Teachers' Attitudes Towards the Integration of Students with Special Needs into Mainstream Schools

Abstract

The current study aimed to identify teachers' attitudes toward the integration of student with special needs in mainstream schools, and their relationship to the following variables: gender, age, educational level, social status, and school they work on. The Attitude Scale Towards Integrating students with Disabilities into Regular Schools, prepared by Shaqir (2003), was used. The sample consisted of (78) teachers from Zaid bin Thabit School and Al-Shahid Attia Haslouk School in the Shahat city. They were selected using a proportional stratified random sampling method. The results revealed statistically significant differences in teachers' attitudes toward the inclusion students with special needs in public schools, the highest frequency of responses was neutral attitudes by (64.1%), followed by positive attitudes by (33.3%), while the lowest frequency was negative attitudes by (2.6%). Statistically significant differences in these attitudes were found according to gender and the school they work in, while no statistically significant differences were found according to age, educational level, and marital status.