Essentials of Teaching Adapted Physical Education

Diversity, Culture, and Inclusion

Samuel Hodge, Lauren Lieberman, Nathan Murata

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351217361
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Inclusive Education

Essentials of Teaching Adapted Physical Education: Diversity, Culture, and Inclusion offers a wealth of knowledge for teaching today's diverse student population, including those with disabilities. Readers will learn how to teach a variety of students, organize learning within various curricular models, assess and evaluate students, and manage behavior. Readers will also learn more about the conditions and disabilities they may encounter when teaching, how to understand students' various abilities, and how to adapt and modify instructional methods to include all students.The book emphasizes the importance of being culturally responsive and acquiring the necessary knowledge to infuse appropriate, socially just practices into educational settings. Future teachers will learn how to apply culturally responsive instructional methods and behavior management strategies and will understand broader social and economic contexts for their students' behavior.At the same time, this book provides more than a how-to approach to teaching adapted physical education. Its content and features promote reflective learning, encouraging readers to anticipate the types of teaching situations and challenges that may arise and think through how they will respond. Scenarios and vignettes throughout provide context for the material and promote critical thinking and problem solving.

1
Education and Students with Disabilities

Mr. Jackson is an adapted physical education (APE) teacher at Southern Middle School. Many of the students at the school, like many kids their age, are sports enthusiasts. For example, during lunch the boys and girls frequently talk about sports and their favorite sports teams, whether the local high school or their favorite college or professional team. Typically, at recess they divide into teams and play football or soccer or basketball. Sometimes it seems that all the students at Southern are involved in sports in some way. Well, almost all the students. The students in Mr. Jackson’s class, a self-contained APE class for students with severe disabilities, have not caught the sport bug quite like the other students at Southern. All of Mr. Jackson’s students have severe intellectual impairments. Some are able to walk and even run while others have physical disabilities that require them to use wheelchairs. None of the students can read or write, but some can talk and even say short sentences. Because of the severe nature of their disabilities, the school district has chosen to self-contain these students for the majority of the day with Mr. Jackson and two teacher assistants.

However, as prescribed in their individualized education programs (IEPs), the students are included with their peers without disabilities for a portion of the day. For example, they are included in general education recess, lunch, music, and physical education. Mr. Jackson believes that these inclusionary opportunities help peers without disabilities appreciate students with disabilities and teach them to be more empathetic toward these students. At least that is what should happen according to the special education classes Mr. Jackson took in college and the books he has read about inclusion.

Unfortunately, Mr. Jackson has not seen the positive response from peers without disabilities that he would like to see. In fact, he has seen the opposite. At recess, students without disabilities, primarily boys, quickly divide themselves up into teams and play games. While Mr. Jackson has tried to involve his students in these games, the students without disabilities refuse to let them play. Mr. Jackson has not pushed the recess issue too much because it is free time for students without disabilities. Forcing them to include his students does not seem right. But he has noticed that some boys without disabilities have started to tease his students. This teasing has been mostly name calling and taunting, and Mr. Jackson can see that it is beginning to bother his students. Mr. Jackson has moved his students to a different part of the playground to avoid those who tease his students, but avoiding the situation does not seem to be the best solution.*

*Adapted from Hodge, Murata, Block, & Lieberman, 2003, pp. 1–6. A complete version of this case appears in that text, Case Studies in Adapted Physical Education: Empowering Critical Thinking.

How should a physical education teacher best prepare for and respond to such a common situation? Generally speaking, many teachers ask “How can I most effectively teach students with disabilities?” In this chapter, we discuss physical education for students with disabilities.

introduction

In this chapter, we discuss teaching physical education to students with disabilities. More specifically, we cover the importance of physical education and the historical foundations of adapted physical education and activity. Then, we briefly discuss the current status of adapted physical education (APE) and activity. We also discuss the theoretical and philosophical foundations of the profession. Furthermore, we offer contemporary perspectives on inclusion and universal design in physical education. In the latter part of the chapter, we focus on the roles and responsibilities of highly qualified physical educators and the need for specialized knowledge, self-reflection, and effective teaching behaviors in this profession. Lastly, we present professional standards essential to constructing and implementing high-quality physical education programs.

Overview of Disability

According to the U.S. Census Bureau (2011), the total population of the world is seven billion. Of this total, an estimated 15 percent of the population lives with a disability. Globally, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), “People with disabilities are among the most marginalized groups in the world … People with disabilities have poorer health outcomes, lower education achievements, less economic participation and higher rates of poverty than people without disabilities” (WHO, 2011a, n.p.). Additionally, WHO (2011b) asserts that

More than one billion people in the world live with some form of disability, of whom nearly 200 million experience considerable difficulties in functioning. In the years ahead, disability will be an even greater concern because its prevalence is on the rise. This is due to ageing populations and the higher risk of disability in older people as well as the global increase in chronic health conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and mental health disorders.

Across the world, people with disabilities have poorer health outcomes, lower education achievements, less economic participation and higher rates of poverty than people without disabilities. This is partly because people with disabilities experience barriers in accessing services that many of us have long taken for granted, including health, education, employment, and transport as well as information. These difficulties are exacerbated in less advantaged communities. (p. xi)

In legal terms, disability is defined as “an impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities” (ADA Amendments Act, 2008). Life activities include caring for oneself, performing manual tasks, seeing, hearing, eating, sleeping, walking, standing, lifting, bening, speaking, breathing, learning, reading, concentrating, thinking, communicating, and working. Disability represents interaction between features of a person’s being and the systems of the society in which he or she lives (WHO, 2011b). It is a complex term covering impairments, activity limitations, and participation restrictions. Impairment is a problem in an individual’s body function or structure. Activity limitation is a difficulty encountered by an individual in executing a task or action. A participation restriction is a limitation experienced by an individual involved in life situations. The interaction of impaired body functions or structures with difficulties in performing life activities and restrictions in participating in activities of a society such as education and employment results in disability status. Moreover, individuals with disabilities often face negative attitudes, prejudices, stereotypes, and stigmas about disability that can lead to negative acts toward them such as a teacher’s resistance to teaching a child with a severe disability or students bullying or mocking their classmates with disabilities (Baumeister, Storch, & Geffken, 2008; Garcia Biggs, Simpson, & Gaus, 2010; Saetermoe, Scattone, & Kim, 2001).

Legislation requires barrier-free physical accessibility to programs and non-discrimination on behalf of individuals with disabilities. this includes extracurricular school activities, playground activities, and sport.

Historically, persons with disabilities have been marginalized, denied equitable participation opportunities, and even criminally victimized within society’s institutions, including education and sport settings, mostly due to negative psychosocial factors such as negative attitudes, prejudices, stereotypes, and stigmas (Hughes, 2005; Galey & Pugh, 1995; Sherrill & Williams, 1996). In fact, before the 1970s, many students with disabilities were excluded from U.S. public education (Grenier, 2006). Prior to the passage of Public Law (PL) 94–142, the Education of All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, students with disabilities were usually isolated in either residential institutions or separate schools (e.g., schools for the blind), and typically they did not receive physical education (Block, 1992; Vogler, 2003). However since the mid-1970s, advocacy, litigation, and legislative acts have supported the rights of people with disabilities in the United States and elsewhere (DePauw, 1986; Grenier, 2006, 2007).

Many countries have enacted progressive laws that guarantee ...