A Meta-analytic Review: Teachers’ Attitudes Toward Students with Disabilities

Teachers‘ attitudes are important factors in successful inclusion of students with disabilities (Duquette & O‘Reilly, 1988; Kunzweiler, 1982). Teachers‘ attitudes are not only related to their behaviors toward students with disabilities (Elik, 2002; Sharan & Hertz-Lazarowitz, 1980; Stanovich, 1994; Stanovich & Jordan, 1998), but also influence other students‘ acceptance of learners with disabilities and the academic self-concept of students with and without disabilities (Stanovich & Jordan, 1998). The linkage between teachers‘ attitudes and behaviors toward students with disabilities has led researchers to design interventions to change teachers‘ or prospective teachers‘ attitudes toward these students (Finlayson & Appleton, 1972; Leyser & Abrams, 1983; McDaniel, 1982; Pinckney, 1962). These studies provide conflicting results on the effectiveness of different interventions. Although there are two related reviews that provide useful guidelines (Colosimo, 1984; Stern & Keislar, 1977), there has not been any systematic review of the intervention studies conducted to change teachers‘ attitudes toward students with disabilities. For this reason, a meta-analytic review of interventions to change teachers‘ attitudes was conducted.