Abstract:

The purpose of this study was to adapt the “Teacher Efficacy for the Inclusion of Young Children with Disabilities Scale” (TEIYCD), developed by Walls (2007), to Turkish in order to identify preschool teachers’ self-efficacy perception levels related to inclusive education. After the Turkish and English language equivalence study was completed, the scale was prepared for pilot implementation. Pilot implementation of the scale was sent to a total of 556 preschool teachers employed in Antalya central districts. The unsuitable scales were removed from the 495 scales that were returned, leaving a total of 478 scales which were used in the study. According to the findings of the study, the scale was found to be unidimensional based on exploratory factor analysis which was used to test the construct validity and this dimension explained 59.21% of the variance. Cronbach alpha internal consistency coefficient was found to be 0,96 and the two halves test reliability coefficient was found to be 0,86. According to the item analysis results based on lower-upper group means, the scale reflected rather high t values for each item and was sufficient in discriminating participants. Confirmative factor analysis results showed that the scale was four dimensional as was the original. These dimensions are knowledge about the laws and processes relating to special education, knowledge about disabled children, confidence relating to teaching children with disablities and perception of skills in using and adapting effective teaching methods. The Cronbach α internal consistency coefficients of the dimensions of the scale as determined by the confirmative factor analysis were calculated to be as follows: Legal Dimension .856; Knowledge Dimension .966; Self Confidence Dimension .943; Perception Dimension .952. The results of the analysis showed that the scale may be used to determine preschool teachers’ self-efficacy in relation to inclusive education.

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