Changing Physical Education Teacher Education Curriculum to Promote Inclusion

Abstract

Many physical education teachers are not well trained to address the needs of students with disabilities in an inclusive physical education class despite inclusion being a general educational policy (Rust & Sinelnikov, 2010). This lack of training could be improved through well-designed physical education teacher education (PETE) curriculum. This article proposes a curriculum framework based on the Transtheoretical Model (TTM) to effectively train pre-service physical educators toward the inclusive physical education. Three curriculum stages (lecture-focused, lectures with teaching practicum, and internship-focused) and the stage-matched strategies adapted from the TTM are discussed as promising ideas to systematically restructure the PETE curriculum and effectively train pre-service teachers to promote inclusion.

Keywords:

• Inclusive physical education
• Transtheoretical Model