The Effects of Co-teaching in Practical Arts Class on the Class Participation of Students in an Inclusive Class in Elementary School and the Attitude of Students Without Disabilities Toward Accepting Students With Disabilities

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects co-teaching in Practical Arts classes has on the participation of students in inclusive elementary classrooms, as well as the attitude of students without disabilities toward accepting students with disabilities. For this purpose, the participants were two students with disabilities and 40 students without disabilities from two inclusive classes. The co-teaching was implemented one to two times a week for a total of 24 sessions during Practical Arts class time. This study used a pre- and post-test control group design. After the co-teaching was terminated, the differences between pre- and post-test on dependent variables were analyzed. The results of the analysis were as follows: First, the class participation rate of students without disabilities in the experimental group who participated in co-teaching with Practical Arts was statistically significantly improved compared to students without disabilities in the control group. Both students with disabilities in the experimental group and the control group showed improvement in class participation rates; however, the improvement in students with disabilities in the experimental group was greater. Second, the attitude of students without disabilities in the experimental group who participated in co-teaching toward accepting students with disabilities was statistically significantly improved compared to the control group. This study is significant in that it confirmed that co-teaching could have a positive effect on class participation for all students including students with and without disabilities. Based on these results, the limitations in the study, as well as implications for further studies were discussed.