THE PREDICTORS OF STUDENTS ’ ATTITUDE TOWARDS INCLUSION OF CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES IN PHYSICAL EDUCATION CLASSES

Positive attitude towards inclusion of children with disabilities in Physical Education (PE) classes is one quite important factor for successful implementation of inclusive education. The aim of this study was to examine the predictors of attitude of the students as future PE teachers towards inclusion in PE. In this study, the predictors in the field of personality, professional competences for working with children with disabilities and certain personal characteristics (gender) were included. The sample included 221 students of the final year of studies at the Faculty of Sport and Physical Education in Belgrade, Niš and Novi Sad. In order to measure the attitude towards inclusion in PE, the instrument of Attitude Toward Inclusive Physical Education was used. In the field of personality, a trait of openness to experience was examined, which was measured using the HEXACO PI-R instrument. An additional questionnaire was also designed by which the students were asked to indicate their gender and professional competences for working with children with disabilities: their average mark during the studies, subjective assessment of the level of knowledge and skills required for working with children with disabilities acquired in the course of their studies (self-assessment of professional competence) and experience in working with children with disabilities during their professional practice. The results of multiple regression analysis showed that openness to experience, self-assessment of professional competence and gender were significant predictors. The results indicate that, during the training for teaching profession, it is necessary to develop students’ specific competences required for the work in inclusive education as well as to create the teaching atmosphere which will enhance inquisitiveness and creativity as significant determinants of the trait of openness to experience.


INTRODUCTION
Teachers' positive attitude towards inclusion of children with disabilities in regular classes is one of the most important factors for quality implementation of inclusive education (Avramidis, & Norwich, 2002;Brojčin, 2013; O'Brien, Kudláček, & Howe, 2009).Teachers' attitudes influence both communication processes in the class and the quality of realization of teaching contents prescribed by the curriculum (Logan, & Wimer, 2013).The studies have shown that the PE teachers who have positive attitudes towards inclusive education put more effort into teaching process which results in the improved development of children with disabilities (Elliott, 2008).Therefore, it is very important to develop positive attitudes toward inclusive education with students as future holders of inclusive process.
Although there are various concepts of attitudes in psychology, the authors agree that they represent dispositions which may be formed and changed under the influence of different personal and social factors (e. g., Vogel, & Wanke, 2016).Hutzler (2003) has shown, in his review study, that gender, previous experience in working with children with disabilities and perceived competence for the implementation of inclusive education were most frequently examined factors related to the PE students and teachers' attitudes towards inclusion.
The studies dealing with the relationship between gender and attitude towards inclusion in PE have not 127 presented consistent results.A number of studies have shown that female PE students and teachers had more positive attitudes towards inclusion than male PE students and teachers (Downs, & Williams, 1994 Đorđić, 2012).Although, in literature, there are few explanations for the obtained gender differences, some authors believe that a possible reason could be in the fact that men are more oriented towards training than to teaching process, which may cause a role conflict when including children with disabilities in PE classes, which further leads to forming negative attitudes towards inclusion (Hutzler et al., 2005).
The authors agree that perceived competence for working with children with disabilities is one of the most important factors associated with attitudes towards inclusive education (Block, & Rizzo, 1995;Hutzler, 2003;Kowalski, & Rizzo, 1996;Rizzo, & Vispoel, 1991).The research conducted by Kowalski & Rizzo (1996) using regression analysis has shown that perceived competence is the most important predictor of positive attitudes towards inclusive PE, followed by a number of university courses devoted to inclusive education as an important predictor as well.Comparable results were obtained also by Hutzler et al., (2005) who have shown that positive attitudes towards inclusion are associated with a greater perception of self-efficacy in teaching children with disabilities in PE classes.Although the sources of perceived competence, as a complex psychological construct, may vary, it has been shown that good preparation of the PE students during educational process increases the perception of competence and confidence in their own abilities in order to implement inclusive education successfully (O' Brien et al., 2009).
The studies dealing with personal experience in working with children with disabilities as a factor related to attitudes towards inclusive PE obtained contradictory results.In some studies it has been shown that the teachers or students who have been experienced in working with children with disabilities have more positive attitudes (Folsom-Meek et al., 1999), in some studies it has been shown that they have more negative attitudes (Downs, & Williams, 1994;Pejčić et al., 2016), while certain studies did not show any relationship between experience and attitudes towards inclusion at all (Hutzler et al., 2005;Tubić, & Đorđić, 2012).The authors believe that the main reason for inconsistent results may be found in the quality of experience which the teachers or students acquired during their inclusive practice: if it is perceived that teaching process is under control and if it results in positive learning outcomes the attitudes become more positive, and if it is perceived that teaching process is not under control, the attitudes remain unchanged or become even worse (Hutzler et al., 2005).
Previous studies did not link attitudes towards inclusion of children with disabilities with personality structure.However, in many studies, it has been shown that personality structure is an important determinant for developing attitudes and prejudices.Personality trait which has shown a consistent relationship with different types of attitudes is openness to experience.In modern theories, this trait is considered one of the basic personality traits and as such it is recognized in both five-factor personality model (Costa, & McCrae, 1995), and HEXACO model as well (Lee, & Ashton, 2004).Openness to experience in its positive dimension includes inquisitiveness, creativity, unconventionality and aesthetic appreciation, whereas in its negative dimension it includes conventionality, orientation towards traditional attitudes and beliefs, preference for known over unknown, rejection of new concepts and ideas and a lack of aesthetics (e. g., Lee, & Ashton, 2004).In his extensive research, Saucier (2000) has shown that openness to experience is associated with a wide range of social attitudes.Specifically, it has been shown that the people closed to experience are prone to right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) and social dominance orientation (SDO) as well as to prejudices towards minority groups which are perceived as dangerous, derogated or different in relation to the majority (Sibley, Harding, Perry, Asbrock, & Duckitt, 2010).The authors believe that closure to experience affects that the world around us is perceived as a source of new, unknown and risky ideas threatening to jeopardize stability, which is suitable for the development of right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation.As a result, negative attitudes and prejudices towards different types of minority groups have been developed (Sibley et al., 2010;Sibley, & Duckitt, 2013).Bearing this in mind, it is reasonable to assume that this personality trait may be also related to attitudes towards inclusion of children with disabilities in PE classes.
The aim of this study was to examine the predictors of attitudes of the students as future PE teachers towards inclusion of children with disabilities in physical education classes.The predictors in the field of personality, professional competences for working with children with disabilities and certain personal characteristics (gender) were included.The predictor in the field of personality was a trait of openness to experience.Professional competences for working with children with disabilities were examined through the students' average mark in the course of their studies, subjective assessment of the level of knowledge and skills required for working with children with disabilities acquired during the studies (self-assessment of professional competence) and experience in working with children with disabilities.

МЕTHOD Participants
The sample of this research included 221 students of the final year (the fourth year of academic and master degree studies) at the three Faculties of Sport and Physical Education in Serbia.The sample included 99 (44.8%)students from Belgrade, 58 (26.2%) students from Nis and 64 (29%) students from Novi Sad.According to gender, the sample included 128 (57.9%) male students and 93 (42.1%) female students.

Instruments and variables
In order to measure the students' attitudes towards inclusion of children with disability in Physical Education classes the instrument Attitude Toward Inclusive Physical Education -ATIPE (Hutzler et al., 2005) was used, and it was adapted by Đorđić et al. for the purposes of the research in Serbian.This instrument consisted of 15 items accompanied by a fourpoint Likert type scale.The factor structure of the instrument (analysis of the main components) used in this research showed a one-factor solution which explained 39% of variance, justifying the overall score on the scale.The score on ATIPE scale is expressed by the mean value of the responses to all the items, and a higher score indicates more positive attitudes towards inclusion of children with disability in PE classes.Reliability of the instrument (Cronbah α) in this study was .87.
Openness to experience was measured using the instrument HEXACO PI-R (Lee, & Ashton, 2004).A sub-scale measuring this trait consisted of 16 items including four fields: aesthetic appreciation, inquisitiveness, creativity and unconventionality.Each item was accompanied by a five-point Likert type scale.The score was expressed by the average value of responses to all the items, and a higher score indicates a greater openness to experience.Cronbah α measure of reliability in this study was .81.
A questionnaire was designed to collect general information about the subjects (gender, place and year of studies) and their professional competence for working with children with disabilities.The students' professional competences were assessed through their success during the studies, subjective assessment of the level of knowledge and skills required for working with children with disabilities that they have acquired in the course of their studies (self-assessment of professional competence) and through the experience in working with children with disabilities.The students' performance during the studies was operationalized by their average mark.Self-assessment of professional competence was measured by the following question:"Please, rate the extent of your knowledge and skills required for working with children with disabilities that you have acquired during previous education on a scale from 1 to 5 ", where 1 meant that they have acquired no knowledge or skills and 5 meant that they have acquired all the required knowledge.The experience in working with children with disabilities was measured by the following question:" Have you ever, during your professional practice or other activities at your faculty, had a chance to work in a class including a child with disability?", where the students responded with YES or NO.

Procedure
Filling in the questionnaire lasted between 10 and 15 minutes.The participation in this research was voluntary and anonymous.

Statistical analysis
The data were processed by descriptive analysis (arithmetic mean, standard deviation, minimum and maximum value, frequency, percentage) and by concluding statistics (regression analysis).

RESULTS
Table 1 shows the results of descriptive statistics (minimum, maximum, arithmetic mean and standard deviation) for individual items of the ATIPE scale.The presented data have been presented in non-recoded values.In further analyses, the items formulated in negative forms were recoded so that a higher score indicates a more positive attitude.Note: Min -minimum, Max -maximum, M -Mean, SD -standard deviation Table 2 shows descriptive indicators for the entire ATIPE scale, openness to experience, average mark during the studies and self-assessment of the level of knowledge and skills required for working with children with disabilities.The obtained values of standardized skewness and standard kurtosis have shown that there was no significant deviation from the normal distribution for all the specified variables.When asked about their experience in working with children with disabilities 127 (57.5%) subjects answered that they had some experience in working with these children, while 94 (42.5%) subjects said they did not have any such experience.Multiple regression analysis (enter) was performed where attitude towards inclusion was a criterion variable, and openness to experience, average mark during the studies, experience in work with children with disabilities, self-assessment of professional competence for inclusive education and the subjects' gender were predictor variables.The results have shown that the regression function was statistically significant, R = .38,R 2 = .14,F(5, 215) = 7.07, p < .01, and open-ness to experience, self-assessment of professional competence and gender were pointed out as significant predictors (Table 3).Openness to experience and self-assessment of professional competence were in a positive correlation with attitude towards inclusion, whereas a sign of the partial correlation (β) between gender and attitude towards inclusion indicates that male subjects had more positive attitudes towards inclusion than female ones.

DISCUSSION
The authors who deal with inclusive education agree that teachers' positive attitude towards inclusion of children with disabilities in regular classes is one of the essential factors for successful implementation of this process (Avramidis, & Norwich, 2002;Brojčin, 2013;O'Brien et al., 2009).Regarding that attitudes represent psychological dispositions that may be formed and changed under the influence of numerous factors, different studies in the field of PE have dealt with determining the factors related to teachers and students' attitudes towards inclusive education.The results of these studies have shown inconsistent findings.Bearing this in mind, the main aim of this research was to examine the predictors of attitudes of the students as future holders of inclusive process towards inclusion of children with disabilities in PE classes.
The results of descriptive statistics have shown that the students expressed moderately positive attitudes towards inclusion of children with disabilities in PE classes, which is in accordance with the results of previous studies where the ATIPE scale was used and that were conducted in students (Tubić, & Đorđić, 2012), PE teachers (Tubić, & Đorđić, 2012;Pejčić et al., 2016) and teachers (Đorđić et al., 2014).Descriptive indicators of the responses to individual questions of the ATIPE scale have shown that the students mostly agreed with the statements that emphasize positive values of inclusion and the benefit that children with disabilities may obtain by their inclusion in regular teaching process.However, the students also agreed with those statements that emphasize a lack of time and resources required for the quality work in a class including a child with disability.These results are also consistent with the results of previous studies which have shown that PE teachers generally support a concept of inclusion, but they point out a lack of time and resources as the main obstacle for the implementation of inclusive programs (Block, & Obrusnikova, 2007;O'Brien et al., 2009, Pejčić et al., 2016;Scruggs, & Mastropieri, 1996).
In this research, the predictors of students' attitudes towards inclusion of children with disabilities in PE classes included the field of basic personality structure (a trait of openness to experience), professional competences for working with children with disabilities (average mark during studies, self-assessment of professional competence and experience in working with children with disabilities) and certain personal characteristics of the students (gender).Multiple regression analysis has shown that significant predictors of the students' attitudes are: openness to experience, self-assessment of professional competence and students' gender.
Previous studies have not linked attitude towards inclusion of children with disabilities in PE classes and personality structure.The results of this research have shown that openness to experience, defined by HEXACO model (Lee, & Ashton, 2004), was a significant predictor of positive attitude towards inclusion.This result is consistent with the results of the studies that showed that a negative dimension of this trait, i.e. closure to experience, is related to a tendency to develop prejudices and negative attitudes towards different minority groups, including the groups that are perceived as derogated and rejected by social community (Sibley et. al., 2010).According to the authors, closure to experience affects the fact that the world around us is perceived as a source of new ideas threatening to jeopardize stability of the current order, which results in the development of right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation, and thus, negative attitudes towards minority groups (Sibley et. al., 2010).The results of this study indicate that basic personality structure should also be considered when discussing the constituent elements of attitude towards inclusion.Although personality structure is not directly subject to pedagogical interventions, it is still possible to create the atmosphere that enhances students' inquisitiveness and creativi-ty i.e. the traits essential for openness to experience, during teaching process.In the future, studies should also examine predictive value of other personality traits which could be significant for creating positive attitudes towards inclusion, such as agreeableness.
In this study, professional competences of the students as future PE teachers were operationalized by their average marks during the studies, self-assessment of professional competence and experience in working with children with disabilities during their previous professional practice.The results have shown that self-assessment of professional competence was the only significant predictor from this group of variables.The students who assessed that they have acquired enough knowledge and skills required for working with children with disabilities expressed more positive attitudes towards inclusive physical education.It is important to note that self-assessment of professional competence had the greatest partial correlation with attitude towards inclusion in relation to all the examined variables, i.e. it is the most significant predictor of attitude towards inclusion of children with disabilities in PE classes.These results are consistent with the results of previous studies which have indicated that the perceived professional competence for working with children with disabilities is of utmost importance for forming positive attitudes towards inclusion in PE classes (Block, & Rizzo, 1995;Hutzler, 2003;Kowalski, & Rizzo, 1996;Rizzo, & Vispoel, 1991).The finding that attitude towards inclusion was not associated with the average mark during the studies indicates that general educational competences are less important for developing positive attitude towards inclusion of children with disabilities in PE classes than the development of specific competences required for the work in inclusive education.The results of the studies showing that positive attitude towards inclusion of children with disabilities in PE classes is associated with a number of university courses for students devoted to inclusive education (Block, & Rizzo, 1995) and professional training for teachers (Avramidis, Bayliss, & Burden, 2000a,b) also support this conclusion.The authors believe that, during the preparation for inclusive teaching process, in addition to theoretical knowledge, it is very important to provide the students with practical examples and recommendations, regarding the type and degree of a child's disability (Hutzler, 2003).
Experience in working with children with disabilities in PE classes acquired by the students during their professional practice was not indicated as a significant predictor of attitude towards inclusion.Previous studies dealing with personal experience as a factor which may affect attitudes towards inclusive PE have not obtained consistent results.Some studies have shown that personal experience in working with children with disabilities is associated with more positive attitudes towards inclusive PE (Folsom-Meek et al., 1999), some studies have shown that it is in correlation with more negative attitudes ( Đorđić, 2012).Some authors believe that such inconsistent findings reflect differences in the quality of experience acquired by the teachers and students during their work with children with disabilities, which is reflected in a level of the perceived control over teaching process and the learning outcomes that result from it (Hutzler et al., 2005).Bearing this in mind, future studies should examine, in more detail, a role of personal experience in forming attitude towards inclusion in PE classes, taking into account the quality of teaching process in working with classes including children with disabilities.
Previous studies dealing with the relationship between the gender of teachers and students and their attitudes towards inclusive PE have shown that women have more positive attitudes than men (

CONCLUSION
The results of this study have shown that the students as future PE teachers expressed moderately positive attitudes towards inclusion of children with disabilities in PE classes, but also that there is a space for further improvement.Openness to experience, self-assessment of professional competence for working with children with disabilities and gender were found significant predictors of attitude towards inclusion.Regarding that self-assessment of professional competence for working in inclusive education is the most significant predictor of the attitude, it is necessary to develop specific competences required for working with children with disabilities in PE classes, during the process of students' preparation for future educational work.In addition to theoretical knowledge of inclusive education the students should be provided with practical examples and appropriate methods for working with children with disabilities, taking into account the specificities of physical education teaching.Additionally, bearing in mind the significance of openness to experience for forming students' positive attitude towards inclusive physical education, it is necessary to create the teaching atmosphere which will enhance students' inquisitiveness and creativity.

Table 1 .
Descriptive statistics for individual items of the ATIPE scale

Table 2 .
Descriptive statistics for attitude towards inclusion, openness to experience, average mark during the studies and self-assessment of professional competence

Table 3 .
Multiple regression analysis -partial correlation and significance of the predictors of attitude towards inclusion of children with disabilities in PE classes Codes for gender: 1 -male, 2 -female.Codes for work experience: 1 -yes, 2 -no.