Further development of the Teacher Attitudes to Inclusion Scale: principal components and Rasch analysis

Abstract

<p>Providing an effective and high-quality education for all children and young people remains a significant challenge throughout the world. Disputes and contradictions contribute to the prevailing debate as to the justification and merits of inclusive education. One of the reoccurring themes within the literature on inclusive education is the relationship between the successful application of teachers' knowledge, skills, and abilities utilised to include inclusive strategies in their classrooms, and their attitude towards inclusion. A teacher with more positive attitudes will be more accepting of students, build more successful relationships with them, aid in a child's sense of belonging, student academic success and social integration. To address this issue, the Teacher Attitudes to Inclusion Scale (TAIS) was developed by the first author to measure the attitudes of qualified (in-service) teachers towards inclusive education. Using an Exploratory Principal Components Analysis and Reliability, a revised version of the TAIS, the TAIS-R provides a psychometrically validated measure of two constructs - a global attitude and a personal attitude towards inclusive education that provides an accurate evaluation tool for research and practice.</p>