Equipping youth with and without disabilities for the world of work has been the focus of ongoing legislative and policy initiatives. The authors examined the extent to which career development and vocational activities were available to and accessed by youth with severe disabilities or emotional and behavioral disorders attending 34 urban, suburban, and rural high schools. Although school-level representatives (e.g., administrators, guidance counselors, student services directors) identified an array of career development opportunities offered by their schools, participation by youth with disabilities in these experiences was reported to be fairly limited. Potential factors influencing the participation of youth included disabilityrelated needs and limited professional development opportunities for educators. The authors present recommendations for improving research and practice aimed at better preparing youth with disabilities for their future careers.
Special education has been gaining intense attention from governments and educators throughout the world. As a developing country, and official candidate for the European Union, Turkey has been working on issues related to special education provision and inclusive education to improve the quality of services for citizens with disabilities. This article presents the developments and current status of special education in Turkey. The purpose of this paper is to describe the structure of the special education system in Turkey and current developments within the special education field. Topics include a brief history of special education services, an overview of special education laws and regulations, as well as a summary of efforts around inclusion and current directions in teacher training. We conclude by noting several challenges in the ongoing improvement of the quality of special education in Turkey.
Although career development and early work experiences are associated with improved postschool employment outcomes for youth with disabilities, transition personnel report having few natural community partners to support and enhance these experiences. We surveyed 135 chambers of commerce and other employer networks to examine (a) whether and how these networks have partnered previously with local high schools on 18 youth-focused career development activities, (b) the extent to which they would consider such involvement to be feasible, and (c) the influence of disability status of youth on their responses. Although respondents considered a number of youth-focused support activities to be feasible, most chambers had limited previous involvement and their views and experiences were clearly influenced by the disability status of youth. Recommendations for expanding the involvement of employer networks in supporting the career development and early work experiences of youth are offered.
This study provided support for the reliability and validity of T-PSS-10 suggesting that it can be used as a screening instrument by health professionals working with Turkish college students.
Single subject research is a scientific research methodology that is increasingly used in the field of special education. Therefore, understanding the unique characteristics of single subject research methodology is critical both for educators and practitioners. Certain characteristics make single subject research one of the most preferred methodologies in special education. However, the design is not without limitations. The purpose of this article, by Orhan Cakiroglu, an assistant professor at Karadeniz Technical University, Turkey, is to provide an overview of the single subject research method's critical defining features and basic designs, and discuss what types of research questions single subject research is best suited to answer by providing examples from special education literature. Additionally, the key advantages and limitations of applying single subject research to the field of special education are discussed.
ABSTRACT. Although limited information is available regarding the number of students with learning disabilities in Turkey, it's believed that there is a large number of students in this category. Reading is the area that students with learning disabilities have the most difficulty. This difficulty effects the students' attitudes towards reading. Therefore, especially during the preparation of textbooks, educators should consider attitudes of these students towards reading and readability levels of the textbooks should be appropriate for these students. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the readability levels of textsbooks (1-4th grade) by using readability formulas and compare these findings with expert opinions. According to the findings of the study, readability levels of texts in those books are "easy" and some text in third and fourth grade are in "medium" difficulty according to the Ateşman readability formula values. Key Words: special education, learning disability, readability, reading achievement.
SUMMARY
Purpose and significance:The purpose of this study is to evaluate the readability levels of textbooks (1-4th grade) by using readability formulas and compare these findings with expert opinions. The second purpose of this study is to identify the difference of readability levels across grades. Changing attitudes towards reading and improving reading achievement bring other achievements. Improving reading achievement have positive impact not only in the long run but in the short run as well. Many research studies in the literature indicate that there is a positive relationship between reading achievement and academic achievement. Students who have poor reading skills are likely to present poor reading success in the future years. About 10-15% of these students drop out of school (Yılmaz and Kaşıkçıçam, 2012).
<p align="left">The purpose of this study was to examine the adaptation, reliability and validity of a “reading attitude scale” that was developed by McKenna and Kear (1990) to determine the reading attitudes of students. The study was conducted with 318 students attending to 5<sup>th</sup>,6<sup>th</sup>,7<sup>th</sup>, and 8<sup>th</sup> grades in Trabzon. The scale includes 20 items and two factors called as leisure time reading and academic reading. The analyses were conducted in SPSS 20.0 and AMOS v.22. The final Turkish version of the scale included 20 items and two factors as it was in the original scale. The internal consistency reliability of the scale was 0.84 and 0.78 according to test-retest analysis. This is the first study that examines the reliability and validity of the Turkish version of the scale by using advanced statistics to determine the psychometric characteristics of the measure. Based on the study findings, the Reading Attitude Survey is a practical, feasible, and an understandable measurement tool.</p><p align="left"><strong>Özet</strong></p><p align="left">Bu çalışmanın amacı, öğrencilerin okumaya yönelik tutumlarını belirlemek amacıyla Mckenna ve Kear (1990) tarafından geliştirilmiş olan “Okumaya Yönelik Tutum Ölçeği”nin (OTÖ) uyarlama, geçerlik ve güvenirlik çalışmasını yapmaktır. Araştırmanın çalışma grubunu Trabzon ilinde eğitim görmekte olan ve 5.6.,7., ve 8. sınıfa devam eden toplam 318 öğrenci oluşturmuştur. Veriler SPSS 20.0 ve AMOS versiyon 22 paket programlarıyla yapılmıştır. Ölçek orijinaline uygun madde sayısında ve faktör yapısında oluşmuştur. DFA uyum indeksi ve madde faktör dağılımları istatistiksel olarak beklentilere uygun açığa çıkmıştır. Ölçeğin güvenirlik katsayısı iç tutarlılık yöntemi ile 0.84 test-tekrar test yöntemiyle 0.78 olarak hesaplanmıştır. İlk kez bu kapsamda ileri veri analizleri ile incelemesi gerçekleştirilen aracın psikometrik özelliklerinin kullanılmaya elverişli geçerli ve güvenilir olduğu tespit edilmiştir. Okuma Tutum Ölçeği’nin pratik, kullanım ve anlaşılması kolay kullanışlı bir ölçme aracı olduğu değerlendirilmektedir.</p>
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