An Investigation of Teachers' Views on the Difficulties at School of Secondary School Students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Abstract

This research aims to investigate the views of teachers on educational, emotional, and social difficulties experienced by secondary school students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), in addition to revealing the opinions of secondary school teachers on the elimination of these problems. This study has a qualitative research design, the chosen participants consisted of the teachers of Akdoğan Polatpaşa Secondary School, and the data was gathered via semi-structured interview questions. The obtained data were analyzed by content analysis method as well as the use of NVivo qualitative data analysis computer software. The research findings identified the views of secondary school teachers about the type of educational, behavioral, emotional, and social difficulties encountered by students with ADHD and the findings depicted the opinions of the teachers about the solution suggestions regarding these difficulties. As a result, the viewpoints of the secondary school teachers at hand provide insights about the diagnosis of ADHD in the context of educational, behavioral, emotional, and social problems of their secondary school students. In general, they were revealed as not being able to focus, having impulsive activity, having difficulties in academic life, difficulties in communication, exposure to bullying, displaying aggressive behaviors, feeling lonely, and having the feeling of worthlessness. In addition to the above, the teachers clearly expressed opinions regarding the solution to these problems, and these are explained in the paper.