The relationship between inclusion and self-efficacy among special education students in the primary grades
by Gonzalez-Mercedes, Sandy, Ph.D., CAPELLA UNIVERSITY, 2010, 83 pages; 3412163

Abstract:

Inclusionary practices in educational settings have been deemed most appropriate and beneficial for special education students across all domains of functioning. The effectiveness of inclusion is the main concept that supports and promotes the educational practice of least restricted environment outlined in special education law. A review of literature has revealed the benefits and significant outcomes in the social domain of functioning within an inclusive classroom, yet the academic domain continues to be an area of inconsistency. It has been argued that inclusion is too idealistic and therefore ineffective. The purpose of this research was to contribute to the scientific knowledge in the area of inclusion. Special education students from two special education settings were administered a survey to measure self-efficacy in school performance. Three covariates were controlled for during analysis. These were intellectual ability, grade point average, and socioeconomic status. An ANCOVA was performed, and none of the three covariates were found to be correlated to self-efficacy in school performance. There was no significant difference in self-efficacy scores between the groups. Therefore, no relationship was found between inclusion and self-efficacy in school performance. There was a negative correlation between self-efficacy scores and age. An item analysis was also performed to calculate internal consistency for the Academic Subscale as well as corrected item-total correlations. Cronbach’s alpha for the self-efficacy data in this study is .80, which is considered a reasonably large coefficient alpha.

 
AdviserJames Stacks
SchoolCAPELLA UNIVERSITY
SourceDAI/A 71-08, p. , Aug 2010
Source TypeDissertation
SubjectsEducational psychology; Special education
Publication Number3412163
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