THE EFFECTS OF AN INSERVICE TRAINING PROGRAM ON TEACHERS\u27 ATTITUDES TOWARD THE MAINSTREAMED HANDICAPPED CHILD

This study sought to determine: (a) the impact of a professional development training program on teachers\u27 attitude toward mainstreamed handicapped children, (b) the long-term effects of the inservice program on teacher\u27s attitude toward mainstreamed handicapped children, (c) the relationship of different personological variables of teachers with change in attitudes toward handicapped children, and (d) the relationship of number of years of teaching experience, number of courses taken in special education, and age of teachers with change in attitudes toward handicapped children. The sample of the study consisted of 80 randomly selected elementary regular classroom teachers from the Department of Public Education in the San Juan metropolitan area of Puerto Rico. Forty teachers comprised the experimental group which participated in the inservice training program, and forty teachers comprised the control group which did not participate in the training. Teachers\u27 attitudes toward the handicapped child were measured by the Rucker-Gable Educational Programming Scale (Rucker and Gable, 1973). The Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (Cattell, 1970) was used to measure certain teacher\u27s personality factors. The inservice training program was conducted over a four-day period (28 hours of instruction). The inservice program content consisted of four parts: (a) handicapped legislation, PL 94-142, educational programs and placements, and the Individualized Education Program (IEP); (b) the mentally retarded child: definition, characteristics, identification, and implications for teaching; (c) the emotionally disturbed child: definition, classification, and implications for teaching; and (d) the learning disabled child: definition, characteristics, identification, and implications for teaching. Results revealed that post treatment measures showed a significant positive shift of teachers\u27 attitudes toward mainstreamed handicapped children; in follow-up measures, six months after the inservice training, teachers maintained their positive attitudes toward the handicapped; significant relationships were found between the teachers\u27 attitudes scores toward handicapped children after participating in an inservice program and certain personality variables of teachers; a significant relationship was found between change scores and the number of courses taken in special education; no significant relationship was found between change scores and number of years of teaching experience or age of teachers