The Effect of Using a Training Program on Changing School Counselors Attitudes towards Students with Special Educational Needs in AI-Karak District

أثر استخدام برنامج تدريبي في تغيير اتجاهات مرشدي المدارس تجاه الطلاب ذوي الاحتياجات التعليمية الخاصة في منطقة الكرك

This study investigated the effectiveness of a training program on changing School Counselors' Attitudes towards Students with Special Educational Needs in Al-Karak District and the factors effecting their attitudes. Thirty school counselor volunteers were selected and assigned randomly into two groups; experimental and control. An experimental design was used, where the experimental group was exposed to six sessions. The Jordanian adaptation of the Attitudes towards Disabled Persons Scale (ATDP) was administrated to both groups as pre- and post-test exposure conditions. Results of t-test revealed no significant difference between the two groups on the pre-exposure measure. The results indicated that there was a significant difference in the counselors' attitudes towards the students with special needs as a result of exposure to training sessions. Also, there were significant differences in the counselor's attitudes due to their gender and previous experience. Female counselors expressed more positive attitudes towards students with special educational needs than male counselors. School counselors with previous experience with students with special educational needs had more positive attitudes towards students with special educational needs than those who had no experience. The current study, recommends expanding research in this field and looking for other related variables.