Under the goal of investigating perceptions of hearing impairment and attitudes
towards inclusive education among elementary school teachers, this study took a
survey among 288 elementary school teachers. The Inventory of Perceptions of Deaf
People by Berkay et al.(1995) and the Inventory of Attitudes toward Inclusive
Education by Cochran(1999) were employed to measure the subjects\' perceptions of
hearing impairment and attitudes toward inclusive education, respectively.
The research findings led to the following conclusions:
First, the elementary school teachers had a very negative attitude toward people
with hearing impairment and a very negative perception of them in regard with
academic development, vocational choice, and promotion.
Secondly, the teachers demonstrated a very negative attitude toward inclusive
education including students with hearing impairment, and attitude differences were
observed according to years of teaching and inclusive education and in-service
training among their background variables. Those who received many hours of
in-service training showed more negative attitudes toward inclusive education for
students with hearing impairment.
And finally, the teachers\' perceptions of children with hearing impairment were
closely related with the advantages and philosophy of inclusive education and had
nothing to do with their confidence in teaching children with hearing impairment.