Effect of Inclusive Education Course on Beliefs, Attitudes and Concerns of Pre-service Teachers Towards Inclusion

Abstract

With the intention of imparting training to prospective educators from the disciplines of Education, and Special Education, a course, ‘Inclusive Education’ was offered and trainees were given the opportunity to attend it to identify their limitations and inadequacies to deal with the phenomenon of inclusion in the educational context. The present research intends to investigate the effects of attending the course of Inclusive Education on attitudes, concerns, and beliefs of pre-service teachers from the domains of General and Special Education toward inclusion. The research was descriptive in nature, and the questionnaire consisting of twenty items was used as research design. Keeping in view the literature review, the items were constructed on the basis of attitudes, beliefs, and concerns about Inclusive Education. The instrument was pilot tested on 50 respondents (males and females). The overall Cronbach alpha was 0.73, whereas the reliability for the factor of beliefs was found as 0.64. It was 0.70 for attitudes, and for concerns, it was found as 0.60. The sample of the study was prospective teachers from the domains of General Education and Special Education who attended the course regarding Inclusive Education. The respondents/ prospective teachers were pretested for their attitudes, beliefs, and concerns about inclusion. The duration of course they attended was fifteen weeks. At the end of the course, the respondents were post-tested. The results indicated that the course, as attended by the respondents had significant effects on attitudes, concerns, and beliefs of pre-service educators towards inclusion. The research implications were discussed, and on the basis of research findings, it was recommended that the quality of the existing course outlines of Inclusive Education should be augmented in degree awarding institutions.