Is contact with people with disabilities a guarantee for positive implicit and explicit attitudes?

Early Exposure to People with Physical and Sensory Disabilities and Later Attitudes Toward Social Interactions and Inclusion

“…Mean MAS scores for each of the subscales were as follows: emotion (M = 2.48, SD = .677); cognition (M = 2.38, SD = .718), and behavior (M = 2.32, SD = .657). These means were similar to those found in other studies using the MAS (e.g., Findler et al, 2007;Hein, Grumm, & Fingerle, 2011). The MAS cognition subscale, while significantly correlated with the total MAS score (r = .582, p < .001), was not significantly correlated with either the emotion or behavior subscales.…”

“…However, the standard deviations for MAS subscales were similar to those found in other studies of the MAS (SD = .66 -.72 compared to .41 -70 in Hein et al, 2011 and.62 -.70 in Findler et al, 2007). Thus, it appears unlikely that a subset of participants in this sample gave markedly more positive responses due to who administered their questionnaire.…”

To include or not to include : Teachers’ social representations of inclusion of students with Asperger syndrome

“…Indeed, international research has shown that results for students with AS, in inclusive schools, are among the poorest of any disability category (Emam & Farrell, 2009;Shattuck et al, 2012). Here, teachers believe their training does not equip them with skills and knowledge necessary to teach students with AS (Hein et al, 2011;Robertson et al, 2003;Starr & Foy, 2012;Syriopoulo-Delli, et al, 2012). For example, a British study found that only 5% of teachers received training about disability even though many teachers had a child with AS in their class (McGregor & Campbell, 2001).…”

“…Hence, understanding teachers' beliefs and attitudes are likely to lead to beneficial knowledge to enhanced inclusion at a time when the issue of exclusion could be reduced (Hein et al, 2011;Sharma et al, 2008). Indeed, drop out is a sign of school failure to provide the learner with appropriate opportunities.…”

“…Also, the teachers' behavior is very important because it is a model for relationships in the class (Breeman et al, 2015;Silver, Armstrong, & Essex, 2005). A democratic climate in the school and class promotes democratic values in students and contributes to the development of attitudes of responsibility and participation, not only at school, but also in the larger community (Hein et al, 2011).…”