What is the optimal duration and content of a successful teacher training program on inclusive education? A systematic review
Résumé
Teachers’ attitudes towards inclusive education (teachers’ beliefs or knowledge about educating children with special educational needs, de Boer et al., 2011) appear to be an important factor to promote a fully inclusive society. The large body of literature shows that they are strongly influenced by various factors (teachers’ self-efficacy, Desombre et al., 2019 ; students’ type of difficulty, de Boer et al., 2011 ; meritocratic selection function of school, Jury et al., 2022; Khamzina et al., 2021). Teachers’ training programs on inclusive education are also shown to have an important impact on their attitudes and intentions towards inclusion (Lautenbach & Heyder, 2019). This systematic review of literature aims to identify the optimal duration and content of a successful teachers’ training program in order to promote a positive change in teachers’ attitudes. Indeed, while the literature is concordant to show this effect, there is little evidence on the optimal duration and content to include in such programs when it comes to conceive them. However, the few studies conducted in the field (Avramidis & Kalyva, 2007; Lautenbach et al., 20120; Sharma et al., 2008) are inconsistent on the optimal number of hours to produce teachers’ attitudinal change (see for a discussion Lautenbach et al., 2020). Thus, the systematic narrative review literature – pre-registered on https://osf.io/4fmsu/ (Fillon et al., 2020) - will discuss the pros and cons of infused (involving several hundred hours) and stand-alone programs (20 hours for example, Sharma et al., 2008; Symenidou, 2017) to identify the most optimal duration and content of a successful training on inclusive education. These issues are important for educational institutions and researchers. Indeed, the implementation of infused training programs or those of shorter duration do not imply the same efforts and timelines for educational institutions. First, we argue that infused programs are not necessarily more efficient than stand-alone programs ones (Sharma et al., 2008). Second, we postulate that the stand-alone programs would be as much successful in inducing the positive change in teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion as long term one as long as it combines cognitive based interventions with experience field workshops (see also Lautenbach et al., 2020). From the applied perspective, the conclusions of such systematic review would allow to inform educational policy makers as well as educational institutions when it comes to conceive the successful teachers’ training programs to be further implemented in the university curricula to promote a fully inclusive school settings.