Attributional Beliefs of Canadian Trainee Teachers toward Students with a Learning Disability

Teachers are one of the most important factors in successful inclusion of students with a learning disability in mainstream classrooms. Attitudes towards inclusion of certain students in classrooms have been mixed, and many attitudes are often developed during the pre-service training and early teaching years. This study investigated the attitudes of trainee teachers towards students with learning disabilities by analysing their attributional responses to hypothetical students. Accordingly, 181 graduating Canadian trainee teachers were surveyed and the results indicated that as students’ ability levels decrease, teachers’ sympathy levels rise, and the expectation of future failure increases. Moreover, as students’ expended efforts increase, the teacher feedback becomes more positive, the frustration decreases, the sympathy levels rise, and the expectation of future failure decreases. With regards to differences between students with and without a learning disability, as students’ ability levels increase the difference in trainee teachers’ sympathy level increases. Furthermore, as students’ expended efforts increase, the difference in teacher feedback given to students with and without a learning disability decreases, the difference in frustration and sympathy levels decrease, and the difference in expectations of future failure increases. Implications and recommendations for practice and research conclude the paper. Les enseignants representent un des facteurs les plus importants pour une l’inclusion reussie des eleves avec des troubles d’apprentissage dans les salles de classe ordinaires. Les attitudes face a l’inclusion de certains etudiants dans les classes sont variees, et plusieurs d’entre elles se sont developpees au cours de la formation d’enseignant et les premieres annees d’enseignement. Cette etude a analyse les biais d’attribution de stagiaires face a des eleves hypothetiques de sorte a etudier leurs attitudes relatives aux eleves ayant des difficultes d’apprentissage. Ainsi, une enquete aupres de 181 stagiaires canadiens au terme de leurs etudes a indique que plus les competences des eleves baissent, plus les stagiaires eprouvent de la sympathie pour eux et plus ils s’attendent a ce que les eleves echouent. De plus, plus les eleves font des efforts, plus la retroaction des stagiaires devient positive, plus la frustration diminue, plus les stagiaires eprouvent de la sympathie et moins ils anticipent un echec de la part des eleves. Quant aux differences entre les eleves sans trouble d’apprentissage et les eleves ayant un trouble d’apprentissage, plus les competences des eleves augmentent, plus la difference dans le niveau de sympathie eprouvee par les stagiaires augmente. En outre, plus les eleves font des efforts, plus la difference dans la retroaction des stagiaires offerte aux eleves avec et sans un trouble d’apprentissage diminue, plus la difference des niveaux de frustration et de sympathie diminue et plus la difference quant aux attentes relatives aux possibilites d’echec augmente. Des retombees de l’etude et des recommandations relatives a la pratique et la recherche viennent conclure l’article.