The ultimate object of special education is developing the social adjustability of disabled children so that they could well settle in society. To attain the purpose, mainstreaming or integrated education is mandatory by letting disabled students rece...
The ultimate object of special education is developing the social adjustability of disabled children so that they could well settle in society. To attain the purpose, mainstreaming or integrated education is mandatory by letting disabled students receive education at regular school or by having them temporarily take regular education.
In integrated education setting, non-disabled children's attitude toward handicaped children might depend on a lot of variables and the type of disability. Therefore, it seems required to see how non-disabled children look at disabled children whose disability varies in order to make integrated education successful.
The purpose of this study was to look into non-disabled children's attitude toward disabled children with different disability types from various angles and how their background variables affected that in a bid to pave the way for providing more efficient integrated education.
The research questions were posed as below:
1. What differences do the type of disability of disabled children and the background variables of non-disabled children make to the latter's perception of the former in integrated class?
2. What differences do the type of disability of disabled children and the background variables of non-disabled children make to the latter's preference for activity in which they are engaged with the former in integrated class?
3. What differences do the type of disability of disabled children and the background variables of non-disabled children make to the latter's reception of the former in integrated class?
Five disability types were selected to be covered in this study to address the research questions, including hearing impairment, speech disorder, emotional disturbance(autism), physical handicap and mental retardation. The subjects in this study were 692 non-disabled children, who included 188 from the city of Gimhae, 255 from Changwon and 249 from Masan. All the children had been enrolled in special class for one year or more, and one low-grade class and one upper-grade class each were selected from those regions. After a survey was conducted, the responses from 660 children were analyzed, except incomplete answer sheets.
Three scales were used in this study, which respectively dealt with their perception, activity level and reception.
The findings of the study were as follows:
First, the children's view of the disabled, their activity level and reception were statistically different according to the types of disability, and this phenomenon was rooted in the behavioral characteristics of handicaped children. Integrated education should be conducted in consideration of the behavioral characteristics of disabled children, and separate education programs should be prepared to cater to non-disabled children by allowing for the type of disability of physically different children who are going to study with them in the same class.
Second, their academic school year made a statistical difference to their perception of the disabled, their activity level and reception. Accordingly, differentiated education programs should be developed in light of the academic school year of non-disabled children to help them better understand the disabled.
Third, the gender of the children made no differences to their view of the disabled.