Physical Educators' Judgments About Inclusion: A New Instrument for Preservice Teachers.

Abstract

The purpose was to develop an instrument for use in physical education teacher education (PETE) programs that would yield valid evidence of the judgments of PETE preservice teachers toward the inclusion of students with disabilities into general physical education classes. Both the conceptualization that judgments represent the cognitive expressions of attitudes (Ajzen, 2001; Sherif & Hovland, 1961) and focus group discussions were used to create the Physical Educators' Judgments About Inclusion (PEJI) instrument. Following content validation procedures, we administered PEJI to 272 PETE preservice teachers. Subsequent principal component analysis to generate construct validity evidence indicated 15 items should be retained; they collectively explained 53% of the variance using a three-component model. Dimensions of the PEJI pertained to judgments about inclusion, acceptance, and perceived training needs. Alpha coefficients for the three subscales ranged from .64 to .88.