Abstract:

The purpose of the pilot study is to investigate aspects related to the difficulties of the teachers in the primary and secondary school regarding the inclusion of students with special educational needs (SEN). The study was attended by 38 teachers who have students with SEN in the classroom. The working tool used is Concerns about Integrated Education Scale, developed by Sharma & Desai (2002), adapted for the purpose of this study. The results obtained from the item-by-item analysis, with the chi-square test, illustrate that there are no statistically significant differences regarding the teachers concerns according to the environment or to the presence of the support teacher in the school. Significant statistical differences were obtained at the chi-square coefficient according to the level of education at two of the items (It will be difficult to maintain disciplines in class and It will be inadequate administrative support) and previous experience with students with SEN for one item (I will not receive enough incentives). The greatest concerns of the teachers are: inadequate para-professional stuff available to supported integrated students (m=2,65, s.d=1,097), inadequate resources or special teachers to support integrated students (m=2,65, s.d=1,122) and the lowest values regarding the concern level refer to the fact that other stuff members of the school will be stress (m=3,40, s.d=0,68) and also that they will not receive enough incentives to integrate students with special needs (m=3,26, s.d=0,76). The results obtained at the working tool subscale lead to the conclusion that the difficulties of the teachers are overall medium to low which means that the investigated teachers have an open attitude regarding the integration of students with SEN in inclusive classes.

Keywords:

Integrated education, special educational needs, teachers, inclusive classes.