The Attitudes of Third Grade Elementary School Students Towards Their Physically and Auditorily Disabiled Peers

Abstract

Research on the attitudes towards disabilities has a long tradition, but it requires constant replication due to the frequent changes in the living conditions and the educational system. In recent years in Poland, such research was carried out mainly on a college level (Bi-ernat, 2014; Urbanski, Glapa, Śleboda, 2014) and it was not related to any specific disability. In this study, however, there has been an attempt to find an answer to the question: what are the attitudes of the students at a third grade of elementary school level to motor and auditory dis¬abilities of their peers. Participants were randomly selected from third grade primary schools: regular (n = 20) and integration (n = 20).In order to measure the pupils’ attitudes we have used a questionnaire, designed for the study, on the basis of a three-component model of attitudes prepared separately for each type of disability.

The comparison of the results of these general attitudes and their components: cognitive, emotional and behavioural showed no significant differences between the groups, both with physical and auditory disabilities. Children from the regular schools presented positive at¬titudes towards people with disabilities just as their peers from the integration schools, which could mean that prior contact, with respect to the declared attitude towards disability is not limited to the type of school anymore.

The explanation for the lack of differences between groups can be found in the educational and systemic changes, involving the inclusion of children and adults with various disabilities in a number of areas of life activity as well as the presence of ethical education in the curriculum of primary schools.