Introduction
Trying to implement curriculums for students with disabilities can be tough, especially since we don’t know not only how the students feel about having students with disabilities in their classrooms, but also how the students with disabilities feel. Teachers have their own perspective as to how a classroom is to be administered, but that can only go so far. With both of these perspectives, there can be certain tips and strategies established that will help make my first experience as a physical educator better and improve on having classes with students with disabilities mainstreamed into my classroom.
Students’ Perspective on Mainstreamed Physical Education Students in the general population have their own perspective on students with disabilities in their classrooms. One main thing general students thought was that they wanted students with disabilities in their classroom. This made the students with disabilities feel like they were part of the group. Obrusnikova, Block, and Dillon (2010) stated that “students said that they thought it would be easy to play with Lee (disabled student) if the class played games that Lee could play,” which seemed like students were welcoming the students with disabilities in their classroom. General students also said they would like the teacher to make modifications necessary to make sure that the student with a disability was able to participate just like any other student. The general students in this article also mentioned how they were concerned about the student’s safety and making sure that the student doesn’t feel left out at all during class time. Students with disabilities have their own perspective as well on how they felt about being mainstreamed in physical education and how they are learn in those classes. In an article by Goodwin (2001), students with physical disabilities said that they experienced positive and negative behaviors brought on by the
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