Survey on Physical Education Student Teachers’ Attitudes toward Teaching Students with Special Needs
Survey on Physical Education Student Teachers’ Attitudes toward Teaching Students with Special Needs

Summary/Abstract: With the implement of revised Regulations on Education for Persons with Disabilities on May 1. 2017, more and more students with special needs will be educated in general schools in China. As a psychological tendency, attitude affects the behavior to a certain degree (Zhang Hong-tao & Wang Er-ping. 2007). As physical education teachers in the future, PE student teachers’ attitude toward individuals with special needs will affects their behaviors to some extent. In order to predict the reserve of primary and secondary school PE teachers, it is necessary to investigate the attitudes of PE student teachers toward students with special needs. The survey was carried in three universities, Beijing Normal University, Shaanxi Normal University, and Southwest University, and the participants are freshmen and senior students majored in physical education. Out of the 485 participants that responded, only 2 (0.004%) had taken special education courses, and none had taken adapted physical education courses. However, out of the 470 participants that responded, 173 (36.8%) have been around or studied with individuals with special needs. Results indicate that PE student teachers have more positive attitude to teach students with obesity, which followed by physical disabilities and other health impairments; the female had more positive attitudes than male. Especially, a statistically significant difference was found that attitudes toward obesity between genders, p＜.05; freshmen had a more positive attitude to teaching students with special needs in general PE class. A statistically significant different (p＜.05) was found between the PE freshmen and senior student teachers in attitude toward teaching students with obesity and students with other health impairments. A very high statistically significant different (p＜.01) was found between PE freshmen and senior student teachers in outcomes of teaching students with obesity in regular classes.

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