Santos, Maria TeresaMendes, Cláudia Cristina Lázaro dos Reis2011-09-072011-09-072009376-053.2 MEN*Inc Cavehttp://hdl.handle.net/10400.1/535Dissertação mest., Psicologia da Educação, Universidade do Algarve, 2009The aim of the comparative study that we have developed consisted in researching if there was any influence between the school contact and the educational level and the students? attitudes towards the inclusion of children with Down Syndrome into regular education. The participants in our research were forty individuals divided into four groups composed of ten elements each, coming from two elementary education schools (3rd and 6th years), from Alc?cer do Sal. The four groups presented different levels of school contact with students with Down Syndrome and belong to different educational levels. It means a group belonging to a class with close contact of the 3rd year, a group of a class with no contact of the 3rd year, a group coming from a class with close contact of the 6th year and a group belonging to a class with no contact of the 6th year. According to the hypothesis defined in this study, the students coming from the classes with close contact and the students belonging to a higher educational level (6th 6 year), would present more favourable attitudes to the inclusion of children with Down Syndrome, when compared to the attitudes of students belonging to a class with no contact and of a lower educational level (3rd year). The instrument used to collect information was the semi-directive interview and later a categorical, descriptive and statistical analysis was done. The results obtained after analysing the data revealed that, in general, the attitudes of the students who participated in this study were favourable to the school inclusion of students with Down Syndrome. However, some differences between the groups were observed. These differences are related to the interpersonal relationships, the way how they describe the schoolfellow with Down Syndrome, the perception they have of his difficulties, the future of these people, the advantages, and the positive and negative aspects of these children?s inclusion in regular education. The students belonging to the classes with close contact seem to have more positive attitudes compared to the attitudes of students belonging to the classes with no contact.application/pdfporTesesEducação especialSindroma de DownAlunos com necessidades educativas especiaisCriançasNecessidades educativasmaster thesis