engleski

Teacher's competences for performing physical education for pupils with physical disabilities

Introduction According to Report about people with disabilities in the Republic of Croatia, which has been conducted every year by Croatian Public Health Institute, number of pupils with physical disabilities is growing, and right now there are about 40.000 pupils with some kind of physical disability attending regular schools. Having that on mind, it is very important for elementary school teachers to have specific skills or competences which are supposed to be used to conduct Physical Education class for the pupils with disabilities. By examining all study programs in country for future elementary teachers, it is possible to see how often courses related to pupils with physical disabilities occur. Considering that future elementary school teachers in the Republic of Croatia earn their competences at six different institutions, a research was conducted on teachers who work with pupils who have physical disabilities to examine the level of teacher’s competence during Physical Education classes.MethodA poll was used in order to examine the level of teacher’s competences in their Physical Education performances with physically disabled pupils. One hundred and nineteen elementary school education teachers from various schools in Slavonski Brod participated in this poll. There were one hundred and fourteen female and five male teachers. The youngest of them was twenty-four and the eldest was sixty-one years old. Their working experience was from zero to thirty-five years, while arithmetic mean of work experience is 15, 39 years. A questionnaire is consisted of 9 questions, regarding teachers work with physically disabled pupils. Teachers filled their questionnaire on the web.Results with discussionResults have shown that only 5% of the teachers consider themselves competent for performing Physical Education class with pupils with some kind of disability. 93.3% teachers claim that there should be changes in education system in order to improve current situation. 91% of them have no help from professional institutions and 92.4% of schools have no didactic materials which should help in performing Physical Education classes for those who have physical disabilities.ConclusionBased on results, there is a great need for more courses which are closely related on how to work with pupils with disabilities. Elementary school education teachers are showing a low level of self-assessment when they talk about their competences for conducting a Physical Education class for pupils with disabilities and a low level of support from the professional institutions as well. That is why it is very important to provide future elementary teachers syllabuses where they can acquire competences to work with pupils with disabilities.

pupils with physical disabilities, Physical Education, teacher’s competences

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