The Difference in Attitudes of Regular and Special Education Teachers Toward Inclusion
The Difference in Attitudes of Regular and Special Education Teachers Toward Inclusion by Janice Lorraine Brown Oyola M.A. Cabrini College, 2008 B.S. Temple University, 1999 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education Administrator Leadership for Teaching and Learning Walden University September 2016 Abstract Inclusion has been introduced throughout the educational community as a method to increase math and reading scores of underachieving schools on standardized tests. The problem was that teachers were not effectively implementing inclusion. Guided by Bandura's (1994) self efficacy theory, which hypothesizes that a person's sense of efficacy provides information of their capability and the ability to assess their performance, the purpose of this quantitative quasi experimental study was to determine if there was a significant difference in attitudes on inclusion between regular and special education teachers using the 4 subsections of the Scale of Teachers: Attitudes Toward Inclusive Classrooms through an online survey program. A t test was used to examine the attitudes of 50 regular and 50 special education teachers on inclusion in an elementary charter school after the special education subgroup failed to show progress on standardized tests over a 5 year period. Overall, the data indicated significant differences between regular and special education teachers' attitudes on inclusion. Both regular and special education teachers did not agree on Factor 1: advantages and disadvantages ofInclusion has been introduced throughout the educational community as a method to increase math and reading scores of underachieving schools on standardized tests. The problem was that teachers were not effectively implementing inclusion. Guided by Bandura's (1994) self efficacy theory, which hypothesizes that a person's sense of efficacy provides information of their capability and the ability to assess their performance, the purpose of this quantitative quasi experimental study was to determine if there was a significant difference in attitudes on inclusion between regular and special education teachers using the 4 subsections of the Scale of Teachers: Attitudes Toward Inclusive Classrooms through an online survey program. A t test was used to examine the attitudes of 50 regular and 50 special education teachers on inclusion in an elementary charter school after the special education subgroup failed to show progress on standardized tests over a 5 year period. Overall, the data indicated significant differences between regular and special education teachers' attitudes on inclusion. Both regular and special education teachers did not agree on Factor 1: advantages and disadvantages of inclusion and Factor 2: teacher feelings on inclusion. However, the teachers did agree on Factor 3: philosophical beliefs on inclusion and Factor 4: administrative issues on inclusion. This study's implications for social change included evidence to incorporate a unified vision for best practices for professional development as well as the importance of collaborative teaching at the undergraduate level, and a working knowledge of various learning disabilities, which may be used by school principals, teachers, parents, and policy makers to create an effective inclusion program. The Difference in Attitudes of Regular and Special Education Teachers Toward Inclusion by Janice Lorraine Brown Oyola M.A. Cabrini College, 2008 B.S. Temple University, 1999 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education Administrator Leadership for Teaching and Learning Walden University September 2016 Dedication I dedicate this dissertation to my family, especially. to my husband, Tony, for his support, encouragement, and his constant love which have sustained me throughout this journey; to my children, Jesse and Janna, for their patience and understanding; to my siblings, Jerry, Ida, Barbara, Otha, Willie, Michael, Major, Billy, and Charlotte, for instilling the importance of hard work and higher education; to Jo Ann Savoy, Erin Cunningham, and Yolanda McEachin, for their encouragements, faith, and their belief in me; and to my late parents, Logan and Anna Brown, both of whom believed in diligence, the pursuit of academic excellence, and the encouragement to reach your dream. Acknowledgments I wish to thank my committee members; faculty, family members, and friends who have helped me reach this point in my academic career and were more than generous with their expertise and precious time. A special thanks to Dr. Denise Weems and Dr. Esther Javetz, my committee members for their countless hours of reflecting, reading, encouraging, and most of all, patience throughout the entire process. I would like to acknowledge and thank my school division for allowing me to conduct my research and providing any assistance requested. Special thanks to Johnathan Hess for his statistical genius and to the members of the staff development and human resources department for their continued support. Finally, I would like to thank the teachers and administrators in our school division that assisted me with this project. Their enthusiasm and readiness to provide feedback made the completion of this research an enjoyable experience.