To Include or not to Include: Early Childhood Preservice Educators' Beliefs, Attitudes, and Knowledge about Students with Disabilities

The first purpose of this study was to develop and validate the Inventory of Opinions About Persons with Disabilities (IOPD). The IOPD was developed to collect preservice early childhood educators' self-report data related to inclusion. A total of 332 participants enrolled in graduate programs in a college of education served as the validation sample. After validation and revision of the IOPD, the researcher used the instrument to investigate preservice early childhood educators' beliefs, attitudes, and knowledge about students with disabilities and their inclusion in general education classrooms. Data were collected from 172 participants from 10 universities in Texas during their student teaching/final intern semesters. This research demonstrated that an instrument, the IOPD, could be developed to effectively measure preservice early childhood educators' beliefs, attitudes, and knowledge about the inclusion of children with disabilities in their classrooms. The participants reported positive self-perceptions (mean = 2.0388) about their beliefs and attitudes toward inclusion. However, the participants reported less positive attitudes about training (mean = -.09884). Discriminant function analyses indicated a negligible statistical effect for type of program (professional development school or traditional) and a statistically significant effect for preferred classroom setting (non-inclusive, special education, inclusive). Further research with the same participants or similar cohorts at one and three years of inservice teaching could broaden the scope of knowledge regarding early childhood teachers' opinions about inclusion and students with disabilities. In addition, including procedures for gathering qualitative data with the Inventory of Opinions About Persons With Disabilities might provide more specific information about individual beliefs, attitudes, and knowledge about inclusion.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of North Texas

Year dc:date

2000

Author dc:creator

• Aldrich, Jennifer E.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Morrison, George S.
• Hildreth, Bertina
• Schertz, Linda
• Daniel, Larry G.
• Glover, Rebecca

• Inclusive education.
• Children with disabilities -- Education (Early childhood).
• Student teachers -- Attitudes.
• Early childhood teachers -- Attitudes.
• inclusion
• classrooms
• IOPD
• preservice early childhood educators
• persons with disabilities

Statement dc:rights

• Public
• Copyright
• Aldrich, Jennifer E.
• Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.

Language dc:language

English

Identifier

oclc: 47248999
untcat: b2302359
https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc2588/
ark: ark:/67531/metadc2588

OAI identifier oai:identifier

info:ark/67531/metadc2588