Abstract:

The article analyses the attitude of teachers towards inclusive education, the process of education, pupil achievements, and their assessment. Three approaches that express teachers' attitude towards inclusive education are analysed: a) an approach of education in a homogenous group, which advocates the special education tradition; b) an approach of individual inclusion based on the idea of meeting the individual needs of learners with special educational needs, by teaching them in groups that match their abilities in the mainstream classroom or with specialists (Florian, Black‐Hawkins, 2011, Isaksson, Lindqvist, 2015); c) inclusion for all, an approach based on the use of alternatives to the educational environment and methods and ways of assessing achievement in the process of general education (Swanson et al., 2020). The conducted research studies show that the organisation of inclusive education and pupil achievements depend on the teacher's values and competence to apply methods of inclusive education, as well as support provided for teachers (Weiss et al., 2019; Savolainen et al., 2020).

This research focusses on the following questions: What is the attitude of teachers towards the inclusive education process, pupil achievements, and their assessment? What unfavourable factors have influence on the formation of the teacher’s attitude towards the quality implementation of inclusive education?
The research methods. The qualitative research approach (Cohen et al., 2018) and the survey design (Creswell, 2014) were applied in the research. The questionnaire form consisted of 40 statements grouped into five blocks. A Likert scale (ranging from 1 - strongly disagree to 5 - strongly agree) was applied to rate the statements. Random sampling was used. The online questionnaire form was filled in by 664 teachers: 174 teachers from Germany, 132 teachers from Poland, and 358 teachers from Lithuania. Statistical data processing methods were applied for the analysis of quantitative research results. The obtained research data were processed using SPSS 23 and MS Excel programs adapted to Windows. Cluster analysis and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) were also applied (Fabrigar & Wegener, 2011).

The study reveals that the implementation of inclusive education is characterised by a paradigmatic confrontation in teachers' attitudes towards the educational process, pupil achievements and their assessment: the same teacher follows the approaches of inclusion, for all, individual inclusion and education in a homogeneous group when considering different aspects of pupil achievements. The approach of inclusion for all is the dominant approach among around half of German teachers, among about a third of Polish teachers and about a seventh of Lithuanian teachers. Challenges encountered by teachers organising inclusive education, standardised achievement levels, application of academic methods of teaching, and unified ways for demonstrating achievements hinder changes in teacher attitudes.

Keywords:

Inclusive education, factors that shape teacher attitude, pupil achievements, inclusive assessment, predictors of the change.