Teachers’ inclusive beliefs and teaching practices in work with students with some inattentive symptoms associated with ADHD

Abstract

This study aims to analyze and compare teaching practices in an inclusive setting. The study focuses on teachers’ self-evaluated teaching practices with students with seven or more predominantly inattentive symptoms associated with ADHD, depending on their beliefs about the values of inclusive education and some demographic factors. The results are situated in the context of current literature on inclusive education practices, teacher attitudes towards students with predominantly inattentive symptoms associated with ADHD and teaching practices/classroom strategies for work with them. The questionnaire was administered to 660 teachers from 13 Croatian counties. The participating teachers were asked to complete a standardized questionnaire, including a demographic questionnaire and two scales: Teaching practices self-evaluation scale – TPSE (Vlah & Grbić, 2017) and Teachers’ beliefs about the values of inclusive education scale – TBIES (Skočić Mihić, Gabrić & Bošković, 2016). In an attempt to answer the research question on the relation between teachers’ self-reported teaching practices used in work with students with some inattentive symptoms associated with ADHD, place of residence, and school size, classroom versus subject teaching, teacher education level, work experience and beliefs about the values of inclusive education, we used both a correlation and a hierarchical regression analysis. The results indicated a correlation between teachers’ self-evaluated teaching practices described by three indices (student praise and supportive communication; adjustments to assessment for students; and comprehensive approach to inclusion of students with special needs), teacher education level, and classroom/subject teaching, which also related to teachers’ value of inclusive education. Next, we explored the relationships among the investigated variables in more detail using a hierarchical regression analysis in which different indices of teachers’ self-evaluated teaching practices served as the criterion. In the proposed model inclusive beliefs were revealed as significant predictors of teaching practices. These results extend previous research. Implications for teacher education are discussed and suggestions are made for future research.