Teacher implicit and explicit beliefs towards inclusive education

Purpose
When working with children with an intellectual disability (ID), it is unclear whether teachers’ engage in effortful, deliberative thought processing or use their immediate perceptions of the child to guide behaviour. We examined the impact of teacher implicit and explicit beliefs towards children with ID on reported inclusive teaching.

Methods
Mainstream primary teachers (n=87) from Scottish schools completed the Single Target Implicit Association Test assessing implicit attitudes towards children with ID. Participants also completed a self-report questionnaire measuring explicit attitudes, self-efficacy and reported inclusive behaviours.

Findings
Teachers’ implicit attitudes did not relate to reported inclusive behaviour. However, stronger relationships
between implicit attitudes and reported behaviour were identified in teachers low in self-efficacy. The most
important predictor of teachers’ reported inclusive behaviour was self-efficacy.

Discussion
The findings suggest the need to support teachers in enhancing self-efficacy beliefs to teach a child with ID.
This may be beneficial to the use of inclusive teaching strategies and prevent automatic beliefs guiding
behaviour.