Session Information
10 SES 11 B, Education for All: Developing an inclusive classroom
Paper Session
Contribution
This study focused on school placement program in Department of Education for Intellectually Disabled Students (DEIDS) in Turkey. A few studies were conducted on school placement programs in Departments of Education for other disciplines in Turkey. They generally focused on various issues in school placement and discussed the differences between departments` practices. It was found that most of departments did not follow the national teaching practice standards (Kirksekiz et.al., 2015; Atmis, 2013; Aytacli, 2012; Yeşilyurt, 2010). On the other hand, there are few studies on school placement programs in DEIDS which show that there are different practices in each DEIDS (Alptekin and Vural, 2014; Ergenekon and her colleagues, 2008). However, these studies are not detailed and do not focus on the reasons of these differences. This study aims to fill this gap in literature in Turkish context and contribute to the academic world theoretically. Beside theoretical contribution, this study also has practical implications which can help to show the independent variables for this issue to the authorities in Turkey.
Method
The purpose of this research is to identify what differences there are in DEIDS` school placement program and why these differences occur in their systems between each other and between national teaching practice regulations. In accordance with this purpose, a qualitative research was conducted with 26 participants, and 7 themes emerged from the data; the main participants` perspectives, supervision and management, student teachers` active participation in the system, collaboration and changes in the system. The collected data has been discussed in the light of some theories; `Self-efficacy Theory`, `Cultural Historical Activity Theory`, `Socialization Theory` and `Contingency Theory`. According to the findings, there are a few differences which can be accepted as problems: collaboration and coordination differences between participants; University Tutors` (UTs) and Cooperating Teachers’ (CT) supervision and management differences; certificated and paid teachers` employment from other subjects as a teacher of people with intellectually disabled; employing teachers who are in or out of Special Education area as Cooperating Teachers without training; and lastly, employing lecturers who graduated from different DEIDS or have different backgrounds in the schools as supervisors without training.
Expected Outcomes
The differences above occur due to a couple of reasons, and these can be summarised with the following issues. Firstly, very few participants know teaching practice regulations, and all of them generally follow the existing practices within or outside the department. The participants generally recall their own school placement practices in their bachelor’s degree programmes while doing supervision. Most of them do not have collaboration with others, because; the experienced lecturers were not collaborating because they believe others are not capable to conduct the program; or due to limited resources; or they just follow them for social acceptance or cannot question because of hierarchy. Another issue is that the departments create their own systems for better outcome. In training schools, most of CTs are certificated and paid teachers, and UTs do not to include them in the program because they do not know special education. Another reason for creating a separate system is limited resources such as the number of supervisors and training schools, or extra workload. Therefore, they organize their system considering these environmental factors. The findings suggest that school placement needs to be examined by the policy makers on a regular basis, and certain criteria can be set for those to be accounted for in the system. A standardized training course including collaboration, mentoring, and supervision for participants are required. Due to the nature of the Turkish education system, the implementation needs to be controlled by a more centralized structure considering the hierarchy.
References
Alpteki̇n, S., & Vural, M. (2014). The Suggestions and Opinions for The Problems of Mental Retardation Practicum Students Which are Encountered on Teaching Practicum. Turkish Studies, 9, 127–139. Atmis, S. (2013). Classroom Teacher Evaluation of the Process for The Implementation of Candidates Investigation of Opinions (master`s thesis). KATU, Trabzon, Turkey Aytacli. (2012). Evaluation of School Experience and Teaching Practice Courses in Undergraduate Programme of Elementary Mathematics (master`s thesis).Ege University, Izmir, Turkey. Ergenekon, Y., Özen, A., & Batu, S. (2008). Evaluation of Ideas and Suggestions on the Teaching Practice of Teaching Mentally Handicapped Candidates. Kuram ve Uygulamada Eğitim Bilimleri/Educational Sciences:Theory & Practice, 857–891. Kirksekiz, A., Uysal, M., İsbulan, O., Akgun, Ö., Kiyici, M., & Horzum, M. (2015). Critical View to School Experience and Application of Teaching Courses: Problems, Expectations and Solution Suggestions. Bartın Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakultesi Dergisi, 4(2), 433-451. Yesilyurt, E. (2010). Teaching Practice Standards-Based Training Program Delivery Models and Need Answers in The Light of the Evaluation (PhD thesis). Firat University, Elazig, Turkey
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