aDepartment of Special Education, National PingTung University, Taiwan bSchool of Rehabilitation Services and Counseling, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, USA
(Received 01 November 2016, Final revised version received 16 June 2017)
The purpose of this study was to examine the attitudes of general and special education teachers toward inclusive education of students with chronic illnesses and/or disabilities. A total of 539 participants were recruited from teachers’ colleges and public schools in three prefectures of central and southern Taiwan. The Attitudes toward Students with Chronic Illnesses and Disabilities Vignettes were used to assess the participants’ levels of acceptance of eight hypothetical students with various health issues and disabilities. Descriptive and inferential statistics, including measure of central tendency, t-test, and multivariate analysis of variance, were used to interpret the data set. Results indicate that both the types of teacher education programs and the teaching experience influence the willingness of the participants to include a student with special needs in the regular classroom setting.