Teachers’ Attitude Towards Students with Austism Spectrum Disorders in Rivers State
Keywords:
Attitude, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Inclusion, Students, TeacherAbstract
The study was on the attitude of teachers towards inclusion of students with autism spectrum disorders in Rivers State. Descriptive survey design was employed for the study. Four (4) specific objectives were stated in the study. Four (4) research questions and four (4) null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The population comprised teachers in public senior secondary schools in Port Harcourt local government area in Rivers State. A sample of 121 obtained through cluster and proportionate stratified random sampling techniques were used for data collection. A self-constructed questionnaire titled: Teachers’ Attitude toward inclusion of Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder Scale was used to elicit data. The instrument was validated by experts in center for children development and communication disorders (CCDCD). A trial testing of the instrument was conducted and a reliability coefficient of .81 was obtain from Cronbach Alpha estimate. The data collected was analyzed using percentage, mean, and standard deviations to answer the research question and ANOVA and independent t-test to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. It was revealed that most of the teachers in junior secondary schools in the study area have negative attitude towards students with autism spectrum disorders. It was recommended that River State government should implement mandatory training programmes for teachers in Port Harcourt Local Government, Rivers State, to improve their attitudes towards students with ASD.
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