EXAMINATION OF TEACHER CANDIDATES’ ATTITUDES, EMOTIONS, AND ANXIETIES REGARDING INCLUSIVE EDUCATION BY DIFFERENT VARIABLES

Abstract

To benefit teaching-learning processes, Individuals needing special education must be placed in suitable education environments after educational identification and evaluation processes. The least restrictive environment approach was employed considering peer interaction and academic skills. Inclusive education is one of the most chosen least restrictive environments. Studies have suggested that inclusive education is beneficial for both the typical students and students with special needs. It is stated that the main element in the success of inclusive education is the teacher. Because teachers prepare, apply, monitor and evaluate the individualized educations programs which are suitable for the needs and characteristics of students with special needs. In this respect, it is known that the attitudes, emotions, and anxieties of teachers towards inclusive education are significant factors (Salend and Duhaney, 1999; Sekercioglu, 2010; Diken, 1999). Many studies can be found on inclusive education but few of them are about the emotions, attitudes, and anxieties of teacher candidates towards inclusive education. So, this study aims to examine the emotions, attitudes, and anxieties of teacher candidates towards inclusive education by different variables such as gender, the department they are studying in, inclusive education legislation knowledge, and having been interacted with an inclusive student before. The relational screening model one the descriptive survey model was used in this study. 600 teacher candidates studying in ten different departments participated in the study. Data were collected through “Scale for Emotions, Attitudes, and Anxieties Regarding Inclusive Education” developed by Chris Forling et al. (2011) and adapted to Turkish by Bayar et al. (2015). Data were analyzed through SPSS. Independent samples t-test was used to reveal the differentiation in terms of gender and having an interaction before variables. One-way analysis of variance was applied to reveal the differentiation in terms of the legislation knowledge and department variables. Tukey test was performed to find the reason for the differentiation. The results revealed that there is no significant difference between gender and attitudes, emotions, and anxieties of teacher candidates, but that there is a significant difference between the having an interaction with inclusive students before, inclusive education legislation knowledge, the department they are studying in variables and attitudes, emotions, and anxieties of teacher candidates. It is understood that activities towards inclusive education in teaching practice course must be increased and the undergraduate programs must include a course regarding inclusive education. Article visualizations: