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Teachers’ attitude toward inclusive physical education and factors that influence it

An investigation conducted using structural equation modeling techniques

Einstellung von Lehrkräften zum inklusiven Sportunterricht und beeinflussende Faktoren

Eine Untersuchung unter Einsatz von strukturmodellierenden Verfahren

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Abstract

The attitude of teachers is considered important for successful inclusive physical education (PE); however, no reliable instrument has been developed to assess German PE teachers’ subject-specific attitude toward inclusive PE or to determine factors that influence it. In this paper, we reanalyze data gathered from a survey of 900 PE teachers in North Rhine–Westphalia and Hesse, Germany to assess the teachers’ subject-specific attitude toward inclusive PE and identify institution- and person-related factors that may have influenced it. We measure the factorial and convergent validity of the scale used in that survey to assess PE teachers’ attitude by conducting structural equation modelling, and we take into account the complex interdependence of institution- and person-related factors. Results indicate that both factorial and convergent validity of the scale were good. While amount of work experience, teaching conditions for (inclusive) PE, and private experience with people with disabilities had a significant influence on the PE teachers’ attitude toward inclusive PE, (inclusion-related) collaboration among PE teachers and occupational stress did not.

Zusammenfassung

Die Einstellung von Sportlehrkräften zu inklusivem Sportunterricht gilt als wichtige Einflussgröße für das Gelingen inklusiven Sportunterrichts. Trotzdem liegt zurzeit kein hinreichend validiertes deutschsprachiges Testinstrument vor, um diese fachspezifische Einstellung oder beeinflussende Faktoren zu erfassen. Im vorliegenden Beitrag wurden Daten aus einer schriftlichen Befragung von 900 Sportlehrkräften in Nordrhein-Westfalen und Hessen reanalysiert, um die zur Erfassung der fachspezifischen Einstellung verwendete Skala zu validieren. Nachfolgend wurde diese Skala genutzt, um institutionsbezogene sowie personale Einflussfaktoren zu analysieren. Hierzu wurden die faktorielle und konvergente Validität der Skala geprüft und Strukturgleichungsmodelle berechnet, um die Zusammenhänge der Einflussfaktoren zu berücksichtigen. In den Ergebnissen zeigten sich eine gute konvergente und faktorielle Validität der verwendeten Skala zur Erfassung der Einstellung von Sportlehrkräften zu inklusivem Sportunterricht. Ebenso zeigte sich, dass das Dienstalter der Sportlehrkräfte, die Rahmenbedingungen des (inklusiven) Sportunterrichts und privater Kontakt zu Menschen mit Behinderung einen signifikanten Einfluss auf die Einstellung der Lehrkräfte zu inklusivem Sportunterricht haben. Die (inklusionsbezogene) Kooperation innerhalb der Sportfachschaft und das Belastungserleben der Lehrkräfte haben hingegen keinen Einfluss.

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Notes

  1. Despite lack of consensus among professionals in Germany regarding the terms integration and inclusion (e.g., Prengel, 2015; Vislie, 2003), we use the terms inclusive education and inclusive PE in this paper to refer to learners with special educational needs who are taught at regular schools and not at separate schools for special education (Lindmeier & Lütje-Klose, 2015).

  2. Physical Educators’ Attitude Toward Teaching Individuals with Disabilities.

  3. Teachers’ Beliefs and Intentions toward Teaching Students with Disabilities.

  4. Attitude Toward Teaching Individuals with Physical Disabilities in Physical Education.

  5. Physical Educators’ Attitude Toward Teaching the Handicapped.

  6. Pre-service PE Teachers’ Attitude Toward Inclusive PE.

  7. German abbreviation for “Einstellung zu Inklusion/Integration” (attitude toward inclusion).

  8. The amount of work experience strongly correlates with the teachers’ age (rs = 0.91; p < 0.001).

  9. “The PE teachers at our school have a common vision of good (inclusive) PE.”, “We regularly exchange information on opportunities and problems of (inclusive) PE.”, “Most of the PE teachers at our school are open to new forms of teaching (the idea of inclusive PE).”, “I know the instructional program of my colleagues for (inclusive) PE.” and “New PE teachers are trained adequately (for inclusive PE) at our school.”

  10. “PE is a subject of great importance at our school.”, “Our school is well equipped with educational material for PE.”, “Our school has good spatial conditions for PE (e.g., size and accessibility of the halls).”

  11. “If necessary, pedagogical assistants are present in inclusive PE.”, “Our school is equipped with specific materials for inclusive PE.”, “The sports facilities of our school are barrier-free.”

  12. Little’s MCAR Test: χ2 test = 1714.42; df = 1742; p = 0.677.

  13. In Mplus, each EFA solution is computed as an exploratory structural equation model. Consequently, it is possible to evaluate and compare the solutions additionally via fit indices (Muthén & Muthén, 2017; Marsh, Morin, Parker, & Kaur, 2014).

  14. Performing a CFA and EFA in the same sample is not a sufficient (cross-)validation but necessary for the investigation of the factorial and convergent validity as well as for the fit of the measurement model. With a view to further investigations we are in agreement with van Prooijen & van der Kloot (2001), who say: “to judge the (lack of) fit of CFA on new data, it would be useful to know more about the (lack of) fit of CFA on the same data from which the factor model was derived” (p. 780).

  15. Teaching conditions for (inclusive) PE and teacher collaboration.

  16. However, the disadvantage of this approach is that the influence of experience teaching inclusive PE cannot be taken into account in the models. Experience teaching inclusive PE was measured by a censored ordinal item and therefore could be used as a categorical independent variable in the model only. Because all participants with experience teaching PE also taught at schools with inclusive PE, we decided not to include this variable.

  17. The full information maximum likelihood algorithm is a common estimator for missing values which provides very good parameters and standard errors (Graham, 2012).

  18. Formation of three groups of 6‑point scales. The independent variables affected were (inclusion-related) collaboration and teaching conditions.

  19. Intraclass correlation coefficient.

  20. We also tested a bi-factor model, but it had a weak theoretical basis and also indicated poor model fit.

  21. To facilitate interpretation, we highlighted the regression paths, we indicated the factor correlation paths with broken lines, and we reduced the paths with small, negligible coefficients (<3, based on common valuations for bivariate correlations; Hinkle, Wiersma, & Jurs, 2003).

  22. These results can be interpreted within the context of inclusive school (sport) culture but are not discussed further here because they fall beyond the scope of this paper. They will be analyzed more in depth and presented in a future paper.

  23. Although attitudes are considered difficult to change (Reusser & Pauli, 2014), Friedrich et al. (2017) found a positive change in attitude toward inclusive PE in a small sample of preservice PE teachers after attending a one-semester university seminar with inclusive-education-related content.

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We thank Fabienne Ennigkeit (Frankfurt University) for comments that greatly improved the manuscript.

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M. Braksiek, B. Gröben, A. Rischke and C. Heim declare that they have no competing interests.

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Braksiek, M., Gröben, B., Rischke, A. et al. Teachers’ attitude toward inclusive physical education and factors that influence it. Ger J Exerc Sport Res 49, 27–36 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12662-018-0546-8

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