning difficulties among students.

Abstract

The teacher often explains the low level of the student’s academic achievement by his lack of effort, his lack of mental abilities, or his family’s lack of interest in him... and other explanations that may amount to the final judgment of the student’s academic failure. It is a ruling that is likely to be wrong and may lead the student, even unintentionally, to dropping out of school, despite the presence of another group of students whose low level of academic achievement is due to a problem called “learning difficulties.” These include difficulty in learning to read, difficulty in learning to write, and difficulty in learning arithmetic. It is a diagnosable and treatable problem. Thus, the level of this group of students can be improved and saved from the risk of failure and school dropout. Success in this depends on the ability of the primary school teacher to diagnose this problem, especially because it appears clearly when the child joins school. Hence, the extent of the primary school teacher’s knowledge of the problem of learning difficulties was highlighted through a field study in some primary schools in the city of Constantine, with the aim of revealing the reality of the teacher’s dealings with the problem of learning difficulties.