The Needs of Inclusive Preschool Teachers about Inclusive Practices

Abstract

Problem Statement: Since the law related to the inclusion of children with special needs was passed, the number of children with special needs in preschool classrooms has increased each year. Preschool teachers face serious challenges when they teach children with diverse abilities in the same environment. Although most of them support the idea of preschool inclusion, preschool teachers usually do not want children with special needs in their classrooms because of their lack of knowledge and skills regarding inclusive practices. It has been established that teachers are the most important component of inclusion, and in order to increase the success of inclusive practices, they should be prepared to teach in heterogeneous classrooms that include children with and without disabilities. Purpose of Study: To develop and implement an effective and functional training program for inclusive preschool classroom teachers, we aimed to

Examining the Student-Teacher Relationships of Children Both With and Without Special Needs in Preschool Classrooms

“…Secondly, in studies related to the attitudes of teachers about mainstreaming, the research topic is generally about how the attitudes of teachers are regarding mainstreaming, and the factors that affect their attitudes (Akalın, Demir, Sucuoğlu, Bakkaloğlu, & İşcen, 2014;Avcıoğlu, Pınar, & Öztürk, 2005;Dikici-Sığırtmaç, Hoş, & Abbak, 2011;Gök & Erbaş, 2011;Özdemir & Ahmetoğlu, 2012;Sargın & Sünbül, 2002;Seçer, Çeliköz, Sarı, Çetin, & Büyüktaşkapu, 2010). In most of the studies, teacher attitudes about mainstreaming are positive (Çulhaoğlu-İmrak, 2009;Dikici-Sığırtmaç et al, 2010;Sargın & Sünbül, 2002;Seçer et al, 2010;Varlıer, 2004), however their attitudes change due to some factors.…”

“…Studies investigating the needs of preschool teachers regarding mainstreaming demonstrate that teachers indicate their lack of knowledge and experience the most (Akalın et al, 2014;Artan & Uyanık-Balat, 2003;Gök & Erbaş, 2011;Varlıer, 2004), and that they have the most difficulty in assessing students with SN, identifying instructional goals, and adapting and modifying instruction and activities. They need more support and assistance on these topics and they do not know how to communicate with families (Akalın et al, 2014). Moreover, according to teachers, the fact that the conditions for mainstreaming are not met, such as classroom sizes in the schools being large, and there being insufficient materials and tools in the classrooms, also negatively affect mainstreaming.…”

“…Moreover, according to teachers, the fact that the conditions for mainstreaming are not met, such as classroom sizes in the schools being large, and there being insufficient materials and tools in the classrooms, also negatively affect mainstreaming. Schools and classrooms are not prepared for mainstreaming (Akalın et al, 2014;Dikici-Sığırtmaç et al, 2011). This lack of knowledge and experience as well as the needs of preschool teachers might negatively affect the relationships of teachers with their SN students.…”

“…Teachers indicated that large classroom sizes negatively affect mainstream practices. In addition to that, teachers expressed that a lack of materials, tools, experts and assistant teachers in the classroom negatively affect mainstreaming, and schools and classrooms are not prepared for mainstreaming (Akalın et al, 2014;Gök & Erbaş, 2011). When these findings are taken into account together, larger classroom sizes leave less time for teachers who are alone in their classrooms to spend with each child, thus making a student with SN idle and affecting the student-teacher relationship about dependency.…”

T.C. MEB 2013 okul öncesi eğitim programı ile 2006 programının karşılaştırılması

“…Araştırma sonuçlarını dikkate alarak yapılan bu değişikliklerle güncellenen program önceki programa göre kaliteli bir okul öncesi eğitim programının unsurlarından olan kaynaştırmaya (Cate, Diefendorf, McCullough, Peters ve Whaley, 2010) daha çok vurgu yapmış, bütün çocuklara öğrenme ve ilkokula hazırlık konusunda eşit fırsat sunmayı hedeflemiştir (MEB, 2013a). Buna ek olarak güncellenen programda yapılan yenilikler öğretmenlerin kaynaştırma ile ilgili bilgi sağlama, aile ile iletişim kurma, bireyselleştirilmiş eğitim programı hazırlama ve uyarlama yapma ihtiyaçlarını (Akalın, Demir, Sucuoğlu, Bakkaloğlu ve İşcen, 2014;Erden, 2010;Sığırtmaç, Hoş ve Abbak, 2011) karşılama adına etkili olabilir.…”