"Attitudes toward students with disabilities"

The shaping of positive attitudes toward students with disabilities is an important aspect of the education of pre-service teachers. Teacher training in the awareness of disabilities and appropriate strategies for teaching students with disabilities has a positive impact on academic success. Teachers who feel negatively toward students with disabilities or have not been trained in the appropriate strategies are less likely to be successful.

Teachers also influence the facilitation of inclusion programs based on their own philosophies and willingness to include students with disabilities in their classrooms. Although there is no doubt about the importance of examining the attitudes of teachers, one must be aware of the reality that attitudes are also being formed in the teacher education experiences of pre-service teachers. Teachers' own cognitions and beliefs, in part, may have their sources in their experiences while they were students. It may be the product of their teacher training (Pajares, 1992), or it may be a combination of their training and falling in line with the prevailing ideas or beliefs within the context of the school (Acker, 1990; D'Andrade, 1981). Accordingly, if pre-service teachers are appropriately trained in strategies and interventions for working with students with disabilities as well as being exposed to different types of disabilities, they may exhibit more positive attitudes toward inclusion (Cook, 2002 & Coates, 1989).

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