Classroom Teachers’ Behaviors and Peers’ Acceptance of Students in Inclusive Classrooms

Abstract

The objective of this study is to determine the behavior of teachers in inclusive classrooms and peers’ acceptance levels towards students with intellectual disabilities in these classrooms. The qualitative research method was selected for collecting adequate data for the study. Information was collected from 16 teachers and 371 students in 16 inclusive classrooms in four schools where the inclusive method is used, and data were collected through observation, interviews, and socio-metric assessment. As a result of the observation process, differences were determined to exist between classroom teachers’ and students’ interactions. Furthermore, the findings demonstrated differences between the interactive behavior of classroom teachers toward students with normal development and toward those with intellectual disabilities in the classroom. However, the findings obtained from the face-to-face interviews with classroom teachers and the findings obtained from observations were also seen to not be the same; teachers stated they had not displayed different behavior towards the students in general. Furthermore, the peers with normal development were observed to prefer half of the students with intellectual disabilities, while the other half was not preferred by any peer. The behavior of the teachers in the classroom and their interactive behavior with the students were found to affect students’ interactions, which in turn differentiated the level that students with normal development accepted those with intellectual disabilities.