STAFF DEVELOPMENT APPROACHES AND EFFECTS ON INTEGRATION OF MAINSTREAM CURRICULUM IN TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAMS

The purpose of this study was to compare three groups of faculty who received different types of information regarding the education of handicapped children. The groups were compared in terms of knowledge, attitudes, and curriculum integration. The faculty members were divided into three groups, experimental group A which received information dissemination only, experimental group B which received information dissemination and consultation, and a control group that experienced no intervention. The study involved faculty members from a small midwestern state college who provided preservice teacher education training in regular education. The faculty members were assigned to each group utilizing a stratified random sample. Three instruments, the Mainstreaming Inventory and Attitude Toward Disabled Person\u27s Scale (Scheffler, 1982), the Inventory on Legislation and the Handicapped (Scheffler, 1982), and the Survey to Determine the Extent to Which Mainstream Competencies Are Integrated into Teacher Education Courses (Scheffler, 1982), were compared at pretest and posttest at the .05 level of significance using an analysis of variance, the t-test, and the Student Newman Keuls (SNK). The following results were found as related to each hypothesis. (1) There were no significant differences between experimental group A and control group C at pretest or posttest (p \u3e .05) on the three instruments. (2) There were no significant differences between experimental group B and control group C on the three instruments at pretest or posttest (p \u3e .05). (3) There were no significant differences between experimental group A and experimental group B on the three instruments at pretest (p \u3e .05). However, there was a significant difference between the two groups on the Inventory on Legislation and the Handicapped on the posttest (p \u3c .05). The results of the SNK indicated that group A scored higher than group B (p \u3c .05)