Physical Educators' Beliefs about Teaching Children with Disabilities

Abstract

The primary purpose was to extend Rizzo's research and identify the variables which contribute significantly to physical educators' positive beliefs about teaching children with disabilities. The second purpose was to structure physical educators' beliefs by conditions of disability. Participants were a stratified random sample of 168 physical educators, 79 men and 89 women from eastern USA. Responses to Rizzo's Physical Educators' Attitudes Toward Teaching Individuals with Disabilities-III indicated that teachers' beliefs were generally positive but varied by type of disability. Beliefs were more positive about teaching children with specific learning disabilities and less positive about teaching children with emotional and behavioral disorders. Significant predictors of positive beliefs were perceived competence, positive teaching experience with children with disabilities, and course work in adapted physical education. The study has important implications for programs of preparing students to teach.

Attitudes and Self-Efficacy of Arabic-speaking Physical Education Teachers in Israel toward Including Children with Disabilities

“…Previous studies have revealed equivocal findings, with some of them reporting that experience with students having certain disabilities led to positive attitude formation (e.g., Block & Rizzo, 1995;Obrusnikova, 2008;Özer et al, 2013;Rizzo & Vispoel, 1991), and other studies reporting no such effect (Block & Rizzo, 1995;Rizzo, 1984;Schmidt-Gotz et al, 1994). Most authors who have found supportive evidence for longer acquaintance supported their findings with the Contact Theory (Allport, 1954), which suggests that the amount and type of contact is related to its effect.…”

“…Based on a North American perspective, Obrusnikova (2008) concluded that the beliefs of PE teachers toward teaching children with disabilities were generally positive, but that they varied according to the type of disability. Beliefs were reported to be more favorable toward teaching children with specific learning disabilities and less favorable toward teaching children with emotional and behavioral disorders.…”

"Deporte inclusivo en la escuela": diseño y análisis de un programa de intervencion para promover la inclusión del alumnado con discapacidad en Educación Física

“…Otros autores, sin embargo, señalan a los alumnos con problemas de aprendizaje percibidos más positivamente que los alumnos con trastornos emocionales y de conducta (Obrusnikova, 2008;Rizzo y Vispoel, 1991).…”

“…Los resultados obtenidos en estudios realizados en distintos países refuerzan la idea de que los docentes que reciben formación específica para atender a los alumnos con discapacidad tienen reacciones más afectivas y actitudes más favorables que los que no la han recibido (Beh-Pajooh, 1991;Block y Rizzo, 1995;Obrusnikova, 2008), aunque se puedan encontrar otros estudios que no encontraron ninguna correlación significativa entre los cursos de formación y las creencias (Rizzo y Vispoel, 1991;Rizzo y Wright, 1988).…”

“…En relación a los años de experiencia, parece ser que el profesorado presenta una actitud más favorable hacia la enseñanza de alumnos con discapacidad cuantos más años poseen de experiencia (Avramidis y Kalyva, 2007;Bekiari y Sakelariou, 2004;Block y Rizzo, 1995;Knoll y Fediuk, 2012;Kozub y Porretta, 1998;Meegan y Macphail, 2006;Obrusnikova, 2008;Ozer et al, 2013;Rizzo y Vispoel, 1991). En contraste a esto, Leyser, Kapperman y Keller (1994) y Oh et al (2010) encontraron actitudes más positivas hacia la inclusión en profesores con menos años de experiencia.…”