Determining elementary teacher candidates cognitive structure on the concept of "disabled people" through the drawing technique

Abstract

Currently, around 10% of the world's population, or roughly 650 million people, live with a disability. According to the results of the in Turkey 2011 Population and Housing Survey, the proportion of the population with at least one disability is 6.9%. The aim of the study is to investigate primary teacher candidates cognitive structures related to "disabled people" through the drawing technique. The data were collected from 89 teacher candidates participated in this study in the 2018-2019 academic year in Mehmet Akif Ersoy University. Each student was asked to draw a picture about disabled people. The students were encouraged if they want to write their own interpretation of the drawing in a couple of sentences. Of the drawings, 89 were subjected to the content analysis. Half of the drawings are multicoloured and black is second. Most of the teacher candidates (88%) handed wheelchairs to people with disabilities. Keywords: Disabled people, drawing technique, teacher candidate.