Investigation of school social behaviors of inclusion students participating in physical education and sports/games classes in terms of peer rejection according to teachers' views

This research was conducted to examine the relationship between school social behavior and peer rejection of inclusive students participating in physical education and sports/games classes, according to the teachers' opinions. The research, designed in the descriptive and relational scanning model, was conducted by students who are responsible for physical education and games classes in public primary schools affiliated to the Ministry of National Education. A total of 207 teachers participated, including 102 classroom teachers and 105 physical education and sports teachers working in public secondary schools. Within the scope of the research, the scale developed by Boyce (2015), adapted into Turkish by Han (2022) and adapted to the literature as "Games, Sports and Physical Activities Lesson Peer Rejection Scale Teacher Form" was used as a data collection tool. In addition, the "School Social Behavior Scale" was used to collect data in the study. During the data analysis, if the observation values in all groups were above 30 for two independent group comparisons, they were analyzed with the "Independent Sample T Test". Data with observation values below 30 in two independent group comparisons were not included in the study. When there were more than two groups, the "Kruskal-Wallis Test", a nonparametric alternative to the ANOVA test, was used because the observations were less than 30. The results indicate that mainstreamed students are subject to peer rejection because of their physical appearance, language skills, problem behaviors, and lack of social skills. It was found that inclusion students with physical disabilities, autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and language and speech disorders were most likely to experience peer rejection. At the same time, it was found that there was a significant relationship between some teacher demographics and peer rejection. As a result, teachers' opinions indicate that inclusive students have lower social competence and more negative social behavior than their peers. The conclusion was that they were more likely to be rejected by their peers as a result of this situation. Keywords: Peer Rejection, Physical Education and Sports/Games, Inclusive Education, School Social Behaviors, Students with Special Needs