Öğretmenlerin Kaynaştırma Eğitimine İlişkin Yeterlilikleri

Abstract

Teaching is a profession that requires great responsibility and expectations, and helping students with special needs such as inclusive education is a very challenging process. Classroom teachers are people who are carefully followed and taken as examples by their students. For this reason, their attitudes and behaviors towards students receiving inclusive education can have a significant impact on other students in the class. Recently, inclusive education practices have gained an important place in Turkey. For success in inclusive education, the most critical factors are the interaction of teachers and students with special needs. Special education is a teaching approach that aims to enable individuals with various physical or mental limitations to live their lives on their own. This specialized training aims to maximize the potential of individuals using different training programs and methods. Inclusive education, on the other hand, includes a practice that enables individuals with special needs to receive education together with their peers who do not experience restrictions. In this process, support education services are also provided to support students' skill development through interaction. This research aims to develop suggestions for providing more effective inclusive education by examining the factors that determine classroom teachers' attitudes towards inclusive education students. The results reveal that factors such as physical conditions of the school and classroom, as well as class size, play an important role in the inclusive education process by reducing the workload of classroom teachers and increasing their motivation, together with the support of all stakeholders. Additionally, students' different types of disabilities appear to influence classroom teachers' attitudes towards inclusive education. The research determined that classroom teachers who are knowledgeable approach students with special needs more positively than those who are not knowledgeable about the subject. In this context, creating suitable environments for inclusive education and providing support services to teachers in the process can increase the success in practice.
Key Words: Teacher Candidates, Inclusive Education, Teacher Efficacy, Teacher Opinions.