The effect of inservice education on the attitudes of teachers of preschool handicapped children

Teachers of preschool handicapped programs in Arizona public schools were surveyed on their needs and interests. They were invited to participate in an inservice education program which focused on: (1) Normal childhood development; (2) Abnormal childhood development; (3) Family, interaction and interpersonal relationships; (4) Community social services; (5) Medical and technological development; (6) Evaluation practices; and (7) Coordination of appropriate individual programs.;As a pre-test, before the inservice, both participating teachers (n = 49) and nonparticipating teachers (n = 11) completed a demographic questionnaire and the Rucker-Gable Educational Programming Scale (1974). The RGEPS yielded 14 measures: 7 measures of attitude toward handicapping conditions and 7 measures for knowledge concerning handicapping conditions. After the inservice, the teachers repeated the RGEPS (1974) yielding 14 post-test scores. It was found that attitude and knowledge correlated for mild and severe handicapping conditions.;The inservice education program appeared to have an effect on attitude toward moderate handicapping conditions and on knowledge and attitude toward severe handicapping conditions.