title: Knowledge about epilepsy and attitudes towards affected people among teachers in training in the Czech Republic.
abstract: The aim of this study was to compare knowledge about, confidence with, and attitudes towards epilepsy and affected people between groups of freshmen and senior teachers in training (preservice teachers) at the Faculty of Education in Pilsen, Czech Republic. Two hundred thirty-six freshmen and 138 seniors completed the 21-item Scale of Attitudes Towards People with Epilepsy (ATPE), an 18-item multiple-choice test measuring their knowledge about epilepsy, and a 5-item questionnaire focused on confidence with epilepsy in a school environment. We found that despite a higher level of knowledge about epilepsy among seniors (mean score of 9.6 points compared with 8.48 points for freshmen, p<0.001), attitudes towards epilepsy, and also confidence in how to manage children affected with this disease did not differ significantly. The presented findings suggest that epilepsy-related training of preservice teachers should be more effective especially with respect to their ability to resolve problems that may happen to children with epilepsy in a class.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Faculty of Education, University of West Bohemia, Plzen, Czech Republic. Electronic address: dannab@seznam.cz.
authors.forename: Dana
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Brabcová
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of West Bohemia, Plzen, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Jiří
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kohout
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Neurology, Charles University in Prague, 2nd Faculty of Medicine, Motol University Hospital, Praha, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Pavel
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kršek
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D018153:Czech Republic / Q000453:epidemiology; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D005178:Faculty / Q000592:standards; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Attitudes; Confidence; Epilepsy; Knowledge; Teachers in training