DEVELOPMENT OF THE PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCY SCALE ABOUT STUDENTS WITH SPECIAL NEEDS FOR PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND SPORT TEACHERS

Abstract

The aim of this study was to develop a scale to determine the competencies of physical education and sports teachers regarding the education of students with special needs and to carry out the reliability and validity studies of the developed scale. In this study, as a method, an item pool was created by taking into account the existing scale development stages in the literature, expert opinions were obtained, content validity was ensured, a trial scale was created, data were collected from the first sample group, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed, and after the scale was rearranged, the second sample group was selected, data were collected and confirmatory factor analyzes (CFA) were performed. Physical education and sports teachers working in different parts of Turkey in the 2020-2021 academic year were included in the research. During the research process, two different study groups were included. Data were collected from 165 (81 women, 89 men) physical education and sports teachers for EFA; and 101 (34 women, 67 men) for CFA. As a result, fit indices were as the following: NFI=0.92, NNFI=0.94, GFI=0.94, AGFI=0.87, IFI=0.94, CFI=0.94, RFI=0.91, RMSEA=0.051, SRMR=0.044, and RMR=0.046. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 0.97. These results suggest that the one factor and 29-item Professional Competency Scale About Students with Special Needs for Physical Education and Sport Teachers is a valid and reliable instrument.