Background. Inclusive education is the term used to describe a concept of teaching students with special educational needs (SEN) in the same environment as their peers without disabilities. In order to fulfill this purpose, inclusive education must requires a safe and healthy environment that are free from discrimination. Inclusive environment has an important part in affecting social and emotional aspects of students with SEN by interacting with peers, establishing positive relationships through friendship, self-developing and learning. Moreover, this concept has been proven in improving academic, language, and cognitive aspects of students with SEN. In Indonesia, inclusive education is also specifically regulated in National Ministerial Decree Number 70/ 2009, which stated that children with special needs should receive a proper education in regular schools along with regular students. One of the government's efforts in establishing inclusive education in Indonesia is by opening 32-thousand schools in various regions into inclusive schools. However, inclusive school in Indonesia has not facilitated their students to adapt and cope with students with SEN. In consequences, the unique characteristics of students with SEN are usually targeted with negative attitudes by other students. Negative attitudes towards students with SEN is related with limited knowledge on disabilities and minimum interactions with them. In encouraging students to have positive attitudes towards students with SEN, it is necessary for them to have proper understanding on the characteristics, right perspective of disabilities and how to cope with them. Intervention program through training has been proven to be an effective way in influencing positive attitudes in primary students. The objective of this research is to evaluate the effectiveness of Sekolah Ramah Inklusi (SERASI) intervention program. This program focuses in increasing positive attitudes of regular primary students towards students with SEN.

Methods. A quasi-experimental research was designed with an experimental group (n= 42) and control group (n=54). SERASI intervention was developed in order to introduce characteristics in variety of disabilities that usually found in inclusive school. This intervention program consists of three-days training and included six sessions. Covering topics about physical disabilites, sensory disabilities, intellectual disabilities, learning difficulties, and autism. This program is targeting the grade 4 and 5 of primary students in inclusive public school. To establish the effect of intervention program, Chedoke-McMaster Attitudes Towards Children With Handicaps (CATCH) were used to measure at two moments: prior to the intervention and immediately after the intervention. CATCH is consists 18 items which includes 3 dimensions of attitude (knowledge, affective and behavior). The questionnaire was administered in each classroom or group of apparently 30 students by reading instructions and attitude statements about students with SEN. Students were asked to indicate their level of agreement with statements via 4-point Likert scale (1=totally disagree to 4= totally agree).

Results. The result of T-test analysis shows that there is no significant difference in attitudes score between pre-test (M= 50.55, SD= 4.072) and post-test (M= 49.39, SD=4.643), t(41)=1.585, p= 0.121. The result also shows that there was no significant difference in attitude scores between experiment group and control group.

Conclusions. Based on the findings, we conclude that SERASI intervention were not improving students’ attitudes towards student with SEN. A possible explanation for these results might be the “backfire effect” that comes from the awareness of negative characteristics of SEN that has been raised in the intervention. As consequences, student might have realized what it means to have disability and affect their willingness to interact with SEN student.

Added-Values. These findings are additional evidence of primary inclusive school intervention program, since the research is still very limited in Indonesia. The focus of the implication of this study in providing direction for further research to strengthen the effectiveness of intervention programs that can influence positive attitudes in inclusive schools.

Keywords: attitudes; disabilities; special educational needs; inclusive education; intervention

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