Abstract
Today’s socio-cultural-economic reality creates challenges in the heterogeneous classroom. So, the need for radical reform of the education system and educational policy, due to the emerging diverse student needs, is highlighted. In the present quantitative research, the possibility of entering the specialty of occupational therapy in the kindergarten is investigated through the views of 171 kindergarten teachers. Through a structured questionnaire, an attempt is made to assess their maturity to welcome occupational therapists in the classrooms, as well as the way they define the science of occupational therapy. The collected data were analyzed by descriptive and inductive statistical analysis. The results showed that the majority of participants have a positive attitude for the entry of occupational therapy and an intention for cooperation. However, kindergarten teachers seem to associate occupational therapy mainly with a therapeutic-rehabilitative role and ignore its complexity and multiple areas of intervention in children in general. Demographic factors, such as work context, appear to influence their views on interdisciplinary collaboration and the training of occupational therapists and kindergarten teachers in pedagogical and occupational therapies respectively. Finally, the need for further training of teachers in occupational therapy is highlighted.
