The effects of modifying contact, duration, and teaching strategies in awareness interventions on attitudes towards inclusion in physical education

ABSTRACT

This quasi-experimental study analyses the effects of an awareness intervention programme with five different branches designed to improve the attitudes of physical education (PE) students towards the inclusion of classmates with disabilities. The contact (yes/no) and its frequency (×1 vs. ×3) with para-athletes, the duration of the programme (1 vs. 6/7 sessions), and the provision of teaching strategies and materials (yes/no) were manipulated. The study involved 603 students aged 14‒19 from five public educational centres in southern Spain. Attitudes were assessed pre- and post-intervention with the Spanish version of the Children’s Attitude towards Integrated Physical Education (general and specific subscales) and the Scale of Attitudes towards Students with Disabilities in PE. The three groups having contact with para-athletes during the interventions improved in the three attitude variables (p < 0.05; −0.20 < d < −0.24). Pairwise comparisons of the improvement ratios also revealed several positive effects of the intervention duration and provision of teaching strategies (p < 0.05; −0.07 < d < 0.18). These findings could assist PE teachers in educating students to improve their knowledge and attitudes towards people with disabilities, having different strategies and resources to conduct awareness interventions based on para-sports in their regular PE classes.

KEYWORDS:

• Special education needs
• paralympics
• disability
• para-sport
• physical education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Raul Reina

Raul Reina is a full professor in Adapted Physical Activity and Para-Sports at the Miguel Hernández University. He is also a researcher of the Sport Research Centre on Inclusive Physical Education and Classification in Paralympic Sports.

María Carmen Íñiguez-Santiago

María Carmen Iñiguez-Santiago obtained her PhD at the Miguel Hernández University researching the attitudes towards the inclusion of students with disabilities in physical education.

Roberto Ferriz-Morell

Roberto Ferriz-Morell is professor in didactics and teaching in physical education with research interest on the contextual factors underlying the promotion of active lifestyles.

Celestina Martínez-Galindo

Celestina Martínez-Galindo is an associate professor in Sports and Leisure at the Miguel Hernández University. She is also a physical education teacher at the IES Tirant Lo Blanc educational centre in Elche (Spain).

Marta Cebrián-Sánchez

Marta Cebrián-Sánchez is a former student of the master program on health and sports performance of the Miguel Hernández University, and her master thesis was about the inclusion of students with special needs education in physical education settings.

Alba Roldan

Alba Roldan is a professor in Adapted Physical Activity and Para-Sports at the Miguel Hernández University. She is also a researcher of the Sport Research Centre on Inclusive Physical Education and Adapted Physical Activity for promoting employability of people with intellectual disabilities.