Influence of attitudes towards disability in academic performance

Abstract

This research has analyzed the influence of attitudes towards disability on the academic performance of the students of the Master’s Degree in Preschool Education of the University of Jaén who study the subject of Developmental Disorders. Researches such as Alcañiz, Chulià, Riera, Ruis and Santolino (2016) study the relationship between the skills required in professional performance and academic performance. Moreno, Rodríguez, Saldaña and Aguilera, 2006). One of the essential competences of future teachers is the attitudes towards disability, since they foster the integral development of these people. For the research, a descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out on 48 university students who study the developmental disorders in the Preschool Education Degree. These students have been applied the Verdugo, Arias and Jenaro (1997) Scale of Attitudes towards people with disabilities (EAPD), which consists of 37 items grouped into five factors. Differences were analyzed according to gender, previous contact, reason, frequency, quality and type of disability in the scales of the questionnaire and in order to know the influence of the attitude towards the disability on the academic performance has taken into account its qualification In the subject in both the practical and theoretical parts. The results show that there are significant differences in the attitudes toward disability based on the variables of previous contact with these people, the reason and the quality of the same. Regarding the influence of the variables of the questionnaire on academic performance, it is observed that they explain 19.2% of the total variance in the practical note and 14.5% of the total variance in the theory note.

Keywords

• actitudes
• discapacidad
• rendimiento académico
• educación superior