Teachers' Perceptions on the Implementation and Effectiveness of the Advocacy Activities for Inclusive Education in Elementary Schools in Taipei

• Main Authors: Yi-Yun Lin, 林伊云
• Other Authors: Kuen-Ying Tsai
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/28544604094048370579

碩士 === 臺北市立教育大學 === 特殊教育學系身心障礙教育教學碩士學位班(夜) === 101 === The purposes of the research were to investigate general and special education teachers' perceptions on the implementation and effectiveness of the advocacy activities for inclusive education in elementary schools in Taipei. A self-developed questionnaire was applied as the data collection tool. A total of 542 copies of the questionnaires were sent and 457 of them were returned and deemed as valid. Utilizing frequency distribution, percentage, mean, standard deviation, t-test, χ2,one-way analysis of variance, and Scheffé stepwise multiple regression as data analytic methods. The important findings from the study were as follows: 1. The main targets of advocacy activities for inclusive education were teachers and students in general education. The mostly advocated types of disabilities were emotional or behavioral disorders, autism and learning disabilities. Most schools cooperated with the health care system and non-governmental organizations or institutions for advocacy purpose. Also, school administrators and resource room teachers were the most common participants in implementing the advocacy activities. Teachers felt that “class-wide” implementation was the most effective way , but schools often did it as “school-wide” activities. The advocacy activities for inclusive education used in most schools were “special education films appreciation and discussions”, “seminars of inclusive education for teachers and parents”, and“ disability simulations and role playing activities”. The most commonly used for themes for advocacy activities for inclusive education were “causes and behavioral characters of different disabilities”, “guidance and behavioral management strategies for students with disabilities, ” and “ interactive opportunities and skills for regular students and students with disabilities.” 2. The main difficulties of conducting advocacy activities for inclusive education were: (1) general teachers have too many works to take into account (2) not enough time for related and extension activities, such as sharing discussions (3) limited human resources (4) insufficient implementations, and (5) general classes’ curriculum schedule was affected due to the amount of time spent in the advocacy activities for inclusive education. The teachers suggested that the following conditions or terms should be taken into consideration: (1) teachers’ needs for classroom management or teaching applications (2) the propaganda contents should be students’ age and experiences appropriated so they can make connections easily, and it also teaches them the attitudes toward peers with disabilities (3) provide diversed activities to introduce different disabilities (4) the contents of the propaganda should be incorporated into various learning areas to increase students' awareness of people with special needs (5) combine multiple off-campus resources to promote advocacy activities for inclusive education. 3. The following factors affect the perceptions of teachers on the implementation of advocacy activities for inclusive education : (1) the size of schools, (2) types of special education class and (3) the different disabilities that students with special needs have within a class. 4. Teachers' perceptions on the effectiveness of advocacy activities for inclusive education is between average and effective. Overall, elementary school teachers' opinions about the effectiveness of the advocacy activities for inclusive education are significant different by (1) the size of schools, (2) types of class that a teacher teaches, such as special education class or regular class, grades or types of special education class a teacher teaches, (4) teaching seniority, and (5) special education backgrounds. The item whether teachers have planning experiences or not, shows there are only significant differences of effectiveness on the affective level but no difference on the cognitive and behavioral level.