Attitudes of Elementary-Level and Secondary-Level Teachers toward Students with Disabilities
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Date
2014-07-24Type of Degree
dissertationDepartment
Education Foundation, Leadership, and Technology
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The purpose of the study was to explore teachers’ attitudes toward students with disabilities in the southeastern United States. Variables such as gender, age, years of experience, grade level taught, extent of contact with individuals with disabilities, whether or not teachers have received any training about teaching students with disabilities, and teachers’ perceptions toward their own level of expertise were explored in terms of how they were good predictors of teacher attitudes. For the purpose of this study, the researcher selected one elementary-level school and one secondary-level school in Alabama. Teachers in those schools were asked to participate in this study and 84 teachers agreed to complete survey forms which includes demographic information sheet, and “A Survey of Teacher Attitudes Relative to Serving Students with Disabilities”. In terms of the results of the study, teachers’ attitudes toward students with disabilities were mostly positive. Exploration of the mean scores and standard deviation of the survey results showed that; female teachers, older teachers, elementary school teachers, and teachers who received training related to teaching students with disabilities had received higher scores than the other categories within the variables. Multiple linear regression method did not yield statistically significant results which means that gender, age, years of experience, grade level taught, extent of contact with individuals with disabilities, whether or not teachers have received any training about teaching students with disabilities, and teachers’ perceptions toward their own level of expertise were not good predictors of the attitudes toward students with disabilities. The age variable was statistically significant predictor of attitudes when considered by itself.