Factors relating to education professionals’ classroom practices for the inclusion of students with autism spectrum disorders
Highlights
► Educators report favorable attitudes towards inclusion for students with ASD. ► Knowledge, awareness and use of practices differ by educator group. ► Experience, knowledge and attitudes are interrelated but patterns differ by group. ► Lack of knowledge, rather than misconceptions, was demonstrated in this sample.
Introduction
Educating students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in public schools is a significant challenge (Robertson et al., 2003, Yell et al., 2003), due in large part to core features, substantial heterogeneity of symptom presentation, and an array of associated behaviors and challenges (Eaves and Ho, 1997, Hendren, 2003). In recent years, more students with ASD have been educated in general education settings rather than in segregated environments, a practice generally referred to as inclusion (White, Scahill, Klin, Koenig, & Volkmar, 2007).
A growing body of research has documented the experiences of students with ASD in inclusion settings. For example, Boutot and Bryant (2005) reported on the peer nomination ratings of 177 elementary school students, including ten students with ASD who were educated in regular education classrooms. Results suggested that there were no significant differences between students with ASD and their typically developing peers on measures of social preference, social impact, or social network affiliation. Whereas similar findings have been reported elsewhere (Robertson et al., 2003), other research has suggested that peer attitudes towards a child with autism viewed on videotape were significantly less positive than attitudes towards a typical peer (Campbell et al., 2004, Swaim and Morgan, 2001). Still other research using peer nomination methods indicates that, although children with ASD are part of the larger social network, their involvement in that network is less than typical peers, particularly in terms of reciprocity, companionship, and acceptance (Chamberlain, Kasari, & Rotheram-Fuller, 2007).
Ochs, Kremer-Sadlik, Solomon, and Sirota (2001) used ethnographic observation methods and video recordings to qualitatively explore the experiences of 16 students with ASD in inclusion settings. Their findings suggest that, across the classrooms observed, there exist both positive inclusion practices, such as peers patiently helping students with ASD or providing corrective feedback, and negative inclusion practices, such as ignoring students with ASD or displaying open disrespect.
In order to assist teachers in educating students with ASD in inclusive settings, authors have summarized inclusion practices for students with autism (e.g., Harrower & Dunlap, 2001), recommended guidelines for the inclusion of students with Asperger's syndrome (e.g., Jordan, 2005, Williams, 1995), and summarized empirically evaluated treatments for persons with ASD (e.g., Simpson et al., 2005). These recommendations are numerous, and it is beyond the scope of this paper to review the various interventions appropriate for inclusive classrooms (e.g., environmental adaptations, instructional techniques, social skills interventions, general behavior management strategies). Given the focus of the present investigation, teacher variables, which are identified in the summary works as important to successful inclusion, will be explored in depth.
Teacher disposition and behavior are identified consistently as important to successful inclusion (e.g., Burack, Root, & Zigler, 1997). Beyond generally accepted personality traits, such as kindness and patience, experts suggest that teachers be predictable, consistent and concerned with social development in addition to academic gains to create a successful inclusion experience for students with ASD (Safran & Safran, 2001). Due to difficulties with general social competence (Gutstein & Whitney, 2002), teachers should be vigilant in protecting their students with ASD from teasing and bullying (Griffin et al., 2006, Williams, 1995) and should act as social translators in the classroom (Safran, 2002). It may also be necessary for teachers to both prompt students with ASD to engage in appropriate behavior and prompt peers to initiate social interactions with students with ASD (Odom & Watts, 1991).
Consistent with these suggestions is the recommendation that teachers of students with ASD be knowledgeable about the disorder itself (Jordan, 2005) and the various practice options and strategies that will facilitate inclusion for the individual student (Dahle, 2003, Fisher et al., 2003). Indeed, recent education laws suggest that teachers receive specialized training so that they are highly qualified to educate students with ASD (Yell et al., 2005, Yell et al., 2003). Some efforts have been made to assess the knowledge base of teachers and other education professionals about ASD. Early research suggested that teachers held incorrect beliefs about ASD, particularly in the realm of cognitive abilities, compared to autism specialists (Stone & Rosenbaum, 1988). Similarly, researchers have indicated that speech–language pathologists report inadequate knowledge of strategies for inclusion (Cascella & Colella, 2004) and require additional training (Schwartz & Drager, 2008). Other studies suggest that education professionals, such as administrators, special education teachers, and general education teachers, demonstrate a significant lack of knowledge about ASD, as opposed to incorrect information (Segall, 2007). Further, researchers have found a positive relationship between teacher knowledge, experience with disabilities, and teacher self-efficacy (Buell, Hallam, Gamel-McCormick, & Scheer, 1999).
A fundamental assumption held by many educators and researchers is that the attitude educators hold toward the practice of inclusion is an important determinant of the success of inclusive education for students with ASD (Burack et al., 1997, Segall, 2007). Ajzen's theory of planned behavior (2001) stresses the importance of attitudes and their relationship with other variables such as behavioral intentions, perception of control, and awareness of the beliefs of influential others. Stanovich and Jordan (1998) used Ajzen's model to investigate inclusion practices of teachers and found that administrators’ beliefs about inclusion were the strongest predictors of teacher behavior. Interestingly, teacher attitudes did not mediate this relationship.
Prior research has focused on assessing educator attitudes towards inclusion (see Avramidis and Norwich, 2002, Scruggs and Mastropieri, 1996 for reviews). In general, findings from this body of research reveal that educators hold positive attitudes towards the general concept of inclusion (Ward, Center, & Bochner, 1994). There are, however, several variables which influence the opinions of teachers and other education professionals, including type and severity of disability; training and knowledge of disabilities; and contact and experience with disabilities (Avramidis and Norwich, 2002, Hannah and Pilner, 1983). Additionally, there are conflicting results within the literature, particularly in their application regarding attitudes towards inclusion for students with ASD.
For example, researchers have demonstrated that type of disability and the presence of a label in a short vignette about a student with disabilities did not affect teachers’ decisions of whether or not to include the student in general education classrooms (Myles & Simpson, 1989). Likewise, Brubaker, Bundy, Winslow, and Belcher (2010) found that, with the exception of visual supports, school psychologists were equally likely to recommend interventions for a child described as having autism or a child with the same behaviors but no diagnostic label.
Both school psychologists (Center & Ward, 1989) and principals (Praisner, 2003) have endorsed that some disabilities are more suitable for inclusion than others. For example, Barnett and Monda-Amaya (1998) found that less than one-third of principals recommended inclusive practices for students with severe disabilities and cognitive disabilities. Other research indicates that principals are more optimistic than special education teachers that students with mild disabilities may benefit from inclusion (Cook, Semmel, & Gerber, 1999), suggesting that views about amenability for inclusion may differ across education professionals, which may be related to training and knowledge of disabilities.
One readily replicated finding is that teachers with special education qualifications report more favorable attitudes towards inclusion than those without special education qualification (Avramidis et al., 2000, Center and Ward, 1987, Villa et al., 1996). Accordingly, general education teachers report more need for training on inclusion practices than special education teachers, who also report high self-efficacy related to educating students with disabilities (Buell et al., 1999). Similarly, studies have demonstrated that teachers with greater knowledge of behavioral principles and higher self-efficacy reported more adaptive reactions to the stress of students with challenging behavior (Hastings & Brown, 2002).
Attitudes towards inclusion have improved as a result of an intervention that included a combination of information about disabilities and supervised experience working with students with disabilities (Johnson & Cartwright, 1979), lending support for the contact hypothesis. The contact hypothesis suggests that there is an inverse relationship between experience with a person with disability and negative perceptions of such persons (Corrigan et al., 2001).
Indeed, whereas teachers from schools without inclusive practices report strong negative feelings about inclusion (Vaughn, Schumm, Jallad, Slusher, & Saumell, 1996), teachers from inclusive schools report more positive attitudes towards the practice (Avramidis et al., 2000). Among principals, contact has also been shown to be related to attitudes towards inclusion. For example, Praisner (2003) found a significant positive correlation between experience with disabilities and attitude towards inclusion.
From the current literature, several hypotheses can be made regarding educator attitudes towards inclusion and ASD. In chief, as type and severity of disability have been shown to influence attitudes, it is likely that attitudes towards inclusion of students with ASD would be less positive than other disabilities. Additionally, the relative infrequency of ASDs compared to learning disabilities, for example, may lead educators to report less desirable attitudes. As educators may have had fewer contact with students with ASD, contact theory predicts less positive attitudes towards including them in the general education setting. On the other hand, educators who have special education training and/or specific experience with students with ASD (Robertson et al., 2003) will likely demonstrate stronger positive opinions about inclusion for such students than educators without such training and experience.
Indeed, with respect to ASD, there is a growing body of research evaluating these hypotheses. Cook (2001), for example, assessed teachers’ opinions about students with obvious disabilities (e.g., autism) and hidden disabilities (e.g., attention deficit–hyperactivity disorder). Cook found that teachers were more likely to report feeling indifferent (versus rejection, concern, or attachment) to students with obvious disabilities. Research also suggests that teachers may be unprepared to provide instruction to students with autism (Cook et al., 2000, Stoiber et al., 1998), which may explain the reported indifference. On the other hand, school psychologists with a high level of knowledge of ASD reported neutral opinions about a variety of potential interventions for these students (Brubaker et al., 2010). Similar to other findings, special education teachers in the Stoiber et al. (1998) study reported being significantly more prepared to work with students with ASD than general education teachers. However, across educator types, teachers indicated that autism, as compared to other disabilities such as learning disabilities, will need the greatest degree of accommodations (Stoiber et al., 1998). One study of elementary school principals, the majority of whom had no experience with students with ASD, suggests that these administrators would place students with ASD in general education infrequently and were more likely to place such students in the most restrictive settings at their school (Praisner, 2003).
Other research has presented more optimistic results. In a small study of general education teachers from 12 elementary school classrooms which contained a student with autism, participants reported generally positive relationships with these students (Robertson et al., 2003). Further analysis indicated that this relationship was moderated by the target students’ peer status, such that students with higher status were viewed more positively.
In a study by McGregor and Campbell (2001) both regular education and specialist staff were surveyed about their attitudes towards inclusion of students with ASD. Teachers who reported having experience with a student with autism reported positive attitudes towards the practice, independent of teacher type. In this study, participants indicated that the severity of autism was in important factor for inclusion. Additional research investigating teacher opinions about potential outcomes for persons with ASD suggests that success in school is both an important and likely outcome, yet attaining the highest education possible is viewed as more important than likely (Ivey, 2007).
In efforts to extend this line of research, Segall (2007) sampled administrators, special education teachers, and general education teachers. The results supported the assertion that educators report generally positive attitudes towards inclusive education for students with ASD. Interestingly, whereas attitudes towards inclusion were not found to significantly correlate with other relevant variables (e.g., knowledge of autism), attitude of the staff was identified consistently as the most important factor for successful inclusion. Furthermore, analysis of the knowledge items indicated that education professionals lack a substantial amount of accurate information about autism.
Results suggest that while attitudes towards the practice of inclusion for students with ASD may be positive, a variety of factors related to both student (e.g., severity) and teacher (e.g., experience) affect the strength of these opinions. The aims of the present study are to (a) further assess education professionals’ backgrounds and perspectives in the areas of prior experience working with children with ASD, knowledge of ASD, attitudes towards inclusive education, and classroom practices, and (b) extend the literature specifically regarding school psychologists’ knowledge and attitudes towards inclusion for students with ASD.
The following hypotheses are posed:
- (a)
Does the experience, training, knowledge and attitudes of education professionals relate to the use of more effective classroom strategies for inclusion? Investigators hypothesize that more experience, more training, greater knowledge, and positive attitudes will relate to the use of more effective classroom strategies.
- (b)
Do education professionals (e.g., administrators, general education teachers, special education teachers, and school psychologists) differ in their knowledge of ASD and their awareness of classroom strategies? Investigators predict that special education teachers and school psychologists will demonstrate higher knowledge when compared to other professionals.
- (c)
Do attitudes differ between groups of education professionals? Investigators predict that general education teachers will hold less positive attitudes towards the inclusion of students with ASD than special education teachers, administrators, or school psychologists.
Section snippets
Participants
Forty-five schools across the state of Georgia were recruited to participate in the study with elementary, middle and high schools recruited in equal numbers. In addition, the department of special education was contacted from each county in which schools have participated, in order to recruit a sample of school psychologists serving the same locations. Seventy-five psychologists were invited to participate in the study. The sample included 33 schools (73% participation rate) located within 15
Relationships between disruptive behaviors, experience, knowledge, attitudes, awareness of strategies, and use of strategies
Correlation analysis revealed significant positive relationships between all total scores except for educators’ perceptions of behaviors (Table 2). That is, greater amounts of experience related to more correct responses to Knowledge items, more positive attitudes, reported awareness of more strategies, and reported use of more effective strategies. All relationships between experience, knowledge, attitudes, awareness of strategies and use of strategies were significant at the .01 level.
Discussion
Prior research has documented teacher attitudes towards students with special education needs and the practice of inclusive education for students with special needs (Avramidis & Norwich, 2002). Only recently, however, have studies specifically investigated attitudes as they apply to students with ASD (Horrocks et al., 2008, McGregor and Campbell, 2001, Segall, 2007). Furthermore, there are a number of domains related to attitudes, such as knowledge, experience, and training, which have not
Acknowledgments
This study was funded by a graduate student research grant from the Organization for Autism Research awarded to the first author. The preparation of this manuscript was part of the first author's doctoral dissertation.
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Previously a graduate student at the University of Georgia.