Examining the Perceptions of Student Teachers on the Difficulties Encountered in Special Education Nursery Schools in Türkiye

Abstract

This study aims to examine the opinions of students studying in special education department as third-year students in Gaziantep University. They are attending ‘Special Education Nursery Schools’ to observe the training sessions to improve their teaching skills in those schools in the light of the ‘School and Institution Experience in Special Education Course’. In this study, the researchers preferred to use semi-structured interview method with the help of phenomenological approach because of aiming to receive the participants’ emotions and thoughts in depth. Ten students participated in this study who completed successfully ‘School and Institution Experience in Special Education Course’ with the help of the criterion sampling technique. The data was collected using semi-structured interview form developed by the researchers. The transcripts were analyzed with descriptive analysis technique. The findings raised from the study are as follows:
1. Children with special needs in nursery schools have difficulties such as lack of verbal language output and lower attention spans. 
2. Immigrant children who are attending special education in nursery schools in Türkiye have also difficulties such as lack of phonetics of some letters like “h” and “v” because they use different language at home. 
3. The children also face some difficulties such as peer rejection and difficulties for adoption with other students. 
4. These children also have difficulties with the inability to adapt the environment to each type of disability, the inadequacy of materials, the inability to choose methods and techniques appropriate to individual differences, inadequacies of the preparation and implementation of individualized education plans, and lack of systematic measurement and evaluation.