Undergraduate students’ experiences with educational podcasts to learn about inclusive and integrated physical education

Abstract

Currently, there is a dearth of research that has examined how podcasts influence kinesiology students’ learning experience. More specifically, research is needed to better understand how different types of podcasts (e.g. open-access podcasts) influence students’ perceptions toward topics that are complex and contextual. One such complex topic that has particular meaning to the fields of physical education and adapted physical education is inclusion. As such, the purpose of this investigation was to explore the way in which listening to a podcast influences how undergraduate students understand inclusion and integration within a physical education setting. Written reflections were collected from 19 undergraduate students and focus group interviews were conducted with 14 undergraduate students. An interpretivist research paradigm was adopted, and a qualitative description approach was utilized to construct three interrelated themes. The first theme, ‘This podcast was very effective’, demonstrated that the participants had generally favorable views towards the effectiveness of the podcast. The second theme, ‘I really didn’t know the difference’, described how the podcast provided new information to the participants concerning inclusion and integration in a physical education setting. The third theme, ‘Creating an inclusive environment for children with disabilities will be a challenge’, portrays participants recognizing barriers to providing an inclusive environment, and whether questioning integrated settings are always the preferred setting. These findings suggest that open-access podcasts are a viable tool to teach complex issues to preservice physical educators.