Spanish Physical Education Teachers' Perceptions about Their Preparation for Inclusive Education.

Jorge Rojo-Ramos,Ángel Acevedo-Duque,José Carmelo Adsuar,Santiago Gomez-Paniagua,Sabina Barrios-Fernandez,Fernando Manzano-Redondo

doi:10.3390/children9010108

Jorge Rojo-Ramos, Ángel Acevedo-Duque + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/children9010108

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Abstract

The prevailing rights and quality of life approaches call for the inclusion of people with diversity and/or disabilities in society, including their participation in the educational system. Therefore, different institutions are urging countries to take action to ensure that students with disabilities receive the accommodations and supports they need within the framework of inclusive education. The idiosyncrasies of physical education (PE) classes can be an opportunity to encourage the participation and inclusion of these students. Thus, this study aims to evaluate the PE teachers’ perception about their preparation to address inclusive education. The study involved 260 Spanish primary and secondary PE teachers who answered a sociodemographic questionnaire, three dichotomic questions about their initial and ongoing preparation and the Evaluation of Teacher Training for Inclusion Questionnaire (CEFI-R). PE teachers believe that they have not received the necessary initial preparation and they consider it important to assist in ongoing courses to address their students’ diverse needs. PE teachers are aware of the importance of inclusive education and perceive greater difficulties in secondary education. PE teachers also showed a good predisposition to teach students with special educational support needs, especially found in primary school teachers through the CEFI-R Dimension 1, with statistically significant differences.

Highlights

Inclusive education is defined as the process of identifying and responding to the diversity of learners’ needs, seeking increased learning and participation in their communities and reducing social exclusion [1]
There is awareness about how the educational system should look in the 21st century, in some cases the educational systems are not following the required transformation, failing to provide the learning and participation opportunities to which every student is entitled [2]
This study aimed to investigate the perception of Spanish physical education (PE) teachers on their preparation to cope with the variety of educational needs that their students may present

Summary

Introduction

Inclusive education is defined as the process of identifying and responding to the diversity of learners’ needs, seeking increased learning and participation in their communities and reducing social exclusion [1]. There is awareness about how the educational system should look in the 21st century, in some cases the educational systems are not following the required transformation, failing to provide the learning and participation opportunities to which every student is entitled [2] This is a challenge, as nowadays the heterogeneity of students is the norm. For this reason, different institutions call for action so that education systems promote attention to diversity, both for students with disabilities and other types of diversity (sexual, ethnic, cultural) in offering quality and inclusive education, without segregation and ensuring that all the students have access to the reasonable adjustments they need [3,4,5].

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