| Abstract: | The purpose of the study was to assess the role of university
instructors and their self-efficacy belief in providing instructional
accommodations for addressing the educational needs of students with
disabilities through employing a variety of instructional designs and
strategies. Accordingly, questionnaires were distributed to a total of 181
university instructors from Jimma, Addis Ababa, Adama and Ambo
Universities. Qualitative and Quantitative data were generated and the
methods of data analysis were employed to analyze the data. The result
indicated that in general instructors have moderate role and fairly strong
self-efficacy belief to provide instructional accommodations through utilizing
a variety of instructional designs and strategies. Concerning the effect of
background variables on instructors’ self-efficacy belief, the result revealed
that background variables like location of university, in-service special
needs training, and awareness raising training in inclusive training had
statically significant effect on instructors’ self-efficacy belief to provide
accommodations for students with disabilities in universities. However, back
ground variables like gender, age, faculty, total teaching experience,
educational status, pre-service Special Needs Education (SNE) course,
teaching methodology training, awareness raising training on SNE and
experience in teaching students with disabilities do not have a statistically
significant effect on instructors’ self-efficacy belief. Furthermore, in
assessing the underlying factor structures of self-efficacy belief scale
principal component analysis (factor analysis) revealed the presence of four
components as underlying factor structure of the sale. Finally, implications
of the results in relation to quality of higher education were discussed and
recommendations were also indicated. |
