title: Attitude, anxiety, and social readjustment toward learning disabilities by student teachers.
abstract: 84 student teachers from undergraduate classes at a western university in Kansas completed a 9-question checklist of learning disabilities before interacting with a behavioral disordered/learning disabilities teacher, a paraprofessional, and a high school learning-disabled student. After the dialog, the student teachers completed a Social Readjustment Rating Scale, Breskin Rigidity Test, the Self-evaluation Questionnaire: State and Trait Anxiety, and the same 9-question checklist with one additional question ("Now that you have seen a learning-disabled student has it affected your opinion of learning disabilities?"). The dialog affected 63% of the students' opinions while 31% stated the presentation did not affect their opinion (6% were missing or not completed). Persons who experienced more life-changes and problems tended to rate or view learning disabilities more negatively. The more trait anxiety experienced by the students, the lower they rated learning disabilities after the presentation.
authors.affiliation: North Central Kansas Special Education Coop, Phillipsburg.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Krause
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Nixon
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Beer
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Beer
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D001290:Attitude; D004519:Education, Special; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007859:Learning Disabilities / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D012917:Social Adjustment; D012931:Social Environment