Volume 13, Issue 2 (February 2026), Pages: 178-185

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 Original Research Paper

Obstacles to the adaptation of curriculum objectives and content for students with learning disabilities in Saudi Arabia

 Author(s): 

Mahmoud Mohamed Eltantawy *, Nouf Abdullah Alsudairy, Sarah Hamed Aljihani

 Affiliation(s):

 Department of Special Education, College of Education, Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University (IMSIU), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

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 * Corresponding Author. 

   Corresponding author's ORCID profile:  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5886-7200

 Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  https://doi.org/10.21833/ijaas.2026.02.018

 Abstract

Curriculum adaptation of objectives and content plays an important role in improving the academic performance of students with learning disabilities and in achieving specific educational outcomes. Therefore, this study aims to examine the obstacles to adapting curriculum objectives and content from teachers’ perspectives. It also investigates whether there are significant differences in teachers’ views of these obstacles according to their years of experience, academic degree, and gender. The study adopts a descriptive survey method. A structured questionnaire was developed to collect data from a sample of 299 teachers working in public schools that offer learning disability programs in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The participants were selected using simple random sampling. The results indicate that teachers face several major obstacles in adapting curriculum objectives and content for students with learning disabilities. These obstacles were rated at a high level, with a mean score of 3.61 for curriculum objectives and 3.75 for curriculum content. The findings also show statistically significant differences in teachers’ responses based on years of experience, in favor of teachers with fewer years of experience. However, no statistically significant differences were found based on academic degree or gender.

 © 2026 The Authors. Published by IASE.

 This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

 Keywords

Adaptation, Objectives, Content, Curriculum, Learning disabilities

 Article history

Received 19 September 2025, Received in revised form 3 February 2026, Accepted 16 February 2026

 Acknowledgment

The authors would like to express their sincere gratitude to the teachers who generously shared their time and experiences to participate in this study. 

 Compliance with ethical standards

 Ethical considerations:

Ethical approval was obtained from the Ethics Committee at Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University (Approval No. 638623681656319867). Participation was voluntary, and informed consent was obtained from all participants. Confidentiality and anonymity were ensured. 

 Citation:

Eltantawy MM, Alsudairy NA, and Aljihani SH (2026). Obstacles to the adaptation of curriculum objectives and content for students with learning disabilities in Saudi Arabia. International Journal of Advanced and Applied Sciences, 13(2): 178-185

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