Examining the Attitudes of Physical Education Teacher Candidates Toward the Teaching of Students with Special Needs

This study aims to investigate the attitudes of physical education teacher candidates toward teaching students with special needs. The study, designed as a descriptive survey, involved 284 teacher candidates studying in physical education teacher training departments at universities. Data were collected using the “Attitudes of Physical Education Teachers Toward the Education of Individuals with Disabilities-III” scale. The Mann-Whitney U-test was used for data analysis. The findings obtained as a result of the analyses revealed that the attitudes of physical education teacher candidates toward the teaching students with special needs were negative. It was determined that the attitude scores of physical education teacher candidates toward the teaching students with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder were lower than their attitude scores toward other special needs groups. In addition, it was observed that teacher candidates who had individuals with special needs in their families, who had previously taught individuals with special needs, and who had taken courses on individuals with special needs during their undergraduate education had higher attitude scores, while there was no significant difference in the attitude scores of physical education teacher candidates according to gender. In light of these findings, it is recommended that application-oriented course content be created during undergraduate education and that activities be organized in which physical education teacher candidates participate together with students with special needs, in order to contribute to the development of positive attitudes toward the teaching students with special needs among physical education teacher candidates.