The purpose of this study is to understand social cognition of sighted students toward inclusive physical education with visually impaired students as well as social cognition of sighted students according to the level of disability of visually impaired students.
This study classified the study participants into three groups the experiment group that had inclusive physical education, the control group I that had an orientation, and the control group II that had regular physical education. The experiment group had three low vision students and three blind students. Inclusive physical education was conducted for nine sessions of 45 minutes each and orientation was conducted for eight sessions of 20 minutes each. This study used pre-examination, experiment treatment, and post-examination. The questionnaire consists of six areas of 49 questions. Having pre-examination as covariant, this study conducted ANCOVA and Duncan to understand the differences between three groups.
The following is the result of above analyses.
First, in social cognition of the sighted students, the experiment group that participated in inclusive physical education showed statistically significant improvement compared to the control group. The result indicates that improvement in social cognition was due to direct interaction and cooperative activities with the visually impaired students.
Second, in social cognition of the sighted students on each factor, the two groups showed different results for each factor. That is, there were significant differences between the experiment group and control group in general cognition and attitude toward visually impaired students, recognition and attitude toward interaction with visually impaired students, and cognition and attitude toward inclusive physical education. However, there was no significant difference in positive self-concept, attitude toward interrelationship, or cognition and attitude toward respect.
The study result shows that short-term inclusive physical education gives positive changes in recognition on visually impaired students and inclusive physical education. However, long-term education is needed to change general attitude and morality.