Teachers' perceptions on academic recovery through educational therapy: A therapeutic intervention in three co-educational government schools in North Trinidad

This ethnographic study sought to explore and evaluate the alternative pedagogical practice of educational therapy. It further sought to determine its feasibility as a strategy for academic recovery in the Trinidad and Tobago context. Data were collected through interviews and through the administration of a questionnaire to 23 teachers and 3 principals of three coeducational schools where students had a history of academic underachievement, and where violence and student aggression were becoming the norm. Findings revealed that the teachers needed assistance to effectively manage, teach, and assess children with learning problems. They felt that there was an urgent need to implement therapeutic interventions in educational practice, since they had no knowledge of how to deal with students who had underlying cognitive deficits that became manifest in social, emotional, and behavioural problems