Inclusive Teachers' Attitudinal Ratings of Their Students With Disabilities

Title - Inclusive Teachers' Attitudinal Ratings of Their Students With Disabilities

Author - Bryan G. Cook, David L. Cameron, Melody Tankersley

Author's Purpose for Writing - To explore the use of a new rating scale that measures teacher's attitudes toward their students, and to investigate the attitudes of inclusion teachers toward their students with disabilities using a rating scale

What are the points made in the review of the literature? Teachers have less attachment to students with disablities who exhibit negative behavior, but they have high levels of attachment to students with disabilities who communicate with them and who make an effort to achieve.

Do they support the need for the study? yes

Author's inquiry questions - Do inclusive teachers feel greater concern, indifference, and rejection, but less attachment toward their students with disabilities?

Author's Methodolgy - A rating scale

Who is being studied? 50 inclusive teachers, the 156 included students with disabilities and 199 of their students without disabilities in Ohio

Over what length of time? one semester

What data is being collected? teacher attitudes about disabled and non-disabled students

How is it being analyzed? Zero-order correlations, ANOVA, four multiple regression equations,

MANOVA

Any other interesting or pertinent data -

How the author collected information - In faculty meetings, teachers rated their attitudes toward students on a 4 point scale

What the author discovered or conclusions/implications - The learning and behavioral problems exhibited by students with disabilities engendered inclusive teacher's relatively high rejection and low attachment ratings. The participating teachers tended to develop concern for included students with disabilities who had instructional needs that the teachers could reasonably address and did not exhibit the behaviors that elicit teacher rejection. General educators' perceived lack of experience, knowledge, or responsibility regarding the instruction of students with disabilities rather than teacher disregard may explain the higher indifference toward included students with disabilities.