Evaluating the effect of a teacher training programme on the primary teachers’ attitudes, knowledge and teaching strategies regarding special educational needs

Abstract

Faculty of Psychology, universitas indonesia, depok, indonesia; b department of special needs Education and youth care, university of groningen, groningen, the netherlands Including students with special educational needs (SEN) in regular classrooms has become a global trend. International policies have continually strived for the inclusion of such students, starting with the Warnock report (1979) and followed by the Salamanca statement (UNESCO, 1994). Most recently, Article 24 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with a Disability (United Nations, 2006) guarantees that all children, regardless of ability or disability, have a basic right to be educated alongside their typically developing peers in a local school. Thus, a large number of countries now provide a better education for students with SEN.Indonesia has also followed this international trend. Under inclusion policies like the National Education System Act No. 20/2003, each Compulsory Education Unit is obliged to educate students with SEN and provide them with adequate support. Along with nine years of compulsory basic education for children starting at the age of seven, the rights of all children to an education are now protected. As a result, a growing number of children with various types of special needs are now included in regular classrooms. Among the most common types of special needs encountered in Indonesian ABSTRACTResearch has consistently stressed that regular school teachers are important in determining the success of implementing inclusive education. It was also found that teachers' attitudes, their knowledge about special educational needs (SEN) and teaching strategies are prerequisites for implementing inclusive education successfully. This study examines the effects of an inservice teacher training programme on regular primary school teachers' attitudes and knowledge about SEN and about teaching strategies. A pre-and post-test control group design study was set up (N experimental group = 33, N control group = 34), comprising 11 public primary schools. The training programme consisted of 32 hours face-to-face training sessions, covering topics about attitudes and knowledge about SEN and about teaching strategies. In order to establish the effects of the training programme, attitudes and knowledge were measured at two moments: before and after the training programme was performed. The outcomes of ANCOVA revealed significant positive effects of the training programme on most dependent variables (attitudes, knowledge about SEN and about teaching strategies) with medium to large effect sizes. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

Social media experience, attitude and behavioral intention towards umrah package among generation X and Y

“…According to Ramadani et al (2014), attitude is positively related to behavioral intention. A more comprehensive definition by Kurniawati et al (2017) describes that an attitude is a person's view or character which affective, cognitive, and behavioral components, and the cognitive constituent is one's beliefs or information about the attitude object. Onur et al (2000) brief that understanding the relatives between cognitive construction (i.e., beliefs), affect, and attitude has been the emphasis of attitude research.…”

Inclusive Education in Primary School: How Teachers’ Engagement Mediates the Relationship between Teachers’ Self-Efficacy and Instructional Support

“…Most had the educational level of a Bachelor's degree (95.5%). In this research, teachers' instructional support was measured using the Instructional Support instrument developed by Author [7], [details removed for peer review]. This instrument is the product of the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) by Allen, Gregory, Mikami, Lun, Hamre, & Pianta, 2013).…”

“…In Indonesia's, the implementation of inclusive education faced some challenges, primarily from the teachers charged with carrying out inclusive education as well as those who make changes in the classroom teaching process [5]. Many teachers stated that these changes are not easy because they are not ready to manage their classroom in inclusive setting [6] or to give the required instructional support [7] [details removed for peer review]. Schumm and Vaughn, in Emmer [6], found that only 39% of teachers were ready to run an inclusive classroom.…”

The Sekolah Ramah Inklusi (SERASI) Training Program’s Effectiveness in Improving the Attitude of Primary Teachers to Inclusive Education

“…However, that particular study evinced some limitations. Kurniawati et al (2016) and Srivastava et al (2015), found, on the contrary, that teachers who participated in a training program became more knowledgeable about students with SEN and about inclusive schooling. These studies found that the cognitiveaffective components of the attitudes of such teachers also improved significantly.…”

“…The training program accorded teachers of inclusive schools the opportunity to receive specialized training on inclusive education and special needs training strategies. The effects of the SERASI training program on the attitudes of the teachers were measured using the Multidimensional Attitudes Toward Inclusive Education Scale (MATIES) adapted from Marian Mahat's original version (2008) and developed by Farida Kurniawati (2016). This instrument has been proved to be reliable.…”