Page 409 - RUICHSS 2023 Proceeding

University of Ruhuna ISSN: 2706-0063
Matara, Sri Lanka

38% of the cases, to the 2000 level (second year), nearly 40% of the respondent sample is in

the 3000 level (third year) and 22% of respondents are in the 4000 level (fourth/final year).
Regarding the number of peers with educational needs engaged, there were 40% of

respondents under the “none” category. However, a significant percentage of the respondents

(50%) have engaged in helping 1 to 3 peers. 8% of respondents have engaged in helping 4
to 6 peers who were in the educational need category. However, only 2% responded that they

have engaged in helping more than 6 peers. In the meantime, it was found that none of the
respondents had received any training activities related to supporting a peer with educational

needs after they got registered for higher education.

Table 2: Sample Description

Type Category Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 28 15%
Female 156 85%

Level of studying 2000 level 70 38%
3000 level 74 40%
4000 level 40 22%
Number of peers with educational needs that None 73 40%
the respondents engaged in helping Between 1 and 3 peers 92 50%
Between 4 and 6 peers 15 8%

More than 6 students 04 2%
Whether received any training activities Yes 00 0%
related to supporting a peer with educational
needs after registering for the higher No 184 100%

education
Source: Authors’ calculation, 2023

The Bartlett's test significance level was 0.001 and the KMO value was 0.843, indicating that

the data may be used for factor analysis. The framework's latent variables are then extracted
from the survey results using the principal axis factoring procedure with varimax rotation.

We utilised the Kaiser eigenvalue-greater-than-one criteria as an assessment criterion to
establish the right number of latent variables to be extracted during the component analysis.

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