{"title":"Social inclusion through attitudinal change in Singaporean teachers.","authors":"Thana Thaver, Levan Lim, Albert Kienfie Liau","doi":"10.1080/20473869.2025.2494040","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The development of positive teacher attitudes towards students with disabilities is a catalyst for their social inclusion. It is therefore important that the foundations for positive teacher attitudes be laid in pre-service teacher education programmes. This article reports a pilot study that investigated the impact of a disability awareness course on the attitudes of mainstream pre-service teachers in Singapore toward disability and inclusion. A researcher constructed survey was developed to enable the pre-service teachers to report their perspectives of the changes in their awareness and attitudes at the end of the course. The results indicated that the course had a positive impact on the pre-service teachers' knowledge, awareness and attitude towards disability and inclusion. The pre-service teachers reported greater consciousness of their own prejudices and misconceptions about people with disabilities and more positive perspectives of people with disabilities in terms of their capabilities and capacity to learn at the end of the course. They also expressed an increased realization of the difference they could make in the lives of people with disabilities, their personal agency in creating a more inclusive society as well as greater openness towards inclusion and acceptance of students with disabilities into their own classrooms.</p>","PeriodicalId":45338,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Developmental Disabilities","volume":"71 6","pages":"879-895"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4000,"publicationDate":"2025-09-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12434852/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"International Journal of Developmental Disabilities","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20473869.2025.2494040","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2025/1/1 0:00:00","PubModel":"eCollection","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"EDUCATION, SPECIAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
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Abstract
The development of positive teacher attitudes towards students with disabilities is a catalyst for their social inclusion. It is therefore important that the foundations for positive teacher attitudes be laid in pre-service teacher education programmes. This article reports a pilot study that investigated the impact of a disability awareness course on the attitudes of mainstream pre-service teachers in Singapore toward disability and inclusion. A researcher constructed survey was developed to enable the pre-service teachers to report their perspectives of the changes in their awareness and attitudes at the end of the course. The results indicated that the course had a positive impact on the pre-service teachers' knowledge, awareness and attitude towards disability and inclusion. The pre-service teachers reported greater consciousness of their own prejudices and misconceptions about people with disabilities and more positive perspectives of people with disabilities in terms of their capabilities and capacity to learn at the end of the course. They also expressed an increased realization of the difference they could make in the lives of people with disabilities, their personal agency in creating a more inclusive society as well as greater openness towards inclusion and acceptance of students with disabilities into their own classrooms.
期刊介绍：
The IJDD publishes scientific articles on work dealing with different approaches to the habilitation problems of people with an intellectual disability. The Journal covers the entire spectrum of intellectual disabilities, and is concerned with definitions, IQ, genetic predisposition, evaluation of abilities, learning interventions, challenging behaviour, medication, attitudes to death and bereavement, sexuality, legal aspects, WHO, NICE and other governmental guidelines, care in the community, advocacy, stress and coping strategies for families and carers - though this is not an exhaustive list. The unifying theme is that all of these aspects should be of practical help for those with intellectual disabilities or those caring for persons with intellectual disabilities. Emphasis is placed on the practical implications of the work of educationists, instructors, nurses, occupational and other therapists, psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers, whether taking place in a hospital setting or in community care. The Journal accepts contributions from anywhere in the world but they must be written in acceptable and fluent English, avoiding technical jargon as far as possible in view of the wide readership. The IJDD puts much emphasis on the practical application of scientific findings, and prospective contributors should keep in mind that acceptance of a manuscript for publication will depend to a great extent on its direct relevance to habilitation work. Readers of the IJDD expect that articles should give them some scientific help and insight in their practical work.
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