Parental satisfaction on inclusive and non inclusive education for pupils with autism spectrum disorder / Lee Yik Peng

• Main Author: Lee , Yik Peng
• Format: Thesis
• Published: 2021
• Subjects: BF Psychology; LC Special aspects of education
• Online Access: http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/15074/1/Lee_Yik_Peng.pdf; http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/15074/

The increasing number of children with autism increases the demand for education in Malaysia. More public and private schools are opening their classes for inclusion, while more centers are emerging in the country to offer various programs and therapy. Choosing the right education is the main problem that parents of children with autism are facing. Given the different types of education placements available in Malaysia, finding a suitable type of education that could satisfy parents can be tricky. Despite the lack of facilities and other factors, parents would still choose to place their child in public mainstream education. The purpose of this study is to identify the level of parental satisfaction towards inclusive and non-inclusive education for pupils with ASD in public and private schools or centers; and also to obtain feedback from parents on how to improve inclusive and non-inclusive education for children with ASD that will lead to parental satisfaction. The design of the study is a mix method design where the quantitative data is collected using a questionnaire developed by the researcher that is adapted by the PSP (Parental Satisfaction Scale), and data was collected from 120 parents from the inclusive and non-inclusive education setting. The qualitative data is collected through an interviewing 10 parents from both education setting. Findings from the quantitative data show that parental satisfaction from both inclusive and non-inclusive education setting is high. However, parental satisfaction for inclusive education was slightly higher compared to non-inclusive education. The researcher was also able to identify a few common themes that affects parental satisfaction and also identified some new ones from the data collected from the interview. Higher levels of satisfaction for parental satisfaction is higher for inclusive education could be due to the goals that parents have for placing their child in an inclusive education setting. However, the ability to enter mainstream education would not determine the pupil’s readiness for school and could form problems in the process of obtaining education. Future research could be done to examine the well being of pupil’s with autism in mainstream education.