Do I Really Need a Course to Learn to Teach Students with Disabilities? I’ve Been Doing It for Years

Oct 15, 2026

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A quantitative study compares attitudes, efficacy, and concerns about inclusive education among three Manitoba teacher groups (N = 191): pre-service teachers with inclusion coursework but limited inclusive experience, in-service teachers with inclusive experience but no inclusion coursework, and in-service teachers with both experience and coursework. ANOVA finds significant group differences across all three dependent variables, supporting the value of coursework even for experienced teachers. Regression further shows experiences and coursework contribute differently to attitudes, concerns, and efficacy.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages22

Reading Time55 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Purpose and context of inclusive education courses

Teacher effects and inclusive teaching research gap

Manitoba teacher licensing requirement background

“Do I Really Need a Course to Learn to Teach Students with Disabilities? I’ve Been Doing It for Years” Laura Sokal University of Winnipeg Umesh Sharma Monash University Abstract A quantitative study was conducted to compare the attitudes, efficacy, and concerns about inclusive education within three groups of teachers in Manitoba, Canada (N = 191). The three groups included pre-service teachers with coursework about inclusive education, but limited experience in inclusive settings; in-service teachers with experiences in inclusive settings, but no coursework about inclusion; and in-service teachers with inclusive teaching experiences as well as coursework about inclusion. Analysis of variance revealed significant differences between the groups in all three dependent variablesand supported the importance of coursework, even for experienced teachers. Subsequent regression analysis demonstrated that experiences and course work contributed differentially to the development of attitudes, concerns, and efficacy for inclusive teaching Canadian Journal of Education / Revue canadienne de l’éducation 40:4 (2017)©2017 Canadian Society for the Study of Education/ Société canadienne pour l’étude de l’éducation [www.cje-rce.ca](www.cje-rce.ca) in pre-service and in-service teachers. Implications on both in-service and pre-service teacher education are discussed. Keywords: inclusion, attitudes, efficacy, concerns, in-service, pre-service Résumé Une étude quantitative a été menée en vue de comparer les attitudes, l’efficacité et les préoccupations de trois groupes d’enseignants du Manitoba, au Canada, en regard del’éducation inclusive (N = 191) . Les trois groupes étaient les suivants : des enseignants en formation initiale avec des cours sur l’éducation inclusive, mais ayant une expérience limitée dans des contextes inclusifs, des enseignants en exercice avec des expériences en inclusion scolaire, mais sans cours sur l’inclusion et, enfin, des enseignants en exercice avec des expériences en inclusion scolaire et des cours sur l’inclusion. Une analyse de variance a révélé des différences significatives entre les groupes pour les trois variables dépendantes et a validé l’importance des cours, même pour les enseignants expérimentés. Une analyse de régression subséquente a démontré que les expériences et les cours contribuaient de façon distincte au développement d’attitudes, aux préoccupations et à l’efficacité en matière d’éducation inclusive chez les enseignants en formation initiale et les enseignants en exercice. Les implications pour la formation initiale à l’enseignement et le perfectionnement des enseignants sont abordées. Mots-clés : inclusion, attitudes, efficacité, en exercice, enseignants en formation initiale Canadian Journal of Education / Revue canadienne de l’éducation 40:4 (2017) [www.cje-rce.ca](www.cje-rce.ca) Introduction Since the Salamanca Statement (UNESCO) was published in 1994, countries around the world have endeavoured to become more inclusive in their schooling practices. Teachers are recognized as leaders of change within our school systems (Engelbrecht, 2013) . Extensive research has shown that teachers play an important part in explaining variance in student outcomes (Kuijpers, Houtveen, & Wubbels, 2010), especially with diverse learners (Forlin, Cedillo, Romero-Contreras, Fletcher, & Hernández, 2010; Timberley & Alton-Lee, 2008), with effect sizes ranging from .26 to .55 of a standard deviation (Wayne, Kwang, Zhu, Cronen, & Garet, 2008) . Teacher effects on students are more influential than the effects of the specific school children attend, effects of low socio-economic status, and “large enough to have policy significance”(Nye, Konstantopoulos, & Hedges, 2004, p. 253). Therefore, in order to ensure successful inclusion, a plethora of inclusive education opportunities have been offered to both in-service and pre-service teachers globally. These courses vary greatly in duration, qual

FAQs

How were the three teacher groups in the study defined?

The study included pre-service teachers with inclusion coursework but limited inclusive-setting experience, in-service teachers with inclusive experience but no inclusion coursework, and in-service teachers with both inclusive experience and inclusion coursework.

What did the ANOVA results show?

ANOVA revealed significant differences among the groups in all three dependent variables: attitudes, efficacy, and concerns related to inclusive education.

How do experiences and coursework affect outcomes according to regression analysis?

Subsequent regression analysis indicated that teachers’ experiences and their coursework contributed differentially to the development of attitudes, concerns, and efficacy for inclusive teaching.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Fans