Pre-service and In-service Secondary School Teachers’ Knowledge about Attention-deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Attitudes toward Students with ADHD

Abstract

This article reports on a mixed-method inquiry into pre-service and in-service secondary school teachers’ knowledge about Attention-deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and attitudes toward students with this disorder in Hong Kong. The inquiry revealed no differences between pre-service and in-service secondary school teachers concerning their knowledge of ADHD and attitudes toward students with ADHD. It also identified possible sources of participants’ knowledge and a variety of factors underlying their attitudes toward students with ADHD including sociocultural beliefs and working conditions. The findings call for teacher educators to develop better education programmes to support both pre-service and in-service teachers in undertaking the challenging task of teaching students with ADHD.

Keywords:

• Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
• attitudes
• comparison
• experiences
• knowledge
• in-service teachers
• mixed method
• pre-service teachers

Acknowledgements

The first author (Liang) would like to thank the University of Hong Kong for its generous support in the form of undergraduate research fellowship. Gao’s work was supported by the MOE Project of Key Research Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences at Universities in P. R. China (Project No. 15JJD740007). No restrictions have been imposed on free access to, or publication of, the research data.