The ratification of the UN-Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in European countries leads to challenges in the educational systems. Effective ways of elaborating inclusive learning processes on the one hand and creating opportunities for a systematic training of pre-service teachers for inclusive schools on the other hand has become a challenge and different aspects of the development of pre-service teachers` competences for inclusive schools need to be studied. Pre-service teachers` attitudes towards inclusion and their motivation to engage in inclusive educational issues during their studies seem to be important conditions for the professional development of their competencies for inclusive schools.

In the first contribution of this symposium Hellmich, Goerel and Schwab investigated pre-service teachers` attitudes towards inclusion, their self-efficacy beliefs, their motivation to engage in inclusive educational issues during their studies and their experiences in joint education of children with and without special needs in Germany (N=765) and Austria (N=519). Structural equation modeling illustrated the importance of self-efficacy beliefs and experiences in joint education of children with and without special needs regarding the pre-service teachers` attitudes towards inclusive education. Pre-service teachers` motivation to engage in inclusive educational issues during their studies are predicted by their attitudes towards inclusive education.

Within the context of a transformation of the teacher training system in Austria, Hecht and Niedermair studied if the current Teacher Education Program was able to prepare students for integrative/inclusive school settings adequately, which is not given as a recent meta-study shows (De Boer, Pijl & Minnaert, 2011). The research should help to identify factors influencing developing teachers’ attitudes and competencies for inclusive schooling. A questionnaire survey (n=1532) and group discussions (n=24) were executed in this mixed methods study. The results show that teacher students have favourable attitudes towards inclusive education and also high self-efficacy beliefs. Moreover they showed to experience positive changes in the course of the training, but at the same time their concerns regarding the implementation of inclusive education increased significantly.

The study by Pit-Ten Cate, Krischler and Sabine Krolak-Schwerdt focusses on both implicit (measured with an affective priming task) and explicit attitudes towards inclusion of students with SEN and investigates how attitudes influence teachers’ judgments of student achievement. Their expectation is that teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion influence their decision making processes and judgments such that more negative attitudes will lead to more negative ratings of students’ achievement and to choices for educational support outside the regular classroom.

Bettina Streese investigated attitudes, beliefs and competencies of a total of 618 pre- and in-service teachers. Pre- and in-service-teachers show small differences regarding their attitudes, sentiments and concerns, and experience with persons with disabilities appears to have a great influence.

De Boer, A., Pijl, S.J. & Minnaert, A. (2011). Regular primary schoolteachers´attitudes towards inclusive education. Journal for Inclusive Education, 15 (3), 331-353.