Underlying Dimensions of the Physical Educators’ Judgments about Inclusion Instrument: Brazilian-Version

Abstract

Background/Objective: The available information pertaining to the attitudes of Brazilian physical education teachers about teaching students with disabilities is limited in the extant literature base. Rationally, however, scholars argue that determining, analyzing, and theorizing about the attitudes of physical education teachers is important in the preparation and professional development of these teachers. It is therefore important to extend the research base using valid and reliable measures regarding teachers' attitudes about inclusion and teaching students with various disabilities. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the underlying dimensions of the Physical Educators' Judgments about Inclusion (PEJI) scale following translation procedures that converted the existing measure to Portuguese. The PEJI was designed to analyze teachers' attitudes about inclusion and teaching students with various disabilities. Method: Using a descriptive survey research design, data were collected from 147 participants (women = 57.1%, men = 42.9%) on the PEJI survey instrument. Results: Principal component analysis resulted in salient loadings on three dimensions consistent with prior study using the PEJI and explained 57% of the variance for measuring judgments about: Inclusion versus Exclusion, Acceptance of Students with Disabilities, and Perceived Training Needs. Conclusions: The overall results confirm validity of the PEJI survey consistent with prior study on this measure. The strong magnitude of values indicates that each of the subscales measures separate dimensions of judgments (attitudes). Implications for future use, we recommend reporting individual scale scores rather than a total PEJI score.

Physical Educators’ Intention and Confidence in Teaching Students with Disabilities in Physical Education

“…Oh and colleagues' study (2010) revealed that teacher related variables found to affect attitudes toward teaching students with disabilities including perceived competence, experience teaching students with disabilities, and preparation in special education or adapted physical education. Also, other studies showed that teachers' competence (Conatser et al, 2002), experience (Hodge et al, 2015), attitude (Trip & Rizzo, 2006) were variables related to teachers' intentions as well as other attributes. However, little study has been done yet to link Korean physical education teachers' attributes with teaching behavior.…”

“…Currently, approximately 6.4 million students in public schools are receiving special education services and this amounts is about 13% of the national school-aged population (U.S. Department of Education, 2011). As a result of the inclusion movement in the United States, more of these students are now being educated in physical education classes (Block & Obrunsnikova, 2007;Hodge et al, 2015;Lieberman & Houston-Wilson, 2013).…”