Date Approved

5-7-1996

Embargo Period

9-4-2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.A. in Special Education

Department

Interdisciplinary and Inclusive Education

College

College of Education

Advisor

Kuder, S. Jay

Subject(s)

Children with mental disabilities--Education; High school students--Attitudes; Mainstreaming in education; Music--Instruction and study

Disciplines

Special Education and Teaching

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if the attitudes of nondisabled students toward their severely disabled peers could be positively affected following their involvement within a public school inclusion activity. The hypothesis was that the inclusion activity would result in positive attitude changes.

Two separate groups of nondisabled students were used for this study. The fifty-two students in Group One were 9th through 12th grade members of a high school band class. Group Two was made up of seventeen 7th graders of an instrumental music class. Both groups were located in suburban type school districts with a variety of ethnicity, though the greatest percentage was Caucasian.

A pretest and posttest of Yuker's Attitude Toward Disabled Persons Scale was administered to both groups prior to and preceding an inclusive activity intervention. Intervention involved the inclusion of a severely disabled student within the class activity of the nondisabled students.

Pretest and posttest results were calculated, compared and presented in frequencies and mean scores.

Findings from the study conclude that attitudes of nondisabled students can be positively changed toward their severely disabled peers through inclusive activities. Specific indications however, showed that Group Two results were more significant and that distinct variables were likely to contribute to those indications.

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