Modifying Attitudes of Prospective Educators Toward Students With Disabilities and Their Integration Into Regular Classrooms

Abstract Prospective educators who completed an introductory special education course were participants in a study investigating whether attitudes toward students with disabilities and toward their integration into regular classrooms would be influenced by viewing videotapes that presented positive portrayals of persons with disabilities in regular settings and by the disability characteristics of the professor who taught the course. Results showed that those who viewed the videotapes expressed more favorable attitudes toward students with disabilities only when the course was taught by the professor with a visible physical disability. Attitudes toward the integration of students with disabilities into regular classrooms were not influenced by viewing the videotapes nor by the disability characteristics of the professor who taught the course. These results are discussed with reference to Yuker's (1988) comprehensive review of the research on the effects of personal contact on attitudes toward persons with disabilities.