Universitas Indonesia Conferences, International Conference on Intervention and Applied Psychology (ICIAP) 2018

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Understanding Teachers’ Attitudes Toward Special Needs Children And The Teachers’ Engagement In The Inclusive Preschool
Putri Eka Siagian

Last modified: 2018-08-10

Abstract


Background. Inclusive education is a system that provides opportunities for all students with and/or without special needs to participate in collective learning activities, not only at elementary school level up to university but starting from preschool. Therefore, the success of inclusive education cannot be separated from the collaboration among multiple stakeholders such as principals, teachers, parents and other professionals in the field of education. According to Montgomery, one of the challenges in implementing this system comes from teachers at school who are not only responsible for accomplishing the curriculum in the classroom but also the learning and development of the students. Earlier studies found that one of the elements contributed to the success of inclusive education is the teachers' attitude towards inclusive education. Attitude defined as thoughts or ideas that reflect feelings and influence behaviors affiliated with a particular object.

Attitude consists of three major components of cognitive, affective and behavioral. The cognitive component pertains to thoughts and knowledge about the causes of the behavior of students with special needs in inclusive settings. The affective component is based on the cognitive understanding of types of disability, which can motivate individuals to engage in working with a child who has a special needs or produces feelings that could cause them to exclude the child with a special needs from typical activities. The behavioral component deals with a tendency to behave or respond in a particular way when dealing with children with special needs.

These three components are interactive and affect the way individuals perceive something or a particular object. This suggests that teachers shape attitudes toward children with special needs based on child characteristics, factors in the classroom, and previous teaching experience. Other empirical studies found that when an individual has a positive attitude toward an object, he or she is likely to have positive affection and behavior toward the object. In this situation, the attitudes of the teacher will reflect on the behavior as the teacher's engagement in the classroom. Teacher's engagement defined as self-expression that presents the personal attendance, both physically, cognitively, and emotionally in performing their role as a teacher.

 

Methods. This study aims to determine the understanding within teachers’ attitudes toward children with special needs and teachers’ engagement in the inclusive preschool. The research which uses the quantitative approach applying two variables: teachers' attitude and teachers' engagement. Attitude consists of three components: cognitive, affective, and behavior. Meanwhile, teachers' engagement consists of four dimensions: cognitive engagement, emotional engagement, social engagement with students and social engagement with colleagues. This research will use the Multidimensional Attitudes Towards Inclusive Education (MATIES) constructed by Malat and Engaged Teacher Scale (ETS) made by Klassen. Both are adapted in Bahasa version by Kurniawati.

The items within the MATIES-VI aim to measure the teachers’ attitudes toward students with special needs through three dimensions: cognitive, affective, and behavioral. The reliability of each dimension is 0.707 (cognitive), 0.778 (affective) and 0.849 (behavioral). Item total of this measurement scale is 18 that each dimension consists of 6 items. The MATIES-IV questionnaire consists of 6 responses, ranging from 1 ("Strongly Disagree") to 6 ("Strongly Agree"). Meanwhile, the items within the Teachers' Engagement (TE) aim to measure the physical, emotional and cognitive engagement of teachers in their work with .980 coefficient of reliability. Item total of TE scale is 46 that contains of 10 items in cognitive engagement, 12 items in emotional engagement, 12 items in social engagement with student, 12 items in social engagement with colleagues. The questionnaire consists of 4 responses, ranging from 1 ("Very Unsuitable") to 4 means ("Very Suitable"). Research will be conducted among 250 teachers of inclusive preschool in Jabodetabek using accidental sampling method. Data collected will be analyzed using Correlation's statistical analysis method.

 

Results. (On going data collection).

Conclusion. (On going research).

Added-Values. These findings can be used by educational institutions to conduct workshop or training for teachers in the inclusive school to build or raise positive attitudes toward children with special needs.

Keywords: Attitude, Engagement, Teacher, Special Needs Children, Inclusive Preschool.


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