Pre-service teachers’ empathy and attitudes toward inclusive education—The chain mediating role of teaching motivation and inclusive education efficacy

PLOS One | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0321066 April 29, 2025 12 / 18 Discussion Teachers’ positive attitudes toward inclusive education are vital to achieving inclusive education in schools. Recently, researchers have started to consider improving pre-service teachers’ attitudes toward inclusive education from an empathic perspective [62]. Therefore, this study examined the link between pre-service teachers’ empathy and attitudes Table 5. PLS-predict. Indicators PLS-SEM_RMSE LM_RMSE PLS-LM Q2 predict PL1 1.146 1.153 -0.007 0.021 PL2 1.129 1.142 -0.013 0.024 EI1 1.101 1.112 -0.011 0.034 EI2 1.119 1.127 -0.008 0.051 BME1 1.141 1.155 -0.014 0.020 BME2 1.095 1.108 -0.013 0.030 BME3 1.115 1.127 -0.012 0.014 BME4 1.105 1.121 -0.016 0.031 BME5 1.100 1.112 -0.012 0.028 BME6 1.128 1.142 -0.014 0.022 CE1 1.110 1.124 -0.014 0.043 CE2 1.131 1.144 -0.013 0.039 CE3 1.085 1.097 -0.012 0.034 CE4 1.118 1.133 -0.015 0.050 CE5 1.118 1.132 -0.014 0.036 CE6 1.079 1.087 -0.008 0.037 ITE1 1.144 1.161 -0.017 0.040 ITE2 1.106 1.124 -0.018 0.028 ITE3 1.126 1.142 -0.016 0.043 ITE4 1.122 1.138 -0.016 0.026 ITE5 1.106 1.116 -0.010 0.043 ITE6 1.087 1.101 -0.014 0.028 Attitudes1 1.094 1.103 -0.009 0.030 Attitudes2 1.095 1.110 -0.015 0.051 Attitudes3 1.070 1.075 -0.005 0.028 Attitudes4 1.096 1.101 -0.005 0.043 Attitudes5 1.106 1.117 -0.011 0.040 Concerns1 1.146 1.144 0.002 0.048 Concerns2 1.041 1.041 0.000 0.032 Concerns3 1.091 1.100 -0.009 0.050

Concerns4 1.075 1.076 -0.001 0.045 Concerns5 1.049 1.050 -0.001 0.020 Sentiments1 1.083 1.089 -0.006 0.023 Sentiments2 1.111 1.120 -0.009 0.040 Sentiments3 1.033 1.036 -0.003 0.051 Sentiments4 1.088 1.095 -0.007 0.052 Sentiments5 1.097 1.106 -0.009 0.038 Note: PL = Professional love; EI = Educational interest; ITE = Inclusive teaching efficacy; CE = Collaborative efficacy; BME = Behavior management efficacy. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0321066.t005