Primary and Secondary Pre-Service Teachers’ Attitudes towards Inclusive Education

Abstract

The practice of inclusive education in schools has led to changes in policy and pedagogy, hence teacher acceptance and attitude are important components of its success. The aim of this study is to identify the differences in attitudes of primary and secondary pre-service teachers on inclusion. The study included 548 Australian university students studying primary (n = 348) or secondary (n = 193) professional teaching. All participants completed the Teacher Attitudes to Inclusion Scale (TAISA). Principle components analysis was performed to transform the TAISA questionnaire into smaller set of components and two-way between-groups analysis of variance was used to analyse data. Results showed that primary pre-service teachers have more positive attitudes towards inclusion than secondary pre-service teachers. Primary pre-service teachers were also more responsive to training on inclusive education. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.

Knowledge and Attitudes of Pre-Service Teachers in North Malaysia Related to Inclusive Education for Special Educational Need Students

“…However, greater exposure in the special education course group was a predictor to higher Special Education pre-service teachers' knowledge of inclusive education in this study. Many previous researchers have focused on the strong influence of exposure in the field of inclusive education on teachers' knowledge and attitudes toward SENS inclusive education (Boyle et al, 2022;Makoelle & Burmistrova, 2021). H0 : There were no significant differences in attitudes regarding SENS inclusive education between the pre-service teacher course groups in the north.…”