Attitudes of Teachers Towards Inclusive Education in Finland

Figures & data

Table 1. Full texts of the items in the TAIS scale, corrected item/total correlations, means and standard deviations (N = 1764).

	Item	r	M	SD
1.	Children with special educational needs learn best in their own special education classes where they have specially trained teachers. R^1 (expected outcomes)	.72	2.57	1.13
2.	The children with emotional and behavioural problems should be educated in mainstream classrooms, with the provision of adequate support. (inclusion as a value)	.54	2.58	1.11
3.	It is the right of a child with special educational needs to be placed in a special education classroom. R^1 (rights of the child)	.63	2.10	.99
4.	Children with attention deficit/hyperactive disorder (ADHD) should be admitted in mainstream classrooms with adequate support. (inclusion as a value)	.58	3.20	1.08
5.	Teachers’ workload should not be increased by compelling them to accept children with special educational needs in their classrooms. R^1 (workload of the teacher)	.66	2.68	1.23
6.	The best result is achieved if each child with special educational needs is placed in a special education classroom that best suits him/her. R^1 (expected outcomes)	.73	2.82	1.17
7.	The students with special educational needs should be educated in mainstream classrooms as much as possible. (inclusion as a value)	.72	3.19	1.14
8.	Integrated children with special educational needs create extra work for teachers in mainstream classrooms. R^1 (workload of the teacher)	.58	2.57	1.12
9.	A child with special educational needs should be transferred to a special education classroom in order not to violate his/her rights. R^1 (rights of the child)	.72	3.03	1.09
10.	The learning of children with special educational needs can be effectively supported in mainstream classrooms as well. (expected outcomes)	.70	3.29	1.13

¹Note. The scoring of items marked with R was reversed.

Table 2. Attitudes of teachers towards inclusive education as measured by TAIS.

Teacher category	N	Mean	SD	df	F	p
Sum total	1667	28.02	8.21	2, 1664	61.25	.000
Classroom teacher	783	27.74	8.17
Subject teacher	539	25.92	7.60
Special ed. teacher	345	31.92	7.85

Table 3. The agreements and disagreements in percentages for the TAIS items by teacher category.

	Item (shortened)	Subject		Class		Special		Total
		N = 575		N = 824		N = 385		N = 1,764
		No	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes
1.	Children with SEN learn best in special-education classes (R)	18	66	29	53	41	42	28	55
2.	Children with EBD should be in mainstream classrooms	60	22	60	25	46	37	57	27
3.	It is the right of a child with SEN to get into an SE classroom	6	75	11	74	18	67	11	73
4.	Children with ADHD should be in mainstream classrooms	35	40	29	49	22	61	29	49
5.	Teachers’ workload should not be augmented (R)	25	61	33	52	50	40	34	53
6.	The best result is achieved if a child with SEN is placed in an SE class (R)	25	50	35	44	56	29	36	43
7.	The education of students with SEN should be arranged in the mainstream	42	40	34	51	20	70	33	52
8.	Integrated children with SEN create extra work for teachers (R)	21	62	25	59	43	40	28	56
9.	A child with SEN should be in an SE classroom so as not to violate his or her rights (R)	27	38	37	35	60	20	38	33
10	Children with SEN can be effectively supported in mainstream classrooms	40	45	30	57	20	71	31	56

Table 4. Teachers classified on the basis of their TAIS score.

Teacher category	N	Opponents %	Neutral%	Supporters%	Total%
Classroom teacher	783	20.6	73.2	6.3	100.1
Subject teacher	539	26.3	70.5	3.2	100.0
Special education teacher	345	9.3	73.3	17.4	100.0
Sum total	1667	20.1	72.3	7.6	100.0