- Collection:
- Atlanta University and Clark Atlanta University Theses and Dissertations
- Title:
- A comparative study of elementary school principals' and teachers' attitudes toward the inclusion of students with disabilities into the regular classroom in 30 selected schools, 1997
- Creator:
- Coleman, Mattie M. J.
- Date of Original:
- 1997-10-01
- Subject:
- Degrees, Academic
Dissertations, Academic - Location:
- United States, Georgia, Fulton County, Atlanta, 33.749, -84.38798
- Medium:
- theses
- Type:
- Text
- Format:
- application/pdf
- Description:
- The purpose of this study was to determine if there were significant differences between attitudes of elementary principals and elementary teachers toward the inclusion of students with disabilities into the regular classroom. The study also addressed differences in attitudes toward inclusion of principals and teachers according to age, gender, administrative/teacher experience, number of special education classes taken, and whether or not they were parents. The population for the study consisted of principals and teachers from 30 randomly selected elementary schools in a large urban public school district. The principal and 15 teachers at each school were asked to participate. The request to 30 principals and 450 teacher participants yielded responses from 26 principal and 357 teacher participants, for a return rate of 80%. The instrument used was the Attitude Toward Inclusion Inventory (ATI), which was initially developed by Berryman and Neal (1980) and has been revised by Staler (1991) and Wilczenski (1992). The ATI measured the attitudes of the participants using four factors: learning capability, inclusion, traditional limiting disability and classroom factors. The statistical data generated by the surveys were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, Version X (SPSS-X). The testing of the five hypotheses of the study resulted in two being rejected. The findings indicated that: (1) principals were more favorable toward the learning capability factor than the teachers; (2) principals and teachers were basically in agreement in their attitudes toward the inclusion, traditional limiting disabilities and classroom factors of the ATI; and (3) younger teachers have had more special education courses than the older teachers and were more favorable toward inclusion of disabled students into the regular classroom than their older counterparts. There was a favorable significant difference in attitudes of principals who were parents toward the inclusion factor of the scale, while this same category for the teacher group revealed no significant difference. The teacher group also showed no significant difference between parents and non-parents on any of the other three factors. Inservice prior to the inclusion of students with disabilities, assistance from special education teachers and trained supplementary support personnel, and small class sizes were recommended by the subjects of the study.
- External Identifiers:
- Metadata URL:
- http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12322/cau.td:1997_coleman_mattie_mj
- Rights Holder:
- Clark Atlanta University
- Holding Institution:
- Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library
- Rights:
-
