Abstract:

Attitudes of teachers and teaching staff are one of the key factors for successful inclusive education, as attitudes can predict behavioural trends in the long run. Therefore, knowing the attitudes of teachers can help in devising continuing professional development courses for teachers as well as undergraduate training. The study presents the results of research on the attitudes of teachers and teaching assistants in preschools in Slovakia. The aim is to identify cognitive, behavioural and affective aspects of the attitudes of preschool teachers towards inclusive education. The MATPIES - Multidimensional Attitudes toward Preschool Inclusive Education Scale, which was created by Australian researcher Marian Mahat, was used. In a sample of 278 respondents, we found that the most inclusive attitudes are found in the preschool teaching staff in the behavioural aspect. Respondents who were involved in the projects focused on inclusion in the preschool environment, had statistically significantly more positive attitudes in the affective dimension.

Keywords:

Teacher’s attitude, preschool, inclusive education, MATPIES.