The Efficiency of Integrated and Segregated Physical Education Classes for Secondary School Students with Physical and Mental Disabilities and Poor Fitness

Abstract

Purpose. The aim of our investigation was to establish the efficiency of the integrated physical education classes for schoolchildren with minor deviations in health. Methods. Sociological (questionnaire), biomedical, pedagogical (testing), psycho-diagnostic, and mathematical statistics. Pupils (N = 1417) of secondary school (both sexes, 5th-9th forms, i.e. aged 10-15) were examined. Results. The characteristics of physical and mental development in the process of integrated physical education proved to be significantly better for different sex and age groups. Analysis of physical fitness characteristics shows that integrated physical education classes turned out to be more effective for schoolchildren with minor health deviations than for apparently healthy students. Integrated physical education classes are more effective for students' dexterity than for their power endurance. Integrated physical education classes are more effective for female students than for male ones; for schoolchildren with minor health deviations in older age groups (7th-9th forms) than for younger schoolchildren. Those schoolchildren who attended integrated physical education classes expressed significantly better attitudes to physical education than their peers who studied in a segregated environment. Conclusions. Integrated physical education classes are a more progressive and effective form of physical education in terms of their beneficial effect upon the physical and mental development of secondary school children with minor health distortions.