Influence of moral education programmes on the attitude of the 9th and 10th year school children towards the persons with special needs

The renewal of moral education programmes and integration of the children with special needs pose the question: do the today’s pupils are capable to accept their peers with different abilities (both gifted and physically and mentally disabled). According to the scientists, there is a relation between negative attitude and discriminating behaviour of persons towards those with disabilities. Therefore the aim of this research is to establish weather the different moral education programmes (ethic and teaching of Catholic Religion) have influence on the attitudes of pupils towards the children with special needs. The following methods of research were used: the theoretical method (analysis of scientific literature), empirical methods (close type questionnaire, the method of incomplete sentences, Lickert’s scale, the analysis of situations, open question survey) and statistical methods (descriptive statistics, correlative analysis). A total of 355 pupils attending 9th and 10th year course was investigated. Research data show some single statistical reliable differences between pupils’ attitudes towards the children with special needs and the moral education programme chosen by them. It turned out that there are more 9th and 10th year school children who have positive attitude toward these persons. It depends on the prototypes of disability groups. The persons with vision and moving disability were assessed more positively compared to those with emotional disturbance and mental retardation. The attitude of teenagers towards gifted children was contradictory. The research revealed factors having influence on pupils’ attitude towards the persons with special needs. These are the values orientation of the pupils, values experiences, moral education content, gender and the experience of communication with the physically or mentally disabled people. Thus different moral education programmes have no considerable influence on pupils’ attitude towards the persons with special needs.Švietimo akademijaVytauto Didžiojo universiteta