Utilising Paralympic skill lab in higher education: exploring the student experience

ABSTRACT The purpose of this exploratory study was to understand the impact of Paralympic Skill Lab (PSL) including how students experienced the skill lab, feelings about the experience, and the manner in which the skill lab informed perceptions of, or actions toward, inclusion and disability sport. A convenience sample of 77 undergraduate students enrolled in a general education lifetime fitness and wellness kinesiology course (M age=19.64; 50.65% male, 79.22% Caucasian) completed a short questionnaire. After data collection was complete, long-format responses were compiled into a spreadsheet and open-coded by the first and second authors, independently. In total, participants’ responses were coded into 134, 105, 92, and 57 codes for the four long-format questions, respectively. The most common response categories were fun, challenging, would do again, eye-opening, and negative assumptions about disability. Paralympic sport education experiences executed with contact theory as the theoretical foundation offer an avenue for enlightenment toward disability and inclusion.