Pre-Service Special Education Teachers’ Perceptions of Competence, Willingness of Working, and Challenges of Working with Respect to Subfields of Special Education

Yakut A. D., Akgül S.

Educational academic research (Online), cilt.1, sa.47, ss.41-54, 2022 (TRDizin)

Özet

The purpose of this study is to examine pre-service special education teachers’ perceptions of competence, willingness of working, and challenges of working with respect to subfields of special education identified in the special education teacher training program in Turkey. A researcher- created survey named “Perceptions of Competence, Willingness of Working and Challenges of Working Survey” was used in this quantitative research. The sample of the study consists of 174 pre-service special education teachers in Istanbul, Turkey. The findings are as follows: (1) the sub- fields that the pre-service teachers found themselves more competent were the same as the subfields that they found themselves more willing; (2) the subfields that the pre-service teachers found themselves less competent were the same as the subfields that they found themselves less willing; (3) the subfields of hearing disability and gifted and talented were found in less cat- egory in all three dimensions (less competent, less willing, and less challenging); (4) the subfields of autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability were found in more categories in all three dimensions (more competent, more willing, and more challenging). Regarding correlational analy- sis, a positive relationship was explored among perceptions of competence and willingness of working for all subfields of special education. Finally, mixed findings were obtained regarding the association between perceptions of competence, willingness of working, and challenges of work- ing by gender. Results present comparative views about subfields of special education.