Korean Pre-Service Teachers’ Knowledge of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): A Comparison with the German Sample

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate Korean pre-service teachers’ knowledge of ADHD and to compare it with a previous German study (Lee, Lammers, & Witruk, 2015). Pre-service teachers’ characteristics (e.g. demographics and ADHD-related experiences) were compared by differentiating between their sub-groups. In total, 441 pre-service teachers participated in this study. Data collection took place from January to March in 2015, and SPSS 22.0 was applied for data analysis. The results showed that Korean pre-service teachers’ overall knowledge is rather low (42.28%). They are highly aware of ADHD characteristics (e.g. Students from any walk of life have ADHD; correct answer: true; accuracy: 79.8%), but lack knowledge of the cause of ADHD (e.g. Family dysfunction can increase the likelihood that a student will be diagnosed with ADHD; correct answer: true; inaccuracy: 68.9%), and have less knowledge of the prevalence of ADHD (e.g. Approximately 5% Korean school-aged students have ADHD; correct answer: true; no information rate: 56.7%). Moreover, their level of knowledge differs depending on ADHD-related experiences (e.g. whether training on ADHD has been provided in university). When compared with German pre-service teachers’ situation, the results of this research were remarkably similar to those from the Korean pre-service teachers’ sample. In conclusion, this study emphasized the importance of ADHD-related experiences, which can be a positive outlook on how to improve pre-service teachers’ accurate knowledge of ADHD. The more such experiences pre-service teachers have, the higher the level of their knowledge of ADHD will be. These experiences can help pre-service teachers to successfully prepare themselves to manage students with ADHD in the future. Keywords: knowledge of ADHD, pre-service teachers, Korea, Germany. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15823/up.2017.04