The impact of support services on students’ test anxiety and/or their ability to submit assignments: a focus on vision impairment and intellectual disability

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the influence of the support services on the test anxiety of students and/or their ability to submit assignments in each of the two disability groups, those with vision impairment and those with intellectual disability, who were placed in specialist and mainstream educational settings in South Australia. Interviews were conducted with 14 students with vision impairment and 9 students with intellectual disability, as well as a total of 10 parents and 8 teachers. The findings unfolded that the support services were found to influence positively the test anxiety experienced by students with vision impairment and/or their ability to submit assignments, but appeared to help students with intellectual disability to a much smaller extent. These findings have implications for mainstream teachers and school support staff working with students with vision impairment and those with intellectual disability, to determine what type and kind of support works for these students and helps them to alleviate their test anxieties.

KEYWORDS:

• Support services
• test anxiety
• vision impairment
• intellectual disability
• South Australia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Dr Poulomee Datta, a gold medallist in academics, is currently working in the capacity of a Lecturer in Special and Inclusive Education at the School of Education, Australian Catholic University. In 2013, she completed her Ph.D. degree in Special Education under the auspices of the University of Adelaide, Australia. She has worked in several research projects in Education nationally and internationally. Poulomee has received wider recognition by successfully publishing in special education, higher education and teacher education in several peer-reviewed international journals. She was the recipient of four prestigious awards that shaped her career, ‘Dr. Nellu Singhvi Sancheti Memorial Gold Medal’ for excellence in academics at the University of Calcutta, India, ‘The Outstanding Student Publication Award’ at the University of Adelaide, Australia, ‘The Graduate Scholar Award’ at the University of California, USA and ‘The Research Capacity Building Award’ at the Australian Catholic University, Australia.

Dr Joy Talukdar is currently working in the capacity of a Senior Research Assistant in two Australia Research Council (ARC)-funded research projects in ‘Numeracy and Teacher Education’ and another research project in ‘Teacher Education’ under the Office of the Executive Dean. Joy was the recipient of consecutive gold medals for outstanding performance at the Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees at the University of Calcutta, India. In 2013, he completed his Ph.D. degree in Health/Teacher Education from the University of Adelaide, Australia, with his thesis receiving a ‘Dean’s Commendation for Doctoral Research Thesis Excellence’. His other research interests span higher education and special education.

ORCID

Poulomee Datta http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9751-5056