INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPECIAL EDUCATION Vol 28, No: 3.

2013

PRE-SERVICE PHYSICAL EDUCATION TEACHERS AND INCLUSIVE EDUCATION:

ATTITUDES, CONCERNS AND PERCEIVED SKILL NEEDS

Boitumelo Mangope
Magdeline C. Mannathoko
University of Botswana

Ahmed Bawa Kuyini

University of New England

The purpose of this study is to ascertain Botswana physical education (PE) student
teachers’ attitudes toward the inclusion of children with disabilities in the general
education classrooms and also to identify their concerns and perceived skill needs with
regards to inclusion. A two-part questionnaire consisting of background variables and
attitudes using the ATIES Scale was completed by 96 PE student teachers from the
University of Botswana. Data on the concerns, and perceived skill needs were
collected through interviews and analysed descriptively. Statistic descriptive, t-tests
and ANOVA were employed to analyse the quantitative data. The results of the study
have shown that PE pre-service student teachers have moderately positive attitudes
towards inclusion. Participants were also more concerned about the lack of knowledge
and skills required for inclusion and that resources and pedagogical knowledge on
inclusion were perceived as the required skills for the success of inclusion in
Botswana.

Attitude research in education and physical education has grown increasingly popular over the past
twenty years (Folsom-Meek & Rizzo, 2002). This increase has been driven by the belief that the attitude
of the teacher can have a direct influence on the successful inclusion of children with disabilities into
regular classes (Avramidis, & Norwitch, 2002; Dart, 2007; Mastropieri & Scruggs, 2004).Within the
contemporary inclusive classrooms, general education teachers face increased pressure as their roles
change, compared to the traditional ones (Avramidis, Bayliss, & Burden, 2000). In the midst of this, a
considerable amount of research is being conducted and policies amended worldwide including
Botswana in order to appropriately address the views and philosophies of how children with disabilities
can be best educated. Currently students with various types of disabilities are generally placed into
general physical education classes without an accompanying teacher aide in Botswana. The inclusion of
students with disabilities into general physical education classes has provided a tremendous challenge to
physical educators who have strived to meet the needs of the included children without neglecting the
needs of the other children. It is therefore important to prepare future physical education (PE) teachers
for inclusion of students with disabilities in general physical education (GPE) settings and in order to
prepare these students we must be able to measure and to understand their attitudes towards inclusion.

Inclusion focuses on the need for schools to adapt in order to meet the needs of all children, and not
children having to change to meet the requirements of the school. This reform in the school system
requires a new and different school culture, a culture whereby teachers have to change their beliefs,
attitudes and behaviour towards students with diverse needs. Researchers have attempted to investigate
the beliefs and attitudes of the individuals who are responsible for implementing inclusive policies. The
role of teachers’ attitudes has been studied and identified as being one of the central elements to the
success or failure of inclusive education practice (Avaramidis & Norwitch, 2002). The role of teachers’
attitudes in the success or failure of inclusive schools is evident in Dart, (2007) and Kuyini and
Mangope, (2011) Mittler, (2003), who noted negative attitudes of teachers as the major obstacle to the
progress of inclusive education globally. The majority of these studies in physical education have also
assumed that a positive attitude towards inclusion was necessary for the successful inclusion of children

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with disabilities into physical education (Loreman, Forlin, & Sharma, 2007). These studies have
examined the relationship between different types of attitudes and variables such as teacher age
(Mdikana, Ntshagangase, & Mayekiso, 2007), gender (Sharma & Desai, 2002), teaching experience
(Marston & Leslie, 1983), educational preparation (Mangope, Koyabe, & Mukhopadhyay, 2012),
perceived teaching competence (Mukhopadhyay, Molosiwa, & Moswela, 2009), and type and severity of
student disability (Rizzo & Vispoel, 1991).

Variables linked with teacher attitudes

Several student and teacher related variables have been significantly and consistently linked with specific
teacher attitudes toward inclusion (Avaramidis, Bayliss, & Burden, 2000). Student grade level and
severity of disability have been found to influence teachers’ attitudes toward inclusion. Specifically,
students with disabilities were viewed more favourably in lower grade levels than in higher grade levels
(Mittler, 2003), and children with less severe disabilities were viewed more favourably than those with
more severe disabilities (Avramidi & Norwitch, 2002; Nthitu, Kathard, & Sayed, 2011; Mukhopadhyay,
2009). Research on teacher variables has revealed that attitudes were related to self-perceptions of
competence, educational preparation, and experience in teaching students with disabilities (Kuyini &
Mangope, 2011). Specifically, teachers’ attitudes toward inclusion were more likely to be favourable if
they perceived themselves as better teachers (Dart, 2007; Mangope, 2002) had greater education
preparation (Kuyini & Mangope, 2011), and had more years of experience in teaching children with
disabilities (Mukhopadhyay, 2009; Kuyini & Dessai, 2005).

Preparing teachers for inclusion has been a major pedagogical shift in the field of education. This then
means that institutions responsible for training teachers ought to ensure that student teachers are
adequately prepared to meet the diverse needs of learners in the general classrooms. In this process,
crucial factors like teacher attitudes, beliefs, expectations and acceptance of learners with various special
needs should be seriously addressed. According to Mukhodhyay and Molosiwa (2010) positive teacher
attitudes can and need to be fostered through training. As observed by Mukhopadhyay, Molosiwa, and
Moswela (2009), if teachers leave the training institutions with negative attitudes then such attitudes tend
to be difficult to change. This therefore, means that, if Botswana is to achieve its goal of a Well-Educated
and Informed Nation by 2016, then teacher training programs need to be strengthened by including
programs such as special/ inclusive education, so as to be able to produce teachers who will be able to
meet the demanding challenges of inclusion.

Inclusive education in Botswana

The government of Botswana has long focused on responding to the needs of students with disabilities.
Although education of such students started in segregated settings of special schools, currently Botswana
has adopted an inclusive education approach as a strategy to address the needs of its children with
disabilities whose education has been ignored. Inclusive education comes with challenging demands to
all general education teachers as they will now be expected to accept and teach students with diverse
needs who traditionally were not under their responsibility. As a result, inclusive education calls for a
thorough preparation of teachers on issues of special inclusive education so as to develop some positive
attitudes which would enhance the inclusion of such learners by teachers. In this regard, teacher training
institutions are being compelled to reform their training structures and include some introductory courses
in their programs for their student teachers to cater for the increasing diverse range of learners with
disabilities. In Botswana, such practices are in place, for example the University of Botswana offers
various programs for student teachers in various subject areas, and physical education is one of the many
areas that are being addressed.

Even though training of student teachers on issues of special/ inclusive education is an important area
that needs to be addressed, few if not none, studies in Botswana have directly examined the relationship
between physical education student teachers’ expectations or attitudes towards the inclusion of students
with disabilities in their physical education classes in Botswana. The increasingly diverse characteristics
of students with disabilities to be educated in Botswana are causing government officials, educators and
other important stakeholders to examine the benefits of educating all children in heterogeneous
classrooms. Regardless of gender, ethnicity, culture social status and disabilities, it has become clear to
many that the needs of all students must be met, and their differences welcomed, celebrated and natured
in an inclusive classroom. The attitude of Botswana student teachers’ attitudes towards the inclusion of
students with disabilities into their classrooms is vital in determining the success of the government’s
efforts in implementing inclusive education policy. Similarly it is also vital in determining the
effectiveness of the inclusive education program offered by the University of Botswana to all prospective

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teachers (Mukhopadhyay & Molosiwa, 2010). It is therefore necessary to investigate the attitudes of PE
student teachers as such research may shed light on attitude factors in the context of Botswana and may
help identify the gaps in the special /inclusive education programs offered that may warrant
improvement.

Purpose of the study

The purpose of this study is to identify the attitudes of the University of Botswana’s PE student teachers
toward the inclusion of students with varying types of disabilities into their general education
classrooms. The study also intends to identify the concerns and perceived skill needs of pre-service PE
student teachers with regards to inclusion. The research questions guiding the study were:
1. Do PE student teachers hold varying attitudes towards inclusion of students with different
disabilities?

2. What are the infleunces of PE student teachers’ background variables on thier attitudes towards
inclusive education?

3. What concerns do they have about inclusive education?

4. What knowledge and skills do they think they require to successfully include students with
disabilities?

Method
Participants
One hundred and twenty-six students (71 females and 55 males) of an average age of 22 years were
enrolled in physical education teacher preparation program at the University of Botswana. A total of
eighty-six (86) prospective PE teachers (51females and 35males) participated in the study by completing
a two-part survey questionnaire. The sampling design was purposive, meaning all students were surveyed
who met the criteria of the enrollment in the above explained teacher preparation program. The sampling
goal was to obtain as many participants as possible. However, due to late registration processes of the
students, the researchers were not able to cover all of the anticipated students.

Instruments
Attitude toward the inclusion of individuals with disabilities scale (ATIES) (Wilczenski, 1992, 1995)
was used to assess the attitudes and to use the results to personalize teacher preparation so that University
students develop positive attitudes and strong intentions toward inclusion. The ATIES was developed by
Wilczenski (1992) and was further validated in 1995. It is a 16-item scale that measures participants’
attitudes towards inclusive education, where each item is rated on a 6 point-Likert type classification
from 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree) . Example statements from the ATIES are; students who
are frequently absent from schools should be in regular classes, Students who cannot control their
behaviour and disrupt activities should be in regular classes, students who are shy and withdrawn should
be in regular classes. Each subject’s overall attitude rating is evaluated relative to the possible score
range of 16 to 96, with higher scores indicating more favorable attitudes. This scale has been used in
Botswana (Mangope, 2002); in Ghana (Kuyini, 2004), in India (Sharma, 2001) and in a cross-country
study (Loreman, et al., 2007) and has been found to be a reliable measure of attitudes towards inclusive
education.

Data collection and Analysis

The questionnaires were distributed to participants who signed consent forms and collected personally by
the researchers on the day of the distribution. Of the 116 questionnaires sent out 96 questionnaires were
returned and correspond to a response rate of (87%). Ten of the 96 had missing information in many
areas and could not be included in the data set for analysis. The total number of questionnaires analysed
was therefore 86.

Reliability and factor analysis were undertaken for the ATIES scale, and the reliability analyses showed
an alpha coefficient of 0.77, which is similar to the value of 0.71 obtained with student teachers in a
study by Kuyini & Mangope (2011) in Ghana and Botswana. The factor analyses generated five factors,
which is a complete departure from the four factors underpinning the original scale (Wilczenski, 1992).
The first of the five factors in this study, Factor 1(Behavioural) was comprised of three items relating to
physical aggression, Verbal Aggression and Shy and Withdrawn. Factor two (Sensory) was comprised

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of three items relating to use of Braille, students with speech difficulties and students with hearing
impairment. Factor three (Need Help) was comprised of four items relating to not following school
rules, Need help with daily living skills, Difficulty expressing thoughts, and need help to move. Factor
four (mixed support) was comprised of three items relating to students needing functional academic
programming, those who cannot control their behaviour and those who cannot hear conversational
speech. Factor five (Academic) was comprised of three items relating to students whose academic
performance is 1 year below and 2 years below and those who absent themselves from school.

These factors did not reflect factor loading in previous studies in Botswana and elsewhere (Ghana, India
and the USA) where the ATIES has been used. Perhaps this may have to do with the sample size and the
uniqueness of this population (P.E. Teacher trainees), who may not necessarily engage students with
special needs at all in the level of sensory and intellectual activity in their teaching.

Table 1. Factor Analysis Rotated Component Matrixa

Principal Component Analysis: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization
Component
1 2 3 4 5
Verbally aggressive .798
Students with physical aggression .723
Shy and withdrawn students .618
Cannot read standard print & need to use braille .822
Speech difficult to understand .722
Students using sign language/ comm. Boards .685
Do not follow school rules of conduct .699
Need training in self-help & daily living skills .596
Difficulty expressing thoughts verbally .530
Students needing help to move .504
Need functional academic program in reading & maths .635
Cannot control their behaviour & disrupt activities .618
Cannot hear conversational speech .568
Students with academic achievement 2years /more below .856
Students with academic achievement 1 year below peers .597

Frequently absent themselves from school .486

Results
The results of this study are presented in line with the research questions. For research questions 1: Do
PE student teachers hold varying attitudes towards inclusion of students with different disabilities? The
descriptive statistics results showed that the total sample mean score was 57.2 of a maximum score of 96.
This means that overall the teachers held moderately postive attitude towards inclusive education.
However, the means scores for the individual items showed that only students who are shy and
withdrawn attracted positive attitudes (M= 4.91) which is the near the upper limit of the 6-point Likert
scale classifiaction. On the other hand, studetns with more obvious disablities such as visual (M=2.39)
hearing (M=2.84), speech & language (M=2.67 & 2.51) impairment attracted less postive attitudes.
These scores were within the lower levels of the 6-point scale (See Tables 2 and 3).

Table 2. Total score of ATIES Measure for all participants.

Descriptive Statistics
N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation
Totals 85 22 87 57.24 12.233
Valid N (listwise) 85

Relationship between background variables and ATIES

The results of t-tests and ANOVA analysis for research question 2: What are the infleunces of PE student
teachers’ background variables on thier attitudes towards inclusive education? showed that teachers
background variables such as Gender, education, class level taught, class-size, training in special

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/inclusive education, experiences, accounted for differences in attitude scores. However, these
differences were not statistically significant (See Table 4 below)

Table 3. Mean scores for individual items of ATIES

N Mean SD
Shy and withdrawn students 85 4.91 1.453
Do not follow school rules of conduct 85 4.22 1.538
Difficulty expressing thoughts verbally 85 4.19 1.729
Frequently absent themselves from school 85 4.11 1.753
Students with academic achievement 1 year below peers 85 4.02 1.558
Need training in self-help & daily living skills 85 4.00 1.697
Verbally aggressive 85 3.89 1.448
Students needing help to move 85 3.69 1.832
Students with academic achievement 2years or more below 85 3.61 1.726
Cannot control their behaviour & disrupt activities 85 3.44 1.651
Need functional academic program in reading & maths 85 3.41 1.706
Students with physical aggression 85 3.34 1.570
Students using sign language/ comm. Boards 85 2.84 1.696
Speech difficult to understand 85 2.67 1.467
Cannot hear conversational speech 85 2.51 1.461
Cannot read standard print & need to use braille 85 2.39 1.655
Valid N (listwise)

Table 4. Background variables and ATIES Mean scores

Variable N Mean scores SD
Gender: Male = 36 55.2 12.41
Female = 49 58.8 12.00

Age 20-25 Years= 62 58.2 12.23

26-30 Years= 3 57.0 13.00
Above 30 Years = 20 54.2 12.27

Education 1= 65 57.7 11.86

2=20 55.8 13.60

Training 1=19 56.5 11.82

2=66 57.5 12.43

Pre/Insert 1=66 57.9 12.18

2=19 54.7 12.41
Class-size Up to 20 students=43 57.2 11.83
21-30 students =28 57.3 12.34
31-40 students =9 59.7 9.98
Above 40 students=5 53.2 20.35
Rel-Dis 1=15 55.67 18.21
2=70 57.57 10.69

The variables that stood out clear for mention are age and class size. Younger teachers appeared to have
higher mean scores compared to those above 30 years, but this is not statistically significant. Although
class-size showed differences among groups, these were not significant. However, the mean score of
57.2 showed that teachers in classes of more than 40 students held less positive attitudes.

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Concerns about Inclusive Education

To answer the research question What concerns do they have about inclusive education? The particpants
were asked an open-ended question: What are your concerns about including learners with disabilities in
your PE regular classrooms?

The qualitative responses were grouped into themes and the key themes emerged were: Concerns about
teacher skills, Concerns about time pressures, Concerns about resources to support inclusive education,
and Concerns about the negative impact on students without disabilities.We present details of these key
themes and discuss the findings in relations to findings from the attitude data.

Concerns about teacher knowledge and skills

The respondents expressed the view that while inclusion of students with disabilities in physical
education classes was laudable, many teachers did not have skills to support such students because the
University courses were not broad and detailed enough. One respondent said the following about the
inadequacy of the University program:

At the moment we as P.E teachers are not receiving enough training on adapted P.E. In the last semester
we were only 12 who were doing Adapted P.E in which we were taught the practical part. We as P.E
teachers are not usually equipped with enough skills. I think Adapted P.E should not be an option if we
are working towards an inclusive system of education.

Another respondent expressed concern about limited teacher knowledge and skills in the following way:
My other concern is about lack of training of teachers and yet they are expected to take part in teaching
exceptional children with their exceptional needs. Majority of the teachers do not have the prerequisite
skills and knowledge on how to handle students with these types of disabilities
One participant also felt that: …the problem is that (PE) teachers are not taught or provided with
enough information in order for them to operate well in this style of inclusion.

Similar complaints were recorded from a number of the participants who were interviewed. Some
believed that the reason why they are seen as incompetent as compared to teachers from Colleges of
education is that even though they have content to teach, they fail to deliver it properly to the learners
due to the minimal amount of experience culled in the PE program.

Lack of appropriate pedagogical skills by PE teachers

Most student teachers interviewed agreed that they lack pedagogical content knowledge on how to
handle students with disabilities. As described by one respondent …my concern is that teachers have not
been fully equipped with the appropriate skills to handle students with difficulties. Even the curriculum is
designed to cater for the able bodied.

Another participant raised a similar concern saying:

….right now I do not know any adaptive equipment used by a child of any disability whilst inclusion
dictates that I should be able to adapt the class for an exceptional learner, but right after this I will be
going to teach, how am I expected to teach?

Concerns about time pressures

It is clear in the literature that many teachers are concerned about lack of time to implement inclusive
activities. And in this study Physical Education student teachers expressed similar concerns. Student
teachers view the inclusion of students with disabilities into mainstream settings as being
difficult and stressful, other concerns include the availability of support services, which include
overcrowded classrooms, lack of prepared teaching materials, inflexible time table, inadequate time for
planning and meeting, and inadequate specialist support to meet the needs of this students.

One participant expresses a sense of frustration due to insufficient time by indicating that such students
need to be in their own special classes thus …my concern is where we get the time, why can’t these
children have their specialised equipment in their special classes to make everything easier.

Similarly another student teacher expressed the view that

….teaching does not mean waking up and delivering everything that comes to your mind to the student.
One has to research fully, plan and organize their presentation and be familiar with tools needed. You
also have to assess student progress in class and give feedback, so having to do it for different groups

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will not bear perfect results let alone exhaustive. The best thing for everyone is for them to have their
special place with their special attention where that technology won’t be put to waste.

Other similar comments were raised. Two participants put it as below:

I dont think that it’s good idea for children with inclusion beacause it might take time in class to teach
them as they have to be separated and the teacher has to compromise or sacrifice to teach them separately
and this might take time. And it’s also not a good idea in a way that it brings the self esteem down of
those with inclusion as they see others excelling than them.

The other one said:

My concerns about inclusion therefore are that, the disabled may not get appropriate, specialised
attention and care from the teacher because he/she is forced to look after both the normal and
exceptional,this may disrupt the normal children’s education often, teachers are also forced to direct
more attention and time to these exceptional children thereby leaving the normal children behind or vice
versa, to be honest, it is a mamonth task to cater for these two groups in the same class, believe you me
that it requires more time and patience of which many of us lack, therefore our teaching would be very
much inadequate

Concerns about resources to support inclusive education

Resources are critical to inclusive education implementation and the lack of it is usually a problem. In
this study majority of student teachers expressed a concern about the need to have the necessary support
services for inclusion to thrive. One participant said:
Students with disabilities need special equipments that can help them execute some skills. So, I dont
think they can feel free using some things that their normal classmates are not using, for example using a
wheel chair playing basketball, while others are running around. The teamamtes might not even pass the
ball to their friend in a wheel chair and it can lead to low self esteem and inability to acquire skills.

Other concerns include, the availability of support services, overcrowded classrooms, lack of prepared
teaching materials, inflexible time table, inadequate time for planning and meeting, and inadequate
specialist support to meet the needs of these students.

One participnt said:

There should be resources like well paved playing grounds not the dusty grounds which are in our
government schools.they should re- think about constructing better grounds because wheel chairs and
other materials to be used perform better in well constructed grounds.

Concerns about the negative impact on students without disabilities

One of the key arguments about inclusive education has been about the impact of those with disabilities
on those without disabilities in terms of academic and social achievement. In this study the teachers
expressed these concerns. One participant said:

Honestly I believe that inclusion is not a good thing....children with diabilities are more different from
children without disabilities in terms of learning because they somehow tend to be slow learners so
taking them to regular classes will disadvantage learning especially for normal childern as they would
have to work at the same pace with them therefore delaying progress!!

Another expressed such concern in realtion to teacher engament time as follows:

I think the inclusive system will in a way disadvantage both individuals with disabilities and those
without disabilities. For instance the teachers may tend to give too much attention to the children with
disabilities and the other children will not get the attention they deserve.The fact that the number of
pupils in the regular classroom is too much, will lead to all the children not getting the attention they
deserve. Every child needs the teacher’s attention and I feel the inclusive system is not suitable for all
children with disabilities…. disabled kids would hinder also the quality of content and material being
delievered in lessons to accomodate everyone. It would slow everyone down and the abled students may
not get the right attention required because the main focus will be on the disabled ones which will lead to
them not perfoming to their full potential.

Perceived knowledge and skills required by P.E teachers to include students with disabilities.

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To answer the research question What knowldege and skills do they think they require to sucessfully
include students with disabilities? the participants were asked the question: What kind of Knowledge and
skills would you recommend for PE teachers to prepare them for inclusion?

Student teachers had various ideas on the skills needed to assist them in their efforts to include learners
with disabilities. One said:
The skills that I will recommend for teachers to prepare them to for the inclusion of leaners with
disabilities are acceptance, tolerance, respect and patience. it is not that easy to just accept the situation,
firstly teachers are not well equiped with methodology of teaching children with various disabilities, let
take for example a child with celebral palsy, for a p.e teacher to be able to help such a child they must
have done adapted physical eduation, but at the U.B for instance Adapted P.E is still an option and not
every one knows how to deal with a child with C.P.

Others felt that it is important for them to have adequate specialist knowledge regarding handling
learners with disabilities, so having more knowledge in sport medicine, sport psychology, sport
sociology, kinesiology, biomechanics and exercise physiology can maybe help a great deal. One
participant said:

My main concern is that some PE teachers might not have adequate specialist knowledge regarding
handling learners with disabilities, hence they need knowledge. Teachers should have vast knowledge on
the types of students, e.g. slow learners and fast learners as well as students with disabilities and they
should have knowledge on how to deal with these different students. Teachers should know best
teaching methods that they can employ in which students with disabilities will also be incorporated…

Another participant agreeing with the above said:

At the moment we as P.E teachers are not receiving enough training on adapted P.E. In the last semester
we were only 12 who were doing Adapted P.E in which we were taught the practical part, which is
important. We as P.E teachers are not usually equipped with enough skills. I think Adapted P.E should
not be an option if we are working towards an inclusive system of education…teachers will have to be
equipped with ways of assisting students with disabilities…how do you modify? Knowledge of special
education is required …because the teacher has to teach from all angles that is from modified
instructions to clear instructions that applies across.

Discussion
This study aimed to explore the attitudes of P.E. teachers towards inclusive education, their concerns
about inclusive education and the knowledge and skills they perceived they required to be able to include
students with disabilities in their classrooms. The overall findings for the attitude measure showed that
generally PE student teachers hold moderately positive attitudes toward the inclusion of students with
disabilities into their general education classrooms. The mean scores for individual items showed that
teachers held more positive attitude towards students who are shy and withdrawn. On the other hand,
students with more obvious disabilities such as visual, hearing, speech and language impairment attracted
less positive attitudes. Teacher background variables such as age and class size showed some influence
on attitudes even though this was not statistically significant.

Although they had positive attitudes as student teachers in other Botswana studies (Kuyini & Mangope,
2011; Mangope, Koyabe, & Mukhopadhyay, 2012), no significant differences were found between
teachers’ background variables such as gender, age, training in speical education and their scores on the
attitude measure. The finding in relation to training was rather surprising, given that training in special
education, the literature has shown, is linked to more positive attitudes towards inclusion of learners with
disabilities. However, such results may have been due to the rather modest sample of 85 teachers.

The concerns data showed that teachers had concerns about inclusive education and were related to
limited knowledge and skills, time pressures and difficulty dealing with students with disablities, lack of
resources and potential negative impact the inclusion of studetns with disablities have on students
without disabilities.

These findings mirror other studies in Botswana and Ghana (Kuyini & Mangope 2011; Chhabra, et al.,
2010), and in other countries (Johnstone & Chapman, 2009; Sharma, et al., 2007), which revealed that
these factors were some of the key concerns of both student teachers and regular teachers. Specifically,
Kuyini, and Mangope (2011) found that student teachers in Botswana expressed higher concerns about

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issues of inclusion that loaded on what they called Welfare and Workload (Factor 2) and Resources
(Factor1). The participants’ lowest concerns were about Academic and Acceptance needs of students.
This previous finding is mirrored in this study because the analysis of individual items showed that the
participants were also worried about not having enough time, and resources (Instructional materials,
inadequate para-professionals).

It is interesting to note that many were less concerned about the factors that are internal to the students
like type and severity of the disability but rather concentrated more on external factors like instructional
materials, para-professionals, and other infrastructure. As captured in comments by one of the
participants such as My main concerns is that some PE teachers might not have adequate specialist
knowledge regarding handling learners with disabilities, hence they need knowledge.

Chhabra, et al., (2010), also found that teachers in Botswana showed concern about inadequate
equipment and availability of paraprofessionals, additionally they raised concerns about provision of
resources and funding to support the students with disabilities in regular classrooms. Some of the
concerns raised by participants were:
students with disabilities need special equipments that can help them execute some skills and that there
should be resources like well paved playing grounds not teh dusty grounds which are in our government
schools.they should re think about constructing better grounds because wheel chairs and other materials
to be used perform better in well constructed grounds

These findings in addition to those of Johnstone and Chapman, (2009) and Sharma, Forlin, and Loreman,
(2007) indicate that resources are always a concern for teachers when they think about inclusive
education. It is therefore imperative that the Ministry of Education, and Skills Development of Botswana,
expands the scope of resource allocation and strengthens resource delivery mechanisms in schools to
enhance receptivity to inclusive education. In this case P.E. student teachers were worried about lack of
equipment and the Ministry should be looking to identify the equipment required for P.E. classes as a
way to allay the fears of teachers.

The participants’ responses to knowledge and skills showed that they lack some skills which they also
perceive as very useful if they are to successfully include students with disabilities. The literature shows
that general and adaptive instructional skills are necessary to make for a meaningful inclusion of students
with special learning needs. Indeed researchers such as Mastropieri and Scruggs (2000) and Mitchell
(2006) and Kuyini and Desai (2008) have highlighted the fundamental role of adaptive instruction to the
success of inclusive education.

However different groups of teachers have need for different types of skills peculiar to their learning
area. This unique need may apply to Physical Education teachers.

The student teachers’ responses showed that they required skills in the pedagogical content delivery
which is lacking from their training. Student teachers may have the subject matter (content) to teach but
knowing how to teach students with disabilities is also valuable in making learning more meaningful and
enjoyable to the learners.The student teachers expressed the need to have knowledge and skills about
how to adapt the P.E. environment to the needs of those with disabilities. Given that they do not feel
adequately trained for making instructional adaptations, which require teachers to implement alternative
teaching strategies such as modifying instructional materials and presentation styles (Jolivette, Wehby,
Canale, & Massey, 2001), this finding is one that should attract the attention of teacher education
institutions and policy makers in Botswana.

A more important issue that can be gleaned from their responses is that their expressed knowledge and
skills needs are stated in more generic terms without being very specific to the instructional
competencies or strategies that have been shown in the literature to support inclusive education. Such a
finding has two main implications:
1. Lack of understanding of what modifying instruction in a P.E. class entails to meet the needs of
a range of students with disabilities. This implies that their current training has given them a general
understanding of inclusive schooling but more specific content around teaching strategies is important if
they are to be useful to students with special needs in the classrooms they will be teaching in future.

2. Lack of knowledge or understanding of the specific skills or competencies they may be able to
use, which is different from what they have used for students without disability. This lack of knowledge

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of the required adaptive instruction skills meant that they could not articulate their needs more clearly.
However, the limitation of the interview comes out here in that not enough follow-up questions were
used to dig deeper for more specific responses about the knowledge and skills. On the other hand these
general responses make it easy for teacher training institutions to adopt a training strategy focusing on
the broad fields which means that other related skills can be covered which will be more specific to
individual teacher skill needs.

Conclusion
This study set out to investigate the attitudes of P.E. teachers towards inclusive education, their concerns
about inclusive education and the knowledge and skills they perceived they required to be able to include
students with disabilities in their classrooms. Although the resutls showed that teachers held moderately
positive attitudes towards the inclusion of students with disabilities in their classrooms, teachers did not
differ in their atttidues as a function of background factors. Students with visual, hearing and speech and
language impairments attracted less positive attitudes, a finding which betrays the links between these
more obvious disablities and less postive attitudes in traditional societies. Participants also expressed
concerns about inclusion on the basis of limited knowledge and skills, lack of resources, and the impact
of disability on academic engagement and outcomes of those without disability. While the participants
acknowledged that they did not have adequate training, they felt that training to acquire knowledge and
skills for inclusive education will be very useful. The implications of these findings are that in spite of
the government’s pronouncements and efforts to support inclusion, teachers would require more
resources and other supports in the future to allay their concerns, build positive attitudes and enable them
to contribute effectively to Botswana’s inclusive agenda.

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