In 1980 Jackson and Knowles presented a paper at the
Australian Group for the Study of Mental Deficiency [A.G.S.O.M.D.] conference in Launceston, Tasmania. The paper,
titled "Primary School Children's Perceptions and Understandings
of Mental Retardation", reported in detail responses on twenty
questions from the sixty-three item questionnaire instrument used
in their study. These twenty questions reflected stereotyped
responses of an alarming nature. If these responses were a
reflection of how Australian children generally thought, then
integration of the intellectually handicapped child into
mainstream classes would be counter productive.
The current study was initiated to help assess the attitudes
of Australian Capital Territory children to the Intellectually
Handicapped. The twenty significant questions from the Tasmanian
study were formed into a questionnaire and administered to 769
children in Years 3 and 6 from six Government and two Catholic
schools in the Australian Capital Territory. In most cases the
results were in direct contrast to those obtained in Tasmania.
At first glance this meant that the attitudes of Australian
Capital Territory children towards the Intellectually Handicapped
were much less stereotyped than those of Tasmanian children.
Further investigation, however, led to the discovery that the
results from the Tasmanian study were spurious. The date had not
been accurately computerized, giving a result that was probably
the reverse of what Tasmanian children actually thought.
Four supplementary hypotheses, comparing the responses of
Years 3 and 6 girls and boys, Government and Private schools,
exposed and unexposed schools, were tested. The analysis of the
data for these hypotheses supported, to some degree, past
findings that older children and girls have less stereotyped
attitudes towards the Intellectually Handicapped than younger
children and boys. The responses of Government schools versus
Private schools were varied. Three of the five significantly
different responses indicated a less stereotyped view was held by
Government school children, while two of these significant
questions indicated a less stereotyped view was held by Private
school children. With regard to exposed and unexposed schools,
the two significantly different responses indicated less
stereotyped views were held by the nonexposed children.
Future directions are indicated in the sections dealing with
Limitations and Future Directions.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/218892 |
| Date | January 1986 |
| Creators | Dornan, Don, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. Education |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright Don Dornan |
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