Psychometric Features of the Short Form of Attitude towards Inclusive Education of Children with Special Needs TAIS-IR

 The current research was conducted with the aim of standardizing and validating the short form of attitude towards inclusive education of children with special needs. 

In a descriptive-survey design, 354 undergraduate teacher education students of Farhangian University of Yazd and Khorasan Razavi from 4 campuses participated in this study.

The fit indices indicated that the verification model has a good fit (x2/df = 2.87; GFI = 0.98; RFI = 0.96; SRMR = 0.04; CFI =0.98; RMSEA =0.05). The results of the factor loadings of confirmatory factor analysis also showed that the distribution of questions in one factor corresponds to the main test. In order to verify the convergent and divergent validity of the TAIS-IR scale, the use of the preferred teaching style questionnaire and the correlation coefficients between the score of the attitude scale towards inclusion of children with special needs and the student-centered teaching style were positive and significant (r=0.49, p<0.001). ) which indicates the convergent validity of this scale. Also, the scale score of the attitude towards the inclusion of children with special needs had a negative and significant relationship with the teacher-centered teaching style (r=-0.55, p<0.001), which indicates the divergent validity of this scale. Cronbach's alpha coefficients also showed that the TAIS-IR scale has satisfactory internal consistency. In the end, in order to compare the results of future research with the norm group in Iranian culture, the mean and standard deviation of the scale scores for the whole sample and by gender were presented. 

 the results indicated that the final adapted version of the scale (TAIS-IR) has suitable psychometric properties and can be used in Iranian society.