IMPROVING ATTITUDES OF GIFTED CHILDREN TOWARD THE HANDICAPPED.

STUDENT attitudes; CLASSROOM environment; GIFTED children; EDUCATION of children with disabilities; ATTITUDE (Psychology)

Attitudes of nonhandicapped students arc critical to the successful integration of handicapped peers into regular classrooms. Empirical evidence suggests that nonhandicapped students often hold negative perceptions about their handicapped classmates. The paper describes a training program which focused on changing attitudes of young gifted children toward the disabled. Three groups of gifted and talented students participated in the study: one experimental group and two control groups. Strategies used in the training of the experimental group included: contact with disabled persons, and the provision of information about the disabled. Results indicated that attitudes of the experimental group improved more than those of the control groups following treatment. Issues related to limitations of the study were discussed as well as ideas for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Education is the property of Project Innovation Austin LLC and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)