Irish physical educators’ attitude toward teaching students with special educational needs

This study examined the relationship among the specific special educational needs (SEN) of emotional/behavioural disorder (EBD), specific learning disabled (SLD), mild-moderate mentally impaired (MMMI), and moderate-severe mentally impaired (MSMI) and the selected attributes of gender, academic preparation and previous experience in teaching students with SEN. The Physical Educators’ Attitudes Toward Teaching Individuals with Disabilities-III (PEATID-III) (Rizzo, 1993) instrument was used to collect the data. The instrument was sent to all secondary school physical educators in the Republic of Ireland. Results from ANOVA analysis found that female physical educators displayed more positive attitudes than male physical educators toward SLD and MSMI students. For previous experience, a significant difference in physical educators’ attitudes was found for MMMI students only. Results also found low numbers of physical educators having completed initial teacher training (ITT) in SEN relevant to physical education (PE) at undergraduate as well as postgraduate levels. The results provide evidence that there is a need to promote positive attitudes among Irish physical educators toward teaching students with SEN as well as improved ITT and postgraduate training for SEN in PE.