How are Beliefs about inclusive Education held by prospective Teachers related to Characteristics of their Teacher Education? A quantitative Study taking into account the used Learning Opportunities, the Training Phase, and the Teaching Profession

Future teachers' beliefs about inclusive education represent an important factor for the implementation of inclusion in schools. This paper examines whether vocational beliefs as a component of professional competence are related to characteristics of teacher education. Learning opportunities are taken into account as proximal characteristics, and the teaching type and training phase as distal characteristics. Latent regression analyses are used to investigate 949 prospective teachers in the bachelor's degree program (n = 419) and in the internship program (n = 530), four teaching types are considered. An instrument for measuring beliefs on inclusive education (InkU) is used, comprising different content areas and concepts of inclusion on various scales. The results show that the distal characteristic of teaching type is the most important, but there are clear differences between the belief scales. Practical implications for teacher training are comprehensively discussed.