Knowledge and Readiness of Preschool Teachers in Accepting Special Needs Children

Abstract

This research is conducted to observe the level of knowledge and readiness faced by kindergarten educators in accepting special needs children. This research aims to study the relationship between knowledge and readiness of kindergarten teachers towards their acceptance of students with special needs education. A quantitative approach was used by utilising observation method with non-random sampling in order to select the respondents. n=77 kindergarten teachers who are currently teaching children around the age of five to six at a preschool or kindergarten, regardless of whether it is a private or government school, were identified. The descriptive analysis presented that the mean value is high for every variable of readiness and knowledge of teachers in accepting children who require special education at their kindergartens. The Pearson correlation test was used to describe the relationship between the variables of readiness and knowledge. The result showed that there was a significant relationship between readiness, knowledge, and teachers’ acceptance towards children who require special education. The implication of this study hoped that every private and government kindergarten is able to fully accept special education children without any biases in order achieve the objective of Malaysia’s National Education Blueprint (MNEB). This is to ensure that inclusive education in early childhood education in Malaysia can be accomplished.