Changing attitudes of school psychologists towards pupils with special educational needs in Turkey

Abstract

This study investigates the effectiveness of providing information about people with special educational needs (SEN) on the attitudes of school psychologists. Thirty school psychologist volunteers were assigned randomly to equal groups, an experimental group and control group. An experimental design was used in which the experimental group was exposed to six sessions. The Turkish adaptation of the Attitudes towards Disabled Persons Scale (ATDP) was administered to both groups as pre- and post-test exposure conditions. Results of t-test revealed no significant difference between two groups on the pre-exposure measure. Differences between pre- and post-exposure measures for the control group were also not significantly different. However, the attitudes of the experimental group were found to be significantly positive at the post-exposure condition compared with pre-exposure. Attitudes in relation to gender and experience were also investigated. No significant difference was found between male and female school psychologists. However, school psychologists with previous experience of pupils with SEN had more positive attitudes towards people with SEN than those who had had no such experience.