ABSTRACT
Increasingly, both in the West and throughout the Asia-Pacific region, regular class teachers are being asked to cater for the needs of students with disabilities
and diverse abilities in their mainstream classrooms (Loreman et al., 2005). Many teachers, though, hesitate about including students with disabilities since they feel that they lack the specialized skills to cater for this group of students. A teacher’s willingness to include specific students is also strongly influenced by factors such as their attributes (Sachs, 2004), the nature and severity of the disabling conditions of the learners (Elkins and Porter, 2005), availability of physical and human resources (Bradshaw and Mundia, 2006), and their teacher training (Chong et al., 2007). A teacher’s support and positive attitude towards inclusive education is, however, essential for its successful implementation as they are the ones who work closely with students on a daily basis (Forlin, 2007a).
