Elementary School Teachers' Attitude towards Including Students with Special Educational Needs into Regular Public Schools in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The inclusion of students with special educational needs (SEN) into the regular educational system is a major concern. Hence, in the present study, the reactions of 100 qualified reqular elementary school teachers were evaluated to explore their opinions on the inclusion of students with SEN in the mainstream schools within Saudi Arabia. Moreover, these opinions were scrutinized based on certain criteria of the teachers including gender, educational level, teaching experience, knowledge and awareness about SEN, in addition to the type, character, and severity of students' SEN. The outcomes of the study showed that the level of strategies used by the male/female teachers for teaching the children with special educational needs was on an average level. The study has also shown that there are no statistically significant differences for variables such as "years of experience", "educational level", and "teachers' knowledge of teaching students with special needs. As for the variable of "gender", the study has shown statistically significant differences in favor of the female teachers. The study has also shown that mild mental disability followed by mild visual and health disabilities are the most amenable categories. However, the least amenable categories for inclusion are severe mental disability preceded directly by the behavioral disorder.

Assessing Primary School Teachers’s Knowledge of Specific Learning Disabilities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

“…With an area of 865 000 square miles the KSA covers 80% of the Arabian Peninsula (Abed & Alrawajfh, 2017). Islam is the official religion and covers all aspects of people's lives.…”

Relationship Between General Educators Beliefs and Teaching Performance in Teaching Students with Learning Difficulties in Intermediate Schools in Saudi Arabia

“…Another significant finding was that there was no moderating effect of gender in this relationship. In fact, previous research conducted in the Saudi context (Abed & Alrawajfh, 2017;Al-Ahmadi, 2009;Alharthi & Evans, 2017;Alqahtani, 2017) has shown that educators can hold positive or negative beliefs, but no differences in their beliefs according to gender were revealed. Therefore, no studies have been found that have examined this specific relationship in the Saudi context.…”

“…Additionally, some other studies have examined the role and effect of gender on beliefs rather than the moderation effect of gender on a specific relationship related to educators' beliefs. Most of these studies have found significant differences between females and males with respect to their beliefs about inclusion (Abed & Alrawajfh, 2017;Al-Abduljabbar, 1994;Al-Ahmadi, 2009;Alqahtani, 2017;Rakap & Louise, 2010). On the other hand, there is also evidence that the gender of general educators has no effect on their beliefs (Alharthi & Evans, 2017;Chiner & Cardona, 2013;Cornoldi et al, 2018;Monsen et al, 2013).…”

“…Most of the studies in the field of special education have only focused on the difference between female and male beliefs towards inclusion. For example, Al-Abduljabbar (1994) along with Abed and Alrawajfh (2017) found that female educators were more accepting of inclusive practices than their male counterparts. These results differed from those of Al-Ahmadi ( 2009); Rakap and Louise (2010) and Alqahtani (2017) who confirmed that while there were differences in beliefs towards inclusion, male educators were accepting more of such practices than female educators.…”