The opinions of students with normal development in primary schools towards inclusion

The purpose of this study was to analyze the opinions of students with normal development in regular classes toward inclusion, to analyze the reasons of problem behaviors and to take their suggestions about the solutions of these problem behaviors. The study was completed with 18 with normal development who voluntarily participated in the study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the students, and the data collected were analyzed by using descriptive techniques. The findings of the study were presented quantitatively. The result of the study indicated that students with normal development do not want to be in the same classroom with the mainstreamed students and they believe that the students with mental retardation can not gain necessary knowledge and abilities in an inclusive school setting. Also, the students mentioned that mainstreamed students do not obey the classroom rules and they want to call their attention or they have problematic behaviors because of their mental functioning. As the recommendations of these problems, they declare that they do not want to study in the same classroom with inclusive students; they should be educated separately in a different classroom or school. The findings of the study provided many suggestions about inclusion. The most important suggestion is to inform the students with normal development students about mainstreamed students? characteristics. The communication problems between two parties could be reduced with this practice. Also, families should be actively participated into inclusion process and there should be informative seminars about special education and the needs of students with special education needs for the regular classroom teachers.