A STUDY OF ATTITUDES TOWARD MAINSTREAMING PHYSICALLY HANDICAPPED ELEMENTARY-AGE CHILDREN

Statement of the Problem. The purpose of this study was to determine the differences among special education teachers, regular education teachers and school administrators regarding their attitudes toward mainstreaming the elementary age physically handicapped child, grades one through six.;The participants completed the 46 item Special Education Questionnaire (SEQ) which was modified to meet the requirements of this study. A one way analysis of variance was performed on the data generated from the three groups, regular education teachers, special education teachers and administrators, to determine if there were significant differences in the responses of the groups on the SEQ. Following a significant F-value, the "Modified Least Significant Differences" Multiple Range Test was performed to determine the source of the significant differences. The Student t test was performed to assess the difference between the dichotomous variables of male and female. The Pearson Product Moment correlation coefficient was completed to determine the relationship between years of experience and attitudes toward mainstreaming.;Hypotheses. The following General Null Hypothesis was tested: There will be no significant differences among special education teachers, regular education teachers and school administrators regarding their attitudes toward mainstreaming physically handicapped children.;Sub-hypotheses. The following sub-hypotheses were tested: (1.1) Special education teachers for the physically handicapped and regular education teachers will not differ significantly in their attitudes toward mainstreaming physically handicapped children. (1.2) There will be no significant difference between regular education teachers and regular education administrators in their attitudes toward mainstreaming physically handicapped children. (1.3) Special education teachers for the physically handicapped and regular education administrators will not differ significantly in their attitudes toward mainstreaming physically handicapped children.;Procedures. The sample for this study was 145 teachers and administrators in Los Angeles Unified School District. The sample consisted of 49 regular education teachers, 48 special education teachers and 48 school administrators. The sex make-up was 69 males (47.6%) and 76 females (52.4%). Fifty-one of the subjects (35.2%) held only bachelors degrees, 87 (60.0%) had master degrees and 7 (4.8%) had doctorate degrees.;Findings. (1) The statistical analysis of the responses to the SEQ indicated that there was significant difference among the special education teachers, regular education teachers and administrators regarding their attitudes toward mainstreaming physically handicapped children. The General null hypothesis was, therefore, rejected at the .05 level. (2) Null hypothesis 1.1 was rejected, whereas null hypotheses 1.2 and 1.3 were accepted. (3) The special and regular education teachers differed significantly (p < .05) on six SEQ items. (4) There were no significant differences between males and females regarding their attitudes toward mainstreaming physically handicapped children. (5) Degree groups, i.e., bachelor, master and doctorate did not differ significantly in their attitudes toward mainstreaming physically handicapped children. (6) There were no significant differences among age groups regarding their attitudes toward mainstreaming physically handicapped children. (7) No significant correlation was found between either regular teachers' years of experience and their attitudes and administrators' years of experience and their attitudes. There was a significant correlation between the special education teachers' attitudes and years of experience. The correlation indicated that special education teachers with one to seven years of teaching experience were more favorable toward mainstreaming than teachers with more years of experience for whom there was no significant correlation.