Inclusion of Children with Disabilities: Teachers' Attitudes and Requirements for Environmental Accommodations

Resumen de los autores

Teachers in general education are expected to cope with students with diverse needs. They might not always be ready or sufficiently supported to meet these challenges. The current study aims at identifying child, teacher and environmental barriers to inclusion. Specifically it addresses the importance of preschool teachers' attitudes as the human environment factor that may facilitate inclusion of children with disability, and teachers' major concerns about environmental accommodations that inclusion implies. The study assessed how teachers' attitudes towards inclusion of children with disability are affected by the teachers' personal characteristics and are related to the accommodations they deem necessary for admission of such children to their kindergartens. It also examined whether the teachers' attitudes and requirements for accommodations differ in respect of four groups of children's disabilities: learning disabilities, sensory/motor disabilities, ADHD, and emotional disabilities. Fifty-three preschool teachers completed the Attitudes toward Disabled Persons Scale (ATDP-A) and the Environmental Accommodations of School (EAS), which was designed especially for this study (Appendix 1). The teachers' requirements proved to correlate with various teachers' characteristics such as age, experience, education and personal contact with disability. Teacher's requirements for accommodations also highly correlated with environmental working conditions (e.g., working hours, number of children). Teachers were most concerned about accommodations for children with potential behavior problems. Implications for practice and education are discussed. (Contains 3 tables.)

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Cómo citar (APA 7)

Gal, E., Schreur, N., & Engel-Yeger, B. (2010). Inclusion of Children with Disabilities: Teachers' Attitudes and Requirements for Environmental Accommodations. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ890588