Journal of ICSAR ISSN (print): 2548-8619; ISSN (online): 2548-8600 Volume 6 Number 2; DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17977/um005v6i22022p129 129 The traditional way of professional development in inclusive education: Still effective or not? Suhendri*, Norimune Kawai Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan *E-mail: d196070@hiroshima-u.ac.jp Abstract: Numerous studies suggest professional development to improve educators’ attitudes toward inclusive education. However, not all professional development seems to be effective in boosting participants’ attitudes. This current study is aimed to explore the effectiveness of professional development in inclusive education, especially for kindergarten principals in Indonesia. By conducting a 10-day professional development (n=60), the attitudes toward inclusive education of the participants were measured before and after the professional development using ITAIE (The Indonesian Teachers' Attitudes toward Inclusive Education). A paired T-Test was applied to find the differences in principals’ attitudes toward inclusive education before and after the professional development. The finding revealed no significant improvement in kindergarten principals’ attitudes toward inclusive education after joining the traditional way of professional development. Keywords: professional development; principals attitudes; inclusive education INTRODUCTION Many scholars reveal that teachers’ attitudes towards inclusive education determine the successful implementation (Avramidis & Kalyva, 2007; Barnes & Gaines, 2015; Elisa & Wrastari, 2013). In addition, teachers' attitudes towards inclusive education greatly influence the learning environment in inclusive schools (Monsen et al., 2014). Barnes and Gaines (2015) believed teachers with positive attitudes towards inclusive education could create a good school atmosphere to bring positive student achievements. . One of the ways to gain the positive attitudes teachers need to attend professional development in inclusive education. In a study by Avramidis and Kalyva (2007), 60% of the 135 participants believed their attitudes would be affected by their knowledge. One-third said they could get more knowledge through professional development. In addition, Prinsloo (2006) believed that professional development was a key factor in positively impacting teachers' attitudes toward inclusive education. In fact, principals' attitudes and knowledge towards inclusive education still become barriers to actualizing inclusive education as they lack professional development. Meanwhile, Slee (2010) points out that professional development programs keep struggling to equip teachers to implement inclusive education. Unfortunately, most studies reveal that 'sit and get' professional development has had fewer impacts on improving educators' competencies (McLeskey & Waldron, 2002; Nishimura, 2014; Tate, 2012). Therefore, the current study will explore the effectiveness of the traditional way of professional development to improve kindergarten principals’ attitudes toward inclusive education. http://issn.pdii.lipi.go.id/issn.cgi?daftar&&&&&2548-8600 http://dx.doi.org/10.17977/um005v6i22022p129 130 Journal of ICSAR; Volume 6, Number 2, July 2022, 129-133 METHOD The current study used a quasi-experiment comparison group design by applying a traditional way of professional development as the intervention. Upon obtaining ethical approval, 60 Indonesian kindergarten principals were asked to join the conventional professional development for ten days. Some participants represented each island to join the professional development. Due to the pandemic situation of COVID-19, the class was held online with 60 participants. The ITAIE scale – The Indonesian Teachers' Attitudes toward Inclusive Education scale developed by Ediyanto (2020) was applied to measure the principals' attitudes toward inclusive education before and after the treatment. The instrument contains a six-point Likert scale ranging from Strongly Disagree (1), Disagree (2), Neutral (3), Agree (4), to Strongly Agree (5). For the analysis, the Paired T-Test was applied to measure the significant difference between pre and after the professional development. RESULT AND DISCUSSION Result(S) Respondent background In this current study, kindergarten principals joined the traditional professional development. The participants were asked to complete a survey about their attitudes toward inclusive education before and after the professional development was conducted. To indicate the level of the attitudes, the range of the mean will be as follows: A mean score of more than 3.5 (M > 3.5) will be considered that kindergarten principals have a high positive attitude toward inclusive education at kindergartens, A mean score between 1.3 and 3.5 (1.3 ≤ M ≤ 3.5) will indicate a moderate attitude, A mean score lower than 1.3 (M < 1.3) will show the negative attitude of kindergarten principals towards implementing inclusive education at kindergartens. From the quantitative data analysis in the control class, the mean score of principals’ attitudes toward inclusive education before the professional development was 3.0 (see Table 1), between 1.3 and 3.5 (1.3 < M < 3.5). It indicated that participants’ attitudes towards inclusive education were moderate attitude. After the professional development, the attitudes were measured again. There was a slight improvement; the mean was 3.1 (Table 2), but still moderate attitudes. Table 1. The mean score of principals’ attitudes toward inclusive education before and after the professional development Before the professional development After the professional development Statistics Value Statistics Value N Valid 60 N Valid 60 Missing 0 Missing 0 Mean 3.0098 Mean 3.1256 Std. Deviation .44670 Std. Deviation .42303 Minimum 1.50 Minimum 2.18 Maximum 4.09 Maximum 4.27 Suhendri and Kawai, The traditional way of professional development… 131 The Paired T-Test analysis was applied to get more accurate data about the difference Paired Sample T-test was used to determine whether there are differences in kindergarten principals’ attitudes before and after the conventional professional development in inclusive education. The decision-making guideline in paired sample t-test was based on the significance value. If the probability or significance value (sig. 2-tailed) is less than 0.05 (<0.05), then there is a significant difference between principals’ attitudes before and after the professional development in inclusive education Conversely, if the value of probability or sig. (2-tailed) is higher than 0.05 (> 0.05), then it can be concluded that there is no significant difference between principals’ attitudes before and after the professional development in inclusive education The Paired T-Test analysis found that the sig (2-tailed) value was 0.144 (Table 2). This value was more than 0.05. Since the sig. (2-tailed) was higher than 0.05 (> 0.05), so it was concluded that there was no significant difference between principals’ attitudes before and after the professional development. In other words, the traditional professional development did not successfully improve principals’ attitudes toward inclusive education. Table 2. the Result of Paired T Test Paired Differences Sig (2- tailed) Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean Pair 1 VAR00001-VAR00002 -.11212 .58639 .07570 .144 Discussion(s) The traditional professional development in this current study did not apply any combination of professional development except the “sit and watch” method. As predicted, it did not improve teachers’ attitudes towards inclusive education. Most studies claimed that the failure of traditional professional development to improve teachers’ competencies was due to its top-down structure, one-size-fits-all nature, and lack of continuous follow-up and support (Shurr et al., 2014; Utami & Prestridge, 2018; Visser et al., 2014). This finding reinforced some other studies about traditional professional development's failure to boost teachers’ attitudes and competencies, for example, a study by Reina et al. (2019) and Ediyanto et al. (2020). They found that the traditional professional development failed to boost 40 Spanish Physical Education Teachers’ (PET) attitudes towards inclusive education. This result was also in line with the study by Sykes (1996). He said that a traditional professional development where teachers do one-shot training was ineffective in developing their competencies. Artman et al. (2020) also argued that traditional professional development failed to meet teachers’ needs. As a result, the students’ achievements were also hard to gain. However, some studies mentioned different results regarding the improvement of attitudes towards inclusive education after professional development. Many studies mentioned that professional development could boost teachers’ attitudes toward inclusive education, such as Ediyanto (2020), Kuyini and Desai (2008), Lambe (2007), and Male (2011). Male (2011) revealed that forty-eight teachers, who were enrolled in a master's program in Special and Inclusive Education, indicated having more positive attitudes at the end of the professional development compared with at the beginning for four categories of inclusion, namely physical/sensory; social; academic; and behavioral. 132 Journal of ICSAR; Volume 6, Number 2, July 2022, 129-133 CONCLUSSION A positive attitude toward inclusive education is a key element in implementing inclusion. One of the ways for educators to achieve it is by joining professional development. However, not every professional development has successfully improved educators’ attitudes toward inclusion. This current study revealed that the traditional professional development in inclusive education had failed to improve kindergarten principals’ attitudes toward inclusion. The principal’s attitudes remained moderate before and after the professional development. 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