Using Teachers' Prior Knowledge, Attitudes and Beliefs to Develop In-Service Teacher Education Courses for Inclusion
Source: Teaching and Teacher Education, Volume 25, Issue 4, Pages 543-550 (May 2009).
The article explores one important dimension of inclusive education: the development of in-service teacher education courses.
Using an example from Cyprus, it discusses the issue of contextualizing teacher training courses to suit teachers' prior knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about inclusion.
The article considers some of the findings of a survey about issues relating to inclusion. The findings suggest that teachers' conceptualizations of inclusion are problematic. According to the findings, teachers tend to think on the basis of a medical and charity model and they favor special schooling for specific groups of children. The discussion considers how a training course for inclusion can be academically robust and professionally useful, whereas at the same time taking into consideration teachers' prior knowledge and expectations.