Σάββατο. 25 Ιουνίου 2011

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1 Σάββατο 25 Ιουνίου 2011

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3 ΠΣ ΑΜΦΙΘΕΑΤΡΟ ΤΕΛΕΤΩΝ-EDUCATIONAL PRACTICES FOR INTEGRATION (ENGLISH) The use of art where is hard to talk-art network of social sculpture Kaleshi E., Refraction Association, Albania This paper presents the work done during a regional project financed by European Union DG Enlargement. This project aims to enforce the civil society cultural organizations working with vulnerable people in Albania, The Former Yugoslavia Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo and Sweden through new partnerships, increased capacity building, transfer of good practices and knowledge. Groups that are targeted are civil society cultural organizations, artists, art students and social sciences students, psycho-social experts, etc. The use of art with vulnerable groups has been experimented in the above countries without having a good systematized knowledge of the vast experience of Member States. The specific objectives of the action address problems and need of target groups such as: lack of networking between cultural organizations and artists working with vulnerable groups; an existing practice of working with vulnerable groups missing structural and operational planning in terms of theory and method of social sculpture; the lack of resources as modules, materials and books, regarding the experience of using art in social settings. Art and culture is seen mostly in targeted countries as a privileged access and a presentation of high thoughts and feelings of artists that have nothing to do with the reality or the society itself, but the democratic developments and Human Rights promoted in our societies highlight the role of art and culture in community and individual transformation, in developing cognitive and social skills, encouraging behaviors and values of social tolerance and social inclusion. Final beneficiaries of this initiative are vulnerable groups whom partner organizations are working as young people involved in criminality or violence, young people living in exclusion, dependency, gender inequalities and post-conflict situations. An estimated number of final beneficiaries is about 2000 young people in targeted countries. Keywords: social support, vulnerable groups, social sculpture, human rights, art therapy

4 356 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION AND SOCIAL INTEGRATION OF VULNERABLE GROUPS What students say about their classmates with special needs and their inclusion Patsidou-Iliadou M., School Advisor The present study survey the impact that an art therapy educational programme have had on nondisabled high school student attitudes. 48 students of third grade high class were asked to indicate their attitudes about handicapped students and their inclusion.. Specifically the survey was comprised of three sections. Using a Likert type scale the first section asks participants to rate their comfort level interacting with people with a variety of identified disabilities. This section contains 11 questions with a range of responses between very uncomfortable to very comfortable. The second section will solicit information relative to the participants inclusive education experience and their recommendations for this practice. The research findings indicated that: a) inclusive education experience influences the attitudes and believes of students without disabilities towards the students with special needs. b) there is differentiation in the attitudes of students towards peers with special needs. c) there is differentiation in the attitudes of students towards the inclusion of peers with special needs. d) statistically significant differences were not identified with gender. These findings propose further investigation concerning a) the impact of inclusive projects on the ways students view issues of social interactions and communication b) the impact of teachers attitudes towards inclusive education on the students attitudes c) the impact of further education and training of teachers on attitudes of students d) the impact of art therapy on the inclusion of handicapped related to a larger sample. Key words: Inclusion, art- therapy, attitudes, special needs It is common belief that societies have become increasingly concerned to protect the children rights to education for all. The idea of integration and normalization has been discussed through European countries. According to normalization as great a degree as possible persons with disabilities should be able to live under the same conditions as other children young people and adults. During that era institutions and special hospitals will be closed and children and young people will stayed in their family homes and went to regular schools. They will be supported by auxiliary devices personal assistants school transportation and specially adapted material. The integration system can be seen as an obvious result of normalization. Instead of be-

5 ΣΑΒΒΑΤΟ 25 ΙΟΥΝΙΟΥ ing segregated from society and feeling secluded people with disabilities have to live and grow up under the same conditions with their families. The society is gradually moved from a differentiation perspective to an integration perspective «from one to isolates to one that includes» (Brodin & Lindsrand, 2007: 133). Nevertheless in our school environments there have been students who are not under the same standards that are required for their full education. They are not in the situation to use the opportunities offered by the school system to broaden their knowledge. Different efforts have been made for students that have been isolated and unacceptable. A student s transition from special education to general education is a difficult one. There are several difficulties for students about transitional experience. Many school environments have succeeded to implement some form of inclusion in order to educate students with special needs in the general education. However it seems everybody follows his or her belief about how implementing inclusion should happen. According to Kristansen, 1999 «this way of thinking is based on an image of what is acceptable and what is unacceptable and the borderlines between the two have always been drawn from the perspective of what is normal». However there are a lot of variations about what is acceptable behavior and what is not acceptable. This state depends on culture, society status and social relations. Also the proposals of parents teachers and school administrators differ greatly. Communities striving to practice inclusive education attempt to structure a school environment where the needs of every student are supported and success is the goal. All students regardless of the type of their perceived educational physical or psychological challenge are valued. School personnel family members and friends work together to develop and support caring learning communities that develop friendships and commitments among their members. (Stainback 1992). Students with all types of disabilities are now beginning to attend their neighborhood schools. The general idea is to support students with special needs not only in their neighborhood schools but also in inclusive model with peers who are not disabled. Although there is general belief that students with learning difficulties have the right to be educated in so far as possible with their age-mates, there is no denying that, for many of these students, deficits in social behavior and skills present the greatest obstacle to integration According the definition of attitude in Fishbein and Ajzein, (1975:6) an attitude is a learned predisposition to respond in a consistently favorable or unfavorable manner with respect to a given object. This definition indicates that if attitudes are learned then they can be changed. Thus inquiry providing information on what attitude students hold toward inclusion may provide guidance into the training of educators and in turn they have an impact on the delivery of services to all students. The positive impact on populations without disabilities is considered to be another desirable outcome. Snell (1990) gives the three most important benefits as: (a) the development of social skills in students with severe disabilities across all school

6 358 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION AND SOCIAL INTEGRATION OF VULNERABLE GROUPS age groups, (b) the improvements in the attitudes that nondisabled peers have for their peers with disabilities, and (c) the development of positive relationships and friendships between peers as a result of integration (pp ). Recently there has been an increase in interest in looking at the outcomes of art therapy interventions with people with learning disabilities. Art inclusive educational program has been suggested for helping students with special educational needs to improve their relations social skills and communications to be included in the general education class (Clark et al., 1999: 32-55; Keeling, 2005). Taking into consideration the previous studies and arguments the purpose of this study is to investigate the attitudes of students about the inclusive education of students with and without special educational needs related to a)social skills, relations, b)the kind of disability, c)the gender, after the implementation of an art inclusive educational program. Specifically this study seek to answer the following question Will an art inclusive education program reinforce a set of assumptions that the implementation of an art inclusive project influence the attitudes of students The influence of this inclusive education program differentiate the attitudes of students related to a) communication, social skills and relations of students with and without special educational needs b) the kind of disability c) the gender of students Different studies show that teachers in regular classes welcome the idea that students with special needs should go to regular schools and to grow up with others students. According the philosophy of inclusion students with special needs should have the opportunity to grow up among their peer and don t have contacts only with other special needs students. The implementation of an inclusive art therapy program will have a future influence on educational pedagogic practices across the world. The project is an attempt to provide the vehicle that encourages and assesses not only students attitudes but also the value of knowledgeable and skilful teacher. On the other hand must be caution about the generalization of the findings because of the use of a small sample. The use of a larger more heterogeneous sample would provide outcomes that would be generalized to a larger population of students with and without learning difficulties. Methodology Fifty students of the third class high education asked to answer a semi-structured questionnaire about their experiences, thoughts, beliefs, opinions, preferences, and viewpoints related to the inclusive art educational program. The student questionnaire constructed for the requirements of the study based on the work of Tweit Hull (1995). The reliability for this instrument is 0.68 (Questions 1-11) και 0.85 (Questions 13-16). The instrument is comprised of three sections. Using a Likert type scale the first section asks participants to rate their comfort level interacting with people with a variety of identified disabilities. This section contains 11 questions with a range of responses between very uncomfortable to very comfortable. The second section will solicit information relative to the participants inclusive

7 ΣΑΒΒΑΤΟ 25 ΙΟΥΝΙΟΥ education experience and their recommendations for this practice. These first two sections provide the basis for quantitative analysis. The final section of the survey contain one question. Students were asked if students with special educational needs should or should not attend the same classes as students without special educational needs and will be provided space for an explanation of the answer and their opinion about the difference in the subject s (with special educational needs) social skills and relations through the application of the art inclusive educational program. Research findings The questionnaire was completed by totally 48 students. Students were asked to provide information through two choices about their gender. The Figure 1 illustrates the distribution of gender. Figure 1 Distribution of Gender 1. Attitudes of students towards their peers with special needs The table 1 presents the means and standard deviation of the answers of the students. The high scores of means and standard deviations show that the students feel comfortable towards the people with special needs.

8 360 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION AND SOCIAL INTEGRATION OF VULNERABLE GROUPS Table 1 Means and standard deviation of the students attitudes towards handicapped students attitudes towards handicapped N Mean [1] I make friends with somebody characterised as mentally retarded [2] I go to the basketball court with somebody on a wheelchair Std. Deviation 48 1,21, ,10,778 [3] On the bus sit beside a disabled person 48 2,13,815 [4] I hang around the mall with somebody with severe disability [5] I greet somebody showing disability as I pass him by on the school campus [6] I collaborate in a lab or on a project with a student with brain paralysis [7] I watch T.V programmes comfortable about disabled people [8] I discuss with somebody who uses the sign language or an electronic means of communication [9] I invite friends home to dinner among them a person with severe disability 48 1,54, ,48, ,33, ,06 1, ,92 1, ,19,762 [10] I have dinner at a disabled person s house 47 1,85,751 [11] I share a house with somebody with some comfortable kind of disability 48 1,46 1,010 Section 1 of the questionnaire was coded from zero(very uncomfortable) to three(very comfortable). No neutral response was available. Responses to the attitudes question were positive as displayed in Table 1. The highest average score (M=2,48)was obtained for the question 5 I greet somebody showing disability as I pass him by on the school campus. The lowest average score (M=1,21) was a response for the question 4 I hang around the mall with somebody with severe disability.

9 ΣΑΒΒΑΤΟ 25 ΙΟΥΝΙΟΥ Students experience in inclusive program Table 2 Distribution of the responses for their inclusion experience Frequency Percent Valid Percent Yes 21 43,8 43,8 No 27 56,3 56,3 Total ,0 100,0 Section 2 of questionnaire was coded from zero(0) to two(2) ( agree- disagree) and asked about students experience in inclusive program. As displayed in Table 2, 43,8 % (N=21) indicated that they had experience in inclusive education with a student with disabilities and 27% (N=56,3) notified that they don t have experience. The 21 students who registered previous experience answered some more questions. These answers were further analyzed. In Table 3 we discover that students disagreed that the students with special needs detracted them from their learning ( M=1,14 ). Second, students indicated neutral attitude (M=0,95) regarding whether they had received more help and support in the inclusive programme. Students don t agree that the student with disabilities occupied the teacher s time(m=0,86). Students were positive concerning their inclusive general education experience Table 3 Means and standard deviation of the students attitudes towards inclusion of handicapped Attitudes towards inclusion N Mean [13] The disabled person distracted me from my learning [14] The disabled student provides more help for teachers than the rest of the staff in the class [15] The disabled student makes the class more interesting Std. Deviation 21 1,14,793 21,95, ,10,539 [16] The disabled student occupies the teacher longer 21,86,910

10 362 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION AND SOCIAL INTEGRATION OF VULNERABLE GROUPS 3. Attitude of students and gender A t-test analysis of variance was computed to show if differences existed in attitude between male and female participants. No significant difference was found between gender (significance level 5%). Table 4 Means and standard deviation for two sections of the responses of students N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation SCORE SCORE The mean total attitude score for section one was (M=20,23) and for the mean total attitude score for section 2 was (M=4,05) Table 5 Means and standard deviation for male and female scores about attitudes For handicapped (score 1) and for inclusion(score 2) SCORE 1 SCORE 2 Gender N Mean Std. Deviation Male 21 19,81 3,655 Female 26 20,58 5,464 Male 10 3,50 2,369 Female 11 4,55 2,876 The means and standard deviation for male ( M=19,81, SD=3,655) and female (M=20,58, SD=5,464) scores about attitudes for handicapped (score 1) and for inclusion(score 2) for male ( M=3,50, SD=2,369)and female (M=4,55 SD=2,876) The most important difference was found in the final section of the questionnaire. Students were asked if students with special needs should or should not attend general education class.

11 ΣΑΒΒΑΤΟ 25 ΙΟΥΝΙΟΥ Table 6 Distribution of the positive and negative attitude of students towards inclusion Frequency Percent Valid Percent YES 30 62,5 75,0 NO 10 20,8 25,0 Total 40 83,3 100,0 Missing 8 16,7 Total ,0 The results of data analysis have been represented in Table six(6). The frequency analysis indicated that a 62.5% (n=30) of students agree with inclusive education and a lower percentage(20,8%) indicated negative attitude for the inclusion. Table 7 Recommendations of the attitudes towards the inclusion (YES) Recommendations N % Valid Percent Acceptance of diversity 10 33,3% 38,5% Equal rights and opportunities 7 23,3% 26,9% Improvement of relationship 1 3,3% 3,8% Equal chances for learning 5 16,7% 19,2% Kind of disability 1 6,7% 7,7% Improvement of self -estimation 2 3,3% 3,8% Total 26 86,7% 100,0% Missing 5 13,3% Total sum ,0% Students announced a number of reasons for their recommendations about the attitudes towards the inclusion. A 33,3% percentage(n=10) supported Acceptance of Difference, a 23,3%(N=7) reported equal human rights, 16,7% (N=5)Equal chances for learning 6,7% (N=2)Kind of disability 3,3% (N=1) Improvement of relationship and 3,3% (N=2) Improvement of self - estimation

12 364 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION AND SOCIAL INTEGRATION OF VULNERABLE GROUPS Table 8 Recommendations of the attitudes towards the inclusion (NO) Recommendations N % Valid Percent Stigmatization 6 60% 66.7% Disturbance 2 20% 22.3% Study in special class 1 10% 11% Total 9 90% 100% Missing 1 10% Total sum % Students announced a number of reasons for their negative attitudes towards the inclusion. A 60% percentage(n=6) supported Stigmatization, a 20% reported disturbance in the class, and a 10% percentage (N=1). Correlation between attitude toward students with special needs (score 1) and attitudes towards inclusion(score 2). For the correlation of score 1 and score 2 we used the co-efficient. Pearson Correlation = 0,331 (possible values: -1 and 1). Discussion-Conclusions High school students can hold positive attitudes in general toward people with disabilities regardless of whether or not the school employs an inclusive model. It is also clear that students without disabilities do not develop negative attitudes towards their classmates with disabilities as a result of inclusive education. From the research findings emerged differentiation to the attitudes of students towards people with special needs. The results of this study are consistent with previous research. As it is seen there is a tendency for positive attitude towards handicapped. Students feel more comfortable and they have more positive attitude when they don t develop more close relationships with the students with special needs. They have negative attitude when they are going to develop closer personal relations with students with special needs. This finding ascertain previous studies (Fisher, 1996: , Ferguson, 1998: 18-21). The kind if disability effects the differentiation of attitudes toward the disabled. From our study emerged that students without disability have more positive attitudes to their peers with mild disabilities (Vaughn et al., 2003: , Handert et al., 1998; Bear et al.,.1993: ). According to researchers the attitudes and perceptions of this age has gone largely untapped. According to international review students are capable of expressing valid thoughts, ideas and opinions and are capable of contributing to program adjustments. On he other hand the students in this age experience difficult situations

13 ΣΑΒΒΑΤΟ 25 ΙΟΥΝΙΟΥ of adolescence and dispute every subject and discussion. It is normal to doubt and deny towards the diversity of others. The cognitive immaturity and the deficiency of life experiences the cultural level of their personality are factors that drive students to negative attitudes towards handicapped. (Roberts & Smith 1999: 35-50).Through this study students had the opportunity to express their voice about their believes on educational social and ethical statements. The deficiency of a structure of a structured project is a factor that causes negative attitudes towards the handicapped. Students have negative attitudes when they spend their time with handicapped during a school break through which doesn t exist a special structured environment to be involved in different cultural, athletic and recreational activities. According (Jenkis 1989: ) if the students involvement takes place in framework educational environment included cooperative and group learning they will form positive attitudes towards handicapped Padeliadou and Lambropoulou support in their study that a semantic factor that impact on attitudes is the deficiency of integration programmes and class integration in high school education. The students don t have the opportunity to communicate and develop relationships with their peers with disability. From the international literature emerges that the communication and cooperation with people with disabilities influences the establishment and existence of positive attitudes. When students without disabilities study in inclusive classes they have the opportunity to understand the individualized differences regarding to external appearance and behavioral characteristics the relations based on communication experiences and feelings that students with disabilities express. (Biklen et al., 1991: ) Barbas et al., found that the difficulty of participation in school group programmes and deficiency of cooperation between students with and without special needs is an important factor to accept the students diversity and their inclusion in the class. This statement has to do with the existence of negative students attitudes emerged from the deficiency of cooperative and inclusive projects that support the group activity of students. (Barbas et al. 2006: ). According to Lambropoulou findings students with hearing difficulties reported experiences of stigmatizing and supplantation caused by the negative attitudes of their peers. The uniqueness of the presents study is the specific questioning of students without disabilities regarding the implementation and participation of students in an art inclusive project. In previous studies the survey or social network data was examined and the researchers made the recommendations. This study directly ask students for their recommendations. The most semantic correlations regard the impact of attitudes of students towards the students with disabilities related to their attitudes on inclusion and their interactions between students with and without special needs. The positive attitudes of students towards handicapped cause them to feel comfortable greeting somebody showing disability, On the bus sitting beside a disabled person, watching T.V programmes

14 366 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION AND SOCIAL INTEGRATION OF VULNERABLE GROUPS comfortable about disabled people, going to the basketball court with somebody on a wheelchair, inviting friends home to dinner among them a person with severe disability, having dinner at a disabled person s house, going to the basketball court with somebody on a wheelchair, hanging around the mall with somebody with severe disability. The above findings agree with some researches and are in conflict with others. The conflict has to do with the existence and impact of different factors as the duration and kind of disability, the age of students, the training of non disabled students about the disability and the inclusion of handicapped in the society, the training and further education of teachers about special education and the inclusive settings, the kind of educational support in the class environment (Freeman & Algorzine 1980: , Voeltz, 1980: ; Fisher, 1996: , Ferguson, 1998: 18-21, Diamond 1993: , Archie, Sherrill, 1989: ,, Marini 2006: 19-25). The findings of the study confirm the assumption that there is differentiation of the attitudes of students towards the inclusion of their peers regarding their attitudes emerged from their experience in inclusive program. According the previous discussion It is clear that students without disabilities do not develop negative attitudes towards their classmates with disabilities as a result of inclusive education. On the contrary if students educated in an inclusive setting they support the inclusion of their classmates with disabilities. If students attend a school which provides limited inclusive opportunities they then expect and recommend that as a desirable norm. In particular students who support that students with disabilities have to watch lessons in the general education classes, they have positive attitude towards the inclusion of students with and without disabilities. Specifically students who had prior experience with students with disabilities had more positive attitudes toward inclusion of their peers. Students attitudes were influenced more by perceptions of class norms concerning the impact of the art therapy inclusive program on their activities and their perceptions. Contact related variables had more impact on no disabled students attitudes. In particular students who believes that handicapped have to watch lessons in general education class, they have more positive attitude for the inclusion of their peers. Social benefit from their educational experience in the general class is one of the reasons behind their positive reflection on the inclusion experience. Padeliadou supported that (1992: 25-26) the major goal of inclusion is to foster the social integration of such children training the normal students on acceptance of diversity of handicapped so that they may interact with and gain the acceptance of their nondisabled students. In the studies of Ferguson it was found that that simply exposing regular education students to inclusion without a specific inclusive project does not change the students attitudes over time. In other words simply being in the same classroom does not quarantee interaction. Peer appreciation of diversity must be nurtured. (Ferguson, 1998: 18).

15 ΣΑΒΒΑΤΟ 25 ΙΟΥΝΙΟΥ Substantial benefits may accrue to some nondisabled students as a result of their social experience with peers who have severe disabilities.(fisher, 1999: ). According studies students believe that inclusive education results in improvements in self concept, growth in social cognition, increased tolerance of others, reduced fear of human differences, development of personal principles and interpersonal acceptance and friendships. (Brinton et al. 1997: ). Fryxell and Kennedy (1995) revealed that students with severe disabilities educated in general classes had more social contacts and richer friendship networks that included peers without disabilities and provided and received more social support than their peers who were educated in self contained classrooms. Also the Kennedy and Itkonen. (1994) found that students who were educated in inclusion classrooms had a great number of interactions and social contacts with students without disabilities greater level of social support behaviors larger friendship networks that mostly included classmates without disabilities and had more lasting social relationships with students without disabilities. The findings of the present study are consistent with other high school attitudes related to inclusion and students with special needs. The uniqueness of the present study is the specific questioning of students without disabilities regarding the practice of inclusive education and whether or not should be continued. This study directly ask from students to support the recommendations Students reported a number of reasons for their recommendation about the inclusion. These reasons why students supported inclusive education include: acceptance of diversity, human rights, increased understanding and tolerance among peers, normal life opportunities, friendships. (Ferguson 1998: 18-21; Fisher et al. 1996: ) In particular about the most common belief was consistent with human rights. A student reported that Students with disabilities should be able to attend our class. They are human and have a right to learn just like everyone else. Another reported that students with disabilities need the opportunity to live in a world as we use to live and get the same education and training as the normal people do. Also a student claim that students with disabilities need to have the same experience and opportunities to succeed as we do. Someone else supported that It s not fair for them to be excluded because they have a kind of diversity. They ought to have the same educational experiences in a class where every one has his special characteristic of his personality, the different elements of his self. The acceptance of diversity emerged from the opportunity for increased tolerance and understanding. A student reported that. if I had a chance to have students with disabilities in my class I could better understand and show more tolerance. Another wrote that the existence of handicapped in the general class break down the barriers of fear and insecurity of the normal others. Having experience with handicapped in the class allow us to feel more comfortable around people with disabilities.

16 368 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION AND SOCIAL INTEGRATION OF VULNERABLE GROUPS The improvement of social skills and relations was also an important reason to accept the inclusive settings. As a student reported we learn how to gain our friendship. In addition two students indicated that inclusive settings help them to build the self esteem and it makes them to feel better and they get to know some more people. In addition regarding equal chances for learning some students (N=5) supported that disabled students can learn they are people too and regular classes provide a better claim to their abilities, they can learn. A 60% percentage provided a reason for not recommending inclusive education for students with disabilities (see Table 8). The most common reason among the students was the disturbance that some students with disabilities cause in the class. A student, reported He disturbed me, he always wants my help, he distracts the teacher when he s talking. Another participant wrote, They distract students and challenge teachers during their task. Also because we would support them by having to study slow through to let them understand, then we would not learn as much., Because of their differences may cause disturbance to the class because there are immature and rude students. They are better to attend lessons separated in the special schools. Statistically significant differences were not identified with gender. This finding is consistent with study of Padeliadou and Lampropoulou (2000: ) where differentiation emerged with gender only in the attitudes of students in Lykion and not for Gymnasium. The findings of this study showed that the general evaluation of attitudes towards inclusive settings may no longer been successful because more people with some exposure to their peers with disabilities hold positive attitudes.in general. Studies must focus on actual experience and behavior to investigate the attitudes of students towards inclusive education. In others studies were found statistically significant differences with gender. Women have more favorable attitudes towards persons with disabilities than do men. ( Lewis & Lewis, 1987: ; Gash, 1996: ). According Peck, Donalson & Pezzoli (1990: ) the frequency of interaction and the implementation of structured inclusive projects effect on the attitudes about the inclusion. In our study the participants have the experience of a short term art therapy inclusive project..if a person interacts daily and extensively with a person with disability he may think and act positive and show positive attitude for the inclusive setting (Peck, Donalson & Pezzoli 1990: ). This study was an effort to evaluate attitudes of students without disabilities towards inclusion of disabled based on a sampling limitation (N= 48). So the study should be replicated using more subjects and in a greater number of schools. The results of this study indicate a need for investigating other factors that influence students attitudes towards inclusion: Attitudes and behaviours of teachers, school personnel and parents, further education and training of teachers on attitudes

17 ΣΑΒΒΑΤΟ 25 ΙΟΥΝΙΟΥ of students, the impact of art therapy on the inclusion of handicapped related to a larger sample. Future research should be conducted comparing using more students with learning difficulties in the inclusive class Additional studies should be conducted comparing attitudes students with disabilities in various types of contact for example structured and non structured. Future research should be conducted to comparing the attitudes of students without disability towards their peers with disability in a pretest protest inclusive art therapy and non art therapy inclusive program. References Allport, G.W. (1935). Attitudes.In G.Murchison (Ed.), Handbook of social psychology (p.p ) Worcester, MA: Clark University Press. American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington D.C.: Author. Archie, V. W., & Sherrill, C. (1989). Attitudes toward handicapped peers of mainstreamed and nonmainstreamed children in physical education. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 69, Avramidis, E., Bayliss, P. & Burden, R. (2000) A survey into mainstream teachers attitudes towards the inclusion of children with special educational needs in the ordinary school in one local educational authority, Educational Psychology, 20(2), Banerji, Μ. & Dailey, R. A. (1995) A study of the effects of an inclusion model on students with specific learning disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 28, Barbas, G., Birbili, M., Stagiopoulos, P., Tsivinikou, S.(2006). A pilot study of factors affecting the process of integration in Greek nursery schools. European Journal of special Needs Education, Volume 21, (2), Bear, G. G. Jukonen, J. & Mclnemey (1993). Self perceptions and peer relations of boys with and without learning disabilities in a integrated setting: A longitudinal study. Learning Disability Quarterly16, Biklen, D., Morton, M. W., Saha, S. N., Duncan, J., Gold, D., Hardardottir, M., Karna, E., O Connor, S., & Roa, S. (1991). I am not a utistive on the typ ( I m not autistic on the typewriter ).Disability, Handicapped & Society, 6, Brinton, B. Fujiki, M. J. C. & L. A. Robinson (1997). The ability of children with specific language impairment to access and participate in an ongoing interaction. British Association of Art Therapist (2005) Promational leaflet.

18 370 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION AND SOCIAL INTEGRATION OF VULNERABLE GROUPS Brodin, J. & Lindstrand, P. (2007). Perspectives of a School For All. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 11(2), Clark C., Dyson A., Millward A. (1999). Towards inclusive schools? David Fulton Publishers. London p Diamond K. (1993). Attitudes of preschool children toward their peers with disabilities: A year long investigation in integrated classrooms. The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 154 (2), Evans, I. M., Salisbury, C., Palombaro, M., Berryman, J. & Hollowood, T. (1992). Peer interactions and social acceptance of elementary-age children with severe disabilities in an inclusive school. Journal of the Association of Persons with Severe Handicaps, 17, Ferguson, J. (1998). What students say about mainstreaming. The American School Board Journal, 184(2), Fichten, C.S., R. Amsel, K. Robillard and V. Tagalakis: 1991, "Thoughts about encounters between nondisabled and disabled peers: Situational constraints, statesofmind, valanced thought categories", Cognitive Therapy and Research 15, pp Fishbein, M. & Ajzen, I. (1975). Belief, attitude, intention and behavior: An introduction ti theory and research. Reading MA: Addsion-Wesley. Fisher, D., Sax, C., & Pumpian, I. (1996). From intrusion to inclusion: Myths and realities in our schools. The Reading Teacher, 49, Freeman, S & Algozzine, (1980) Social Acceptability as a Function of Labels and Assigned Attributes. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, v84 n6 p May Fryxell, D. & Kennedy C. H. (1995). Placement along the continuum of services and its impact on students social relationships. Journal of the association for Persons with Severe Handicaps, 20, Fryxell, D. & Kennedy C. H. (1995). Placement along the continuum of services and its impact on students social relationships. Journal of the association for Persons with Severe Handicaps, 20, Gash H (1996). "Changing attitudes towards children with special needs. European Journal of Special Needs Education 11(3), Henley, D. (1997). Expressive arts therapy as alternative education: Devising a therapeutic curriculum. Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association, 14(1), Hundert, J., Mahoney, B., Mundy, F. and Vernon, M.L. (1998). A descriptive analysis of developmentally appropriate and social gains of children with severe disabili-

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