TEACHERS' APPLICATION OF GAMIFICATION TOOLS FOR CURRICULUM IMPLEMENTATION IN SPECIAL EDUCATION CENTERS IN IMO STATE

Abstract

The study examined special education teachers' application of gamification tools for curriculum implementation in special education centres in Imo State. Four research questions guided the study and three null hypotheses were tested at the 0.05 level of significance. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The population comprised all fifty-three (53) teachers in the five special education centres in Imo State, made up of thirty-six (36) teachers in urban centres and seventeen (17) in rural centres. Because the population was small and manageable, a census approach was adopted, and all fifty-three teachers were involved in the study without sampling. The instrument for data collection was a researcher-developed structured questionnaire titled Teachers' Level of Application of Gamification Tools (TLAGT), made up of three clusters corresponding to teachers of learners with hearing impairment, visual impairment, and intellectual disabilities, and scored on a four-point scale of Very High Extent, High Extent, Low Extent, and Very Low Extent. The instrument was validated by three experts one from Curriculum Studies, one from Educational Psychology and one from Measurement and Evaluation, all from Faculty of Education, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, and its reliability, determined through Cronbach's Alpha, yielded a coefficient of 0.830. Data were analysed using mean, standard deviation, and t-test statistics. Findings showed that special education teachers are aware of gamification tools for curriculum implementation for hearing impaired, visually impaired, and intellectually disabled learners both urban and rural areas but differ in application. Urban teachers recorded a significantly higher extent of application than their rural counterparts across all three categories of learners. Based on these findings, it was recommended amongst others that government and educational stakeholders should provide continuous professional development programmes on gamification for special education teachers, improve technological infrastructure and internet facilities in special education centres, particularly in rural areas and ensure equitable provision of digital instructional resources to facilitate the effective integration of gamification tools into curriculum implementation for learners with special needs.