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Research Articles

Vol. 20 No. 2

Effects of Service-Learning on Kinesiology Students’ Attitudes Toward Children With Disabilities

Submitted
June 27, 2016
Published
2016-06-27

Abstract

Contact theory (Allport, 1954) served as the framework to investigate undergraduate kinesiology students’ attitudes toward children with disabilities after a service-learning (SL) experience. Fifty-one undergraduate kinesiology students enrolled in an adapted physical education (APE) course served as the experimental group, and 31 undergraduate kinesiology students enrolled in an introductory kinesiology course served as the control group. The Attitudes Toward Disabled Persons Scale–Form A (Yuker, Block, & Younng, 1970) was administered at three different times: before, during, and after the SL. A mixed-design ANOVA revealed that there were no statistically significant main or interaction effects for gender, group, and time on the attitude scores of kinesiology students toward children with disabilities. The results suggest that the quantity and quality of contact time with children with disabilities may be important to consider when designing and structuring SL experiences in APE courses.