Reliability of a Scale for Improving Attitudes towards Inclusion of Students with Disabilities in Physi-cal Education

Abstract

The right to inclusive education is one that has drawn the attention of public organizations, scholars, and academics worldwide. Students' beliefs and perceptions are a fundamental axis to know the state of the classrooms based on this ethical principle, allowing teaching professionals to promote improvement strategies and programs. This study aims to explore the reliability and factorial structure of the questionnaire "The Attitudes towards Inclusion of Students with Disabilities in Physical Education" (AISDPE) in students belonging to the secondary and baccalaureate educational stages. The sample consisted in 889 students who participated 2 times a week in physical education classes. Reliability tests, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis were done. Then, a factor structure with two dimension (cognitive perception and predisposition to action) and 15 items was extracted, showing excellent values for the various selected goodness-of-fit indices. Additionally, a good reliability (Cronbach's Alpha = 0.77–0.79) was attained. The AISDPE might therefore be regarded as a credible and trustworthy measure to examine physical education pupils’ assessments of their attitudes towards inclusive instruction in order to improve social well-being and school health in the classroom. Keywords: inclusion; physical education; attitudes; validation; scale