School-based Physical Education (PE) is important, especially to students with disabilities whose participation in physical activities out of school is limited. The development over time of participation-related constructs in relation to students' perceived functioning and achievement is explored. Students in mainstream inclusive secondary school self-rated their PE-specific self-efficacy, general school self-efficacy, aptitude to participate in PE, and perceived physical and socio-cognitive functional skills at two timepoints, year 7 and year 9. Results were compared between three groups of students with: disabilities (n = 28), high grades (n = 47), or low grades (n = 30) in PE. Over time, perceived physical skills of students with disabilities became strongly associated with self-efficacy and aptitude to participate. Perceived socio-cognitive skills in the study sample improved and had a positive effect on PE-specific self-efficacy. Efforts should be made to limit the accelerated negative impact of perceived restricted functioning of students with disabilities. Grading criteria need to be developed to comply with standards adapted to fit abilities of students with disabilities. Meaningful learning experiences appear to be created when participation is promoted and capacity beliefs (PE-specific self-efficacy) are boosted. Allocating resources to support the development of students' socio-cognitive skills seem to have potential for overall positive school outcome.

Including students with disabilities in school-based Physical Education (PE) is common practice. However, little is known about students’ engagement and interaction in this environment and how it is related to PE teaching skills. Student engagement and interaction patterns were therefore observed. A multiple time-sampling method was used to perform observations of individual, contextual and environmental aspects of student engagement in school-based PE lessons. Three groups of students, aged 14 (n = 94), with: (1) Disabilities (n = 23), (2) Low grades (n = 27), and (3) High grades (n = 44) were compared. Students, independent of group, showed relatively high engagement in PE. The observed frequency of linking lesson content to PE syllabus in combination with using a vibrant affective tone when instructing was used as an indicator of high-/low-level teaching skills. Higher student engagement was observed in environments with high-level PE teaching skills, which included more whole group teaching, a higher frequency of student-teacher communicative proximity and more instructions. Students with disabilities and with low grades were more often observed in whole group activities, students with high grades in small group activities. The primary type of support provided to students with disabilities in PE seemed to consist of communicative proximity to the teacher. They were more often observed to be close to the teacher. Our results suggest that proximity to the teacher may serve as an indicator of inclusive teaching. In high-level teaching environments, teachers were more frequently in communicative proximity to all students, which facilitates learning. Lessons were also more focused (physically and academically) and technical devices and music were used for teaching purposes. More complex lesson content requires more instructions and our results show that, despite more instructions, all student groups were more on-task. Implied from our observations is that lesson complexity, the structuring of whole/small group formats, teacher proximity, and student engagement are aspects to consider when studying school-based PE. More instructions, closer communicative proximity and higher student engagement in high-level teaching provide students with more learning opportunities and facilitate feed-back and feed-forward, and individual support to students with disabilities.

Including vulnerable groups of students such as students with learning disabilities in mainstream school research, require ethical considerations and questionnaire adaptation. These students are often excluded, due to low understanding or methodologies generating inadequate data. Students with disability need be studied as a separate group and provided accessible questionnaires. This pilot study aims at developing and evaluating student self-reported measures, rating aspects of student experiences of school-based Physical Education (PE). Instrument design, reliability and validity were examined in Swedish secondary school students (n = 47) including students, aged 13, with intellectual disability (n = 5) and without impairment and test–retested on 28 of these students. Psychometric results from the small pilot-study sample were confirmed in analyses based on replies from the first wave of data collection in the main study (n = 450). Results show adequate internal consistency, factor structure and relations between measures. In conclusion, reliability and validity were satisfactory in scales to measure self-efficacy in general, in PE, and aptitude to participate. Adapting proxy ratings for functioning into self-reports indicated problems. Adequacy of adjustments made were confirmed and a dichotomous scale for typical/atypical function is suggested for further analyses.

Background: Students with disability show a trajectory of higher incidence of school failure. High quality teaching and proper support may foster high self-efficacy, as protective factors for successful school outcomes. Physical Education (PE) can provide students with a context in which self-efficacy is promoted. At transition into high school with higher cognitive stakes, developmental changes and individual social identification coinciding, a disability may add to the challenge of success. Investigating self-efficacy as a predictor of achievement operationalized as grade points, student perceived self-efficacy, function and aptitude to participate in PE, and teacher rated teaching quality are examined.

Method: Three groups were studied, students with 1. Diagnosed disability, 2. Low grades and 3. High grades in PE in year 6. Questionnaires were completed by students in 26 classes including classmates (n=450, 228 boys) and their PE-teachers (n=25). Correlations were analyzed, differentiating groups of students.

Results: Students with disabilities experience lower general self-efficacy and in PE, and are less apt to participate in PE. Their PE self-efficacy is higher if the classroom climate is good. PE-teachers systematic work with grading has positive effects on academic and movement self-efficacy for students with low grades and on health self-efficacy for students with high grades. Highest effect of perceived socio-cognitive function is displayed in students with low grades, the correlation is stronger in general self-efficacy than in self-efficacy in PE. Students with high grades have higher self-efficacy in general and in PE.

Conclusions: Student perceived socio-cognitive function is of major importance to students experience of self-efficacy. Most impact is seen on subscales measuring academic and movement self-efficacy.