Acta Univ. Palacki. Olomuc., Gymn. 2009 39(4): 63-71

Effect of the intervention program "Paralympic School Day" on attitudes of children attending international school towards inclusion of students with disabilities

Georgios Xafopoulos1, Martin Kudláček2, Christina Evaggelinou3
1 Faculty of Kinesiology and Rehabilitation Sciences, Catholic University, Leuven
2 Faculty of Physical Culture, Palacky University, Olomouc
3 Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect that the "Paralympic School Day" had on the attitudes of children attending the International school in Ostrava, Czech Republic, toward the inclusion of peers with a disability in general physical education classes.

Methods: Students (71, including 42 boys and 29 girls), with a mean age of 12.70 and 11.67 years respectively, originating from 5 countries, participated in the program. All participants completed the questionnaire "Children's Attitude Toward Integrated Physical Education-Revised" (CAIPE-R) (Block, 1995) and the Adjective checklist (Siperstein, 1980) before and after the implementation of the program. The CAIPE-R questionnaire examines two areas (subscales) - general attitudes and sport specific attitudes.

Results: Results indicated significant differences only in general attitudes among girls measured by the Adjective checklist. Other changes were non significant. Among boys there were slight non significant positive changes in the adjective checklist (t = 0.75, p = 0.46) and in attitudes toward inclusion in PE (t = 0.61, p = 0.55) and non significant negative changes in attitudes toward the modification of sport rules (t = -0.25, p = 0.81). Among girls we found non significant negative changes in attitudes toward inclusion in PE (t = -0.64, p = 0.53) and non significant negative changes were also found in attitudes toward the modification of sport rules (t = -1.26, p = 0.22).

Keywords: Inclusion, paralympic education, general physical education, adapted physical activity, disability, pupils with special education needs

Prepublished online: March 26, 2010; Published: September 1, 2009  Show citation

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Xafopoulos, G., Kudláček, M., & Evaggelinou, C. (2009). Effect of the intervention program "Paralympic School Day" on attitudes of children attending international school towards inclusion of students with disabilities. Acta Universitatis Palackianae Olomucensis. Gymnica, 39(4), 63-71
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