Changing teachers' negative attitudes toward persons with intellectual disabilities.
Teachers need facts plus real contact with people with ID to shift attitudes long-term.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Hassanein (2015) tested two teacher workshops. One group got facts only. The other group got facts plus real contact with people with intellectual disabilities.
The team measured attitudes right after and again 12 weeks later.
What they found
Facts alone did not move attitudes. Facts plus real contact did, and the gain lasted three months.
Information without meeting people left teacher views unchanged.
How this fits with other research
LeSage et al. (1996) found trainee teachers felt scared to include kids with Down syndrome. Ahmed shows contact can flip that fear.
Nah et al. (2024) tried videos plus facts for college students. Videos raised knowledge but not openness, again showing facts need real contact for attitude shift.
Durbin et al. (2019) ran music sessions that mixed autistic and typical kids. Like Ahmed, direct contact boosted prosocial feelings.
Almalky (2025) surveyed Saudi high-school teachers who already love community-based work. Ahmed gives them a tool to keep that positive vibe alive.
Why it matters
If you train teachers, add live interaction with learners who have ID. Booklets and slide decks are not enough. Invite a self-advocate to co-teach a sample lesson. The attitude change sticks, and your inclusion plans gain staff buy-in.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The current study aims at changing teachers' negative attitudes toward persons with intellectual disabilities. The intervention is based on the argument that providing information is not sufficient to achieve lasting change of attitudes toward people with disabilities, and that contact is required as an additional element to show positive results. A pretest-posttest intervention was conducted using three conditions: (a) cognitive intervention, (b) cognitive and behavioral intervention involving contact with the target group, and (c) no-intervention control. The participants comprised 18 teachers, with 6 teachers in each group. Following baseline assessments of attitudes, attitude change was measured immediately following the intervention and at a follow-up 12 weeks postintervention. The cognitive intervention provided information about intellectual disability and challenged stereotypic conceptions about persons with intellectual disabilities. The behavioral intervention involved being engaged in work with and training persons with intellectual disabilities in sheltered workshops. The results showed that the cognitive intervention alone did not result in significant changes in attitudes toward persons with intellectual disabilities. However, the combined cognitive-behavioral intervention resulted in greater attitude change than the no-intervention condition, both immediately postintervention and at a 12-week follow-up. The findings are discussed with regard to models of attitude change. The study concludes with some recommendations for teacher training programs to be attended to.
Behavior modification, 2015 · doi:10.1177/0145445514559929