COMPONENTS OF ATTITUDES TOWARD THE INCLUSION OF STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES IN PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN THE ATIPDPE-GR INSTRUMENT FOR GREEK PHYSICAL EDUCATORS

BACKROUND: Over the last decade the idea of the inclusion of students with disabilities and special educational needs (SEN) in general schools has become increasingly the focus of national and international policies in Greece. An important factor that aff ects the success of inclusion is attitude and the theory of planned behavior (TPB) provides a useful framework for the study of attitudes toward people with disabilities. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the study was to examine the structure of the attitudinal scale, modifi ed for Gre-ece, of the Attitudes Toward Inclusion of Individuals with Physical Disabilities in Physical Education – Greece (ATIPDPE-GR), an instrument based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB) of Ajzen (2000), aiming to measure Greek physical educators ’ attitudes. METHODS: Participants were 155 physical educators (85 females and 70 males) with a mean age of 37.68 years teaching either the physical education (PE) course or the Olympic & Paralympic education (O & PE) course in seven diff erent prefectures of Greece. RESULTS: Based on the one way ANOVA, the attitudinal scale of ATIPDPE-GR measures two psychological properties (components). Two components, which come from a principal component analysis, explain more than 42% of the variance. The two components are: a) positive outcomes for students and b) negative outcomes for teachers and students. CONCLUSION: Our present resu lts indicate that the ATIPDPE-GR can be a reliable instrument that measures PE teachers ’ attitudes and that the theory of planned behavior can provide a sound theoretical framework for the study of the attitudes of physical educators