Changing attitudes through Physical Education: Influence of an awareness progra...

• Author(s): Campos, Maria João ; Ferreira, José Pedro
• Date: 2012
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10316/21325
• Origin: Estudo Geral - Universidade de Coimbra
• Subject(s): Inclusão; Mudança de atitude; Alunos sem deficiência; Educação física
• Document Type: Article
• Language: English

Description

The main purpose of this research is to study the impact of an awareness program, the 2 “Adapted Physical Education Week” on students’ attitudes towards the inclusion of students with 3 disabilities in General Physical Education. 4 Participants were 509 students without disabilities (235 females and 274 males, 11 and 5 16 years, mean age 13.32 ± 1.11), who attended middle schools. The awareness intervention 6 consisted in one-week program (2 lessons of Physical Education: 90´ and 45’). The Children’s 7 Attitude towards including Children with disabilities in Physical Education - Revised scale 8 (CAIPE-R) (Block, 1995) was used. Results showed statistically significant differences for most 9 variables analyzed including gender and previous contact with a student with a disability. We 10 also found the incorporation of the awareness program had a positive and significant influence 11 on changing students’ attitudes towards the inclusion of pupils with disabilities in General 12 Physical Education. Future research should include a more detailed analysis of intervention 13 programs as well as changes in the Physical Education curricula.