A study about the participation in Physical Education of a student with physical disability

Abstract

A case study is carried out on a third-year primary school student with physical disabilities from a school in Spain. This research aims to evaluate the participation of Alba in Physical Education sessions and implement strategies that favour her inclusion through the adaptation of tasks. To do this, four phases were conducted during the investigation: phase I, corresponding to a non-participative observation of four non-consecutive sessions of the Physical Education classes that the participant attended; phase II, corresponding to the semi-structured interviews, carried out interviews with the agents involved in the student´s education; phase III, corresponding to the documentary analysis of a Teaching Unit of the teacher, using the TREE model, to detect the possible barriers that the participant must face; and finally, phase IV, corresponding to a proposal to adapt the tasks of that Teaching Unit. Results show a scare participation of the student in Physical Education, because the interaction with the group is limited to the assumption of passive roles or the performance of individualized activities on many situations. There is also a clear lack of knowledge about the student's school trajectory by the agents involved, as well as a lack of communication between them and their family. Based on these results, several adaptations have been proposed to increase their participation in physical education sessions.