Can preservice physical educators’ implicit attitude toward students with disabilities be changed by adapted physical education training program? Based on an Implicit Association Test

Abstract

Purpose: Aim to explore whether preservice physical educators’ implicit attitude toward students with disabilities could be improved by a mid-term adapted physical education training program.
 Design: A randomized and controlled trial was deployed in the current experiment. Subjects were randomly divided into two groups (Experimental group and control group) after the pre-test of IAT. Post-test IAT was conducted for two groups after the training program for the experimental group.
 Findings: Chinese preservice physical educators’ implicit attitudes toward students with disabilities were negative. They also had a prejudice against students with disabilities. But the implicit attitudes toward students with disabilities could be improved by mid-term adapted physical education training. Furthermore, gender and contact experience with disabilities had no significant influence on the change in their implicit attitude.

From confusion to clarity: A comprehensive study on misconceptions in physical education

“…The article states that access to professional development opportunities of appropriate quality can give educators the power they need to dispel misconceptions. In addition, they ought to actively attend workshops and courses that deal exclusively with inclusive physical training methods or refute misconceptions [22] .…”