The attitudes that teachers hold in relation to teaching students with disabilities is a key factor in the successful inclusion in regular school settings. In order to get a reliable insight on the teacher´s perceptions of inclusion possibility, it is crucial the use of valid instruments. This study intends to test the validity and reliability of the Physical Educators’
Attitude toward Teaching Individuals with Disabilities III - PEATID III (Rizzo, 1993), using a Portuguese version. Although this questionnaire is one of the most popular instruments to assess attitudes of Physical Education teachers regarding the inclusion of students with disabilities in mainstream Physical Education classes, its psychometric properties have never been fully assessed using confirmatory factor analysis.
The participants in this study were 413 Portuguese physical educators, 253 males and 160 females, aged between 21 and 58 years old (M=32.43; SD=9.01).
Our findings suggest that the PEATID III exhibits poor goodness of fit and does not provide a valid and a reliable scale to measure attitudes of physical educators toward the inclusion of students with disabilities in their classes.
Authors
Campos, Maria J.
Ferreira, José P.
Block, Martin E.
Other Author(s)
Faculdade de Ciências do Desporto e Educação Física da Universidade de Coimbra, ed. lit.
Keywords
PEATID III,
Validity,
Reliability,
Attitudes,
Physical education teachers