A comparative study in Baltic countries on physical education teachers’ attitude toward teaching students with severe intellectual disabilities

Abstract

This study explored factors impacting the physical education (PE) teachers’ attitude from the three Baltic countries toward teaching the student with severe intellectual disabilities (SID). Participants were 128 PE teachers from special schools in Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. The Survey of Physical Education Teachers’ Attitude Toward Teaching Students with SID including nine subscales was used in this study. Results revealed significant differences in responses of PE teachers across the three countries in all subscales. The analyses of results in relation to gender revealed that there were no significant differences across subscales, except for the limiting factor subscale. Younger PE teachers with less teaching experience had stronger belief in opinion of persons supporting teaching of students with SID in PE than older colleagues. Also, PE teachers under 30 years of age believed that parents of other classmates and persons with limited experience, will not support teaching of children with SID in PE.