Investigating the Relationship Between Teachers’ Self-Regulation Skills and the Reading Skills of Primary School Students with Learning Disabilities

The main purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the self-regulation skills of teachers with specific learning disabilities and the reading comprehension skills of students with specific learning disabilities. In this direction, the relational screening model was used in the study. The research universe consists of students diagnosed with specific learning disabilities studying in Bursa in the 2023-2024 academic year and the teachers who work with these students. The sample group was determined using the criterion sampling method and consisted of 203 teachers who have worked with these students for at least four years and 203 students with specific learning disabilities studying at the 4th grade level. The Self-Regulation Scale, developed by Brown et al. (1999) and adapted to Turkish by Aydın et al. (2013), was used to measure the self-regulation skills of the teachers. The “Reading Comprehension Achievement Test” developed by Yurdakal (2018) was used to measure the reading comprehension skills of the students in the study. Independent samples t-test and ANOVA methods were used in the analysis of the data. In addition, Pearson correlation analysis was conducted to determine the relationship between teachers' self-regulation skills and students' reading skills. As a result of the research, teachers' self-regulation skills were found to be at a moderate level. While teachers' self-regulation skills did not differ in terms of gender and the number of integrated students, they differed significantly in terms of the district they worked in and the level of knowledge about self-regulation. The reading skills of students with specific learning difficulties were found to be at a moderate level. It was determined that students' reading skills did not differ significantly in terms of their teachers' gender and level of knowledge about self-regulation; however, they differed in terms of the district the teachers worked in and the number of integrated students in the classroom. Finally, a low-level, positive and significant relationship was found between students' reading skills and teachers' self-regulation skills.