Inclusion: influencing attitudes through training, collaboration, and support

The purpose of this study was to examine the current attitudes towards inclusion of kindergarten through 5th grade general education teachers and paraprofessionals in a small New Jersey school district. Participants were surveyed using the MATIES, Multidimensional Attitudes Toward Inclusive Education Scale. An attempt was made to influence the attitudes of those teachers and paraprofessionals through a brief series of interventions that included in-service training, collaboration between the researcher, teachers and paraprofessionals, and the provision of support to teachers in areas where they expressed a specific need. After the intervention, participants were resurveyed to determine if a change in attitudes had taken place. Three subscales were obtained. They measured cognitive, affective, and behavioral attitudes. The full score of the MATIES revealed that attitudes had improved as a result of the intervention, and analysis of the subscales indicated that this improvement had occurred specifically in cognitive and affective attitudes, but not in behavioral attitudes. Possible reasons for this discrepancy are discussed.