TEACHER EXPECTATIONS FOR MAINSTREAMED CHILDREN'S CLASSROOM PERFORMANCE

Abstract

This study provides data on the effect of handicapping labels on teacher expectations for the academic performance, classroom behavior, and peer relations of the handicapped, mainstreamed child. It examined the relative and cumulative impact of two variables; teacher attitude toward the handicapped and a combination of teaching experience with the handicapped and training in special education, on teacher expectation for the mainstreamed child.;One hundred seventy one New York City elementary school teachers, randomly assigned to four treatment groups, voluntarily responded to three instruments; (1) the Attitude Toward Disabled Persons Scale-Form O; (2) the Classroom Performance Expectancy Scale, and; (3) a Personal Data Form.;Results indicated the following: (1) Teacher expectations for the classroom performance of mainstreamed children with handicapping labels was not consistently less positive than expectations for children who were not labeled. (2) Teacher expectation for the academic performance of handicapped, mainstreamed children was not related to the label assigned to the children. (3) More negative teacher expectations for the classroom behavior and peer relations of handicapped, mainstreamed children were associated with the Emotionally Handicapped label than either the Learning Disabled or Physically Handicapped label. (4) There was a significant but weak relationship between teacher attitude toward the handicapped and teacher expectation for mainstreamed children's classroom performance. (5) More positive teacher expectations for handicapped, mainstreamed children were associated with teachers who had more positive attitudes toward the handicapped and a combination of experience and training in special education in their backgrounds than teachers with positive attitudes who did not have such a background. (6) More negative teacher expectations for handicapped, mainstreamed children were associated with teachers who had more negative attitudes toward the handicapped and a combination of experience and training in special education in their backgrounds than teachers with negative attitudes who did not have such a background. (7) In this study teacher attitude toward the handicapped was not an important mediating variable in the assignment of expectancy scores for mainstreamed children.