Determination of the attitudes of university students who receive training on disabilities and non-exercise towards the education and inclusion of disabled individuals
Authors:   Faculty of Sports Sciences, Bartın University, Turkey, Yildirim Zeynep 
Published: September 2022

The aim of this study is to determine the attitudes of the students studying in the Physical Education and Sports Teaching Department of the Faculty of Sports Sciences, where the students are trained on disabilities and exercise, towards the education and inclusion of disabled individuals. Based on this purpose, a personal information form containing demographic information and the Attitude Scale for the Education of Disabled Individuals developed by Kosterioglu in 2013 were applied to 71 students who were studying at Bartın University, Department of Physical Education and Sports Teaching and had never received any training on disabilities and education before, and who participated voluntarily. After the scales applied, a 12-hour training program was applied to the participants once a week for twelve weeks. This program was implemented online through Zoom and includes the types of disabilities, the importance of education and physical education programs in individuals with disabilities. The training program was implemented by an expert trainer in the field. The same measurements were taken again after the training application. When the arithmetic averages of the participants' Attitude Scale for the Education of Disabled Individuals and its sub-dimensions are compared, it is seen that there is a decrease in the sub-dimensions and total post-test scores of Right to Education, Dissemination of Education, Volunteer Participation, and an increase in the sub-dimensions of the scale's Investment in the Special Education Area of Belief regarding the Education Results. However, although the mean scores were high, there was no statistically significant difference (p≥0.05) in the results of the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. The participants' attitude scale for the education of individuals with disabilities, voluntary participation sub-dimension post-test scores were found to be statistically significant in favor of men according to gender (U = 387.50, p<0.05). Although there was no difference in the volunteer participation pre-test scores of the participants according to gender, a statistically significant difference was found in the volunteer participation post-test scores in favor of women. The attitude scale of the participants towards the education of disabled individuals was found to be statistically significant in favor of men according to gender (0.012, p<0.05). Although there was no difference in the volunteer participation pre-test scores of the participants according to age, a statistically significant difference was found in favor of those aged 23 and over in the post-test scores of investment in the field of special education. As a result, although the attitude of the education program given to the students studying in the physical education and sports teaching department towards the education and inclusion of disabled individuals was high in terms of mean scores in the pretest and posttest results, no statistically significant result was obtained. It is thought that this result may change with the face-to-face training provided and the practice of disabled individuals and teacher candidates.