Physical education curricula and teaching methodologies for special needs learners: a protocol for a scoping review

Abstract BackgroundLearners with special needs around the world, including in South Africa, are included in mainstream schools. However, it has been reported that learners experience exclusion and a lack of belonging in physical education classes. There is great concern about the lack of training teachers should undergo to teach physical education to special needs learners. The current public school physical education systems face difficulties in the delivery of quality physical education to special needs learners. Physical education classes need to be adapted to suit the individual needs of every special needs learner. Adapted physical education stands at the core of all teaching methodologies when it comes to teaching PE to learners with special needs. Given the lack of practical guidance, teaching methodologies and resources, the primary objective of the scoping review will be to map existing literature regarding the teaching methodologies used in teaching physical education to special needs learners, as well as to identify the different curricula being used to teach learners with special needs.Methods/designTo ensure the accuracy of the scoping process, this scoping review will be guided by the proposed framework set by the Joanna Briggs Institute guidelines. The literature search will be conducted in the following electronic databases: Google Scholar; EBSCOhost; the Cochrane Library; PubMed; and Science direct. The research team will also conduct a reference list search to ensure that all relevant articles are included in the study. Peer-reviewed papers will be included if they are written in English, if they share information reviewed in studies regarding PE curricula and/or teaching methodologies that are used in special needs education, nationally and internationally. Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-method studies will be considered to highlight the different curricula and teaching methodologies used for teaching special needs learners. The initial phase of the screening process will be carried out by the researcher with the guidance of two fellow researchers. Thereafter, the researcher will use the expertise of a fellow researcher in the field of education to collaboratively abstract the data, organise it into themes and sub-themes, summarise them, and report the results in a narrative synthesis. A third and a fourth researcher will be involved in ensuring the accuracy of the scoping review. A mixed-methods appraisal tool will be used to ensure the methodological quality.DiscussionTo explore the emergent themes, the researchers will use the evidence gathered from the selected studies and will analyse and discuss the information in relation to the research question in a narrative format. The review will provide a baseline of evidence on curricula and teaching methodologies to assist teachers teaching PE to special needs learners. The researcher will use this information in a broader study to create a PE toolkit to further assist teachers teaching PE to special needs learners. The final scoping review will highlight gaps in the research regarding curricula and teaching methodologies being used.Systematic review registration: Open Science Framework (https:// 10.17605/OSF.IO/BXKDR).