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The Reliability and Validity of a Scale to Measure Teachers’ Attitudes Toward Integration in an Australian Context

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2016

Clare Roberts  and
Chris Pratt
Clare Roberts*
Affiliation:
The University of Western Australia
Chris Pratt
Affiliation:
The University of Western Australia
*
Requests for reprints should be sent to Clare Roberts at the Clinical Psychology Unit, Department of Psychology, The University of Western Australia, Nedlands, W.A. 6009.
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Abstract

This paper investigates, in an Australian context, the psychometric properties of reliability and construct validity of a scale to measure the attitudes of teachers toward the integration of handicapped children into regular schools. The responses of a sample of 301 primary school staff were factor analysed to determine the factorial validity of the 30-item scale. The scale was found to have an underlying conceptual framework of five factors, which could be used to investigate various aspects of a teacher’s attitude toward integration. The psychometric characteristics of the scale indicate that it is both reliable and factorially valid in an Australian context and that it is valid to make comparisons between American and Australian data using the scale.

Type
Research Article
Information
Australasian Journal of Special Education , Volume 12 , Issue 2 , November 1988 , pp. 31 - 36
Copyright
Copyright © The Australian Association of Special Education 1988

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