The Attitude of Special and Regardless Teachers towards the Inclusion of Individuals With Mental Retardation

No Thumbnail Available

Date

2005-06

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Addis Ababa University

Abstract

Teachers' attitude towards the inclusion of individuals with mental retardation i recognized as crucialfor its implantation. So, it was a fell necessity to study teachers' attitude towards the inclusion of individuals with mental retardation. Their commitment to the proce s of inclusion of the mentally retarded can go a long way in it efficacy. The objective of the study could be compiled under three parts. First, an effort was made to examine what attitude do regular and special class teachers have towards teaching the mentally retarded in inclusive classes. Second, a comparison was done between regular and special class teachers to see if there is difference in attitude in them towards the inclusion of individuals with mental retardation. Third, to see whether teachers' variables such as sex, age, teaching experience, training and qualification influence there attitude towards the inclusion of individuals with mental retardation, a detailed sub-sample analy is wa done by categorizing teachers on those variabfes. Samples of the study consisted of 35 special class and 55 regular class teachers drawn from Kokebe Tsibah primary school from Addis Ababa and Adama number 2 primary schoolfrom East Shoa. An attitude scale consisting of 47 items were developed to collecting the data. To analyze the obtained data descriptive statistics such as means, standard deviations and percentage of variables were used extensively. T -tests were done to see whether or not there is a significant difference between different groups of teachers' classified according to various variables. The result of the study indicated that both special class a mean score value of 133.77 (t= 2.09;>1.69) and regular class teachers a mean score value of 130.43 (t=2.68>1.68) which too is statistically not significant at 0.05 level. Thus, teachers in this study have negative attitude towards the inclusion of individuals with mental retardation. The t-test done to find out whether their access statically significant difference between the special class and regular class teachers indicating no tatically significant difference at 0.05 level. The sub-sample analysis also indicated that there was no statistically significant difference between the groups of teache7' categorized based on the variables such as sex, age, teaching experienc , training and qualification. However, statistically ignificant difference could be observed between the groups of special cla s teachers with an experience from llo 15 years and 16 to 35 years. Based on the observations and findings a set of recommendations have been put forth

Description

Keywords

Regardless Teachers towards the Inclusion

Citation