A heart to learn and care? Teachers' responses toward special needs children in mainstream schools in Hong Kong.
This article examines the problems associated with introducing integrated education into Hong Kong's mainstream schooling system. The research objectives were to examine the experience of teachers in teaching children with special needs in mainstream schools; to examine the attitude of mainstream te...
| Published in: | Disability & Society Vol. 18; no. 4; pp. 489 - 509 |
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| Main Authors: | , , , |
| Format: | research tables/charts Journal Article |
| Published: |
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Jun2003
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=106753865&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 106753865 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 09687599 56A jtl: Disability & Society issn: 09687599 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jun2003 vid: 18 iid: 4 pid: 377 pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd place: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania artinfo: ui: 106753865 10282430 2004114389 10.1080/0968759032000081020 106753865 ppf: 489 ppct: 20 formats: tig: atl: A heart to learn and care? Teachers' responses toward special needs children in mainstream schools in Hong Kong. aug: au: Pearson V Lo E Chui E Wong D affil: University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China sug: subj: Children with Disabilities Education, Special Trends Teachers Psychosocial Factors Adolescence Chi Square Test Child Descriptive Statistics Focus Groups Hong Kong Interviews P-Value Questionnaires School Policies Support, Psychosocial Survey Research Human Adolescent: 13-18 years Child: 6-12 years ab: This article examines the problems associated with introducing integrated education into Hong Kong's mainstream schooling system. The research objectives were to examine the experience of teachers in teaching children with special needs in mainstream schools; to examine the attitude of mainstream teachers towards integrated education, and explore whether the differences in perception of difficulties and attitudes are attributable to types of disability and availability of resources. This was achieved through a research strategy utilising a questionnaire survey combined with individual and group interviews. The results demonstrate that there is a clear hierarchy of preference amongst teachers in relation to special needs children. Students with a learning disability and/or behavioural problems pose more challenges to teachers than those with a physical difficulty. Teachers that had both types of special needs children in a class experience more problems in maintaining classroom discipline, have a greater workload and struggle to manage the disparate academic standards amongst students. Teachers in schools with extra funding provisions, teachers trained to teach special needs children, additional counselling resources and specialist support expressed more accepting attitudes towards children with special needs and their admission into mainstream schools. Resource classes did not exert a positive effect on acceptance. More than 70% of questionnaire respondents were supportive of two positive value statements 'realisation of equal opportunities' and 'a good chance for students to interact'. At the same time teachers tended to agree with the statements 'integration was a burden to the schools and teachers' (over 60%) and 'a painful struggle for special students' (48%). Although there is a general normative acceptance of inclusion, the statistical pattern suggests that teachers' attitudes are not static or based solely on ideology. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: research tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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