Abstract:

Pre-service teachers need to be the knowledge, skills, and positive attitudes necessary to effectively present teaching methods and interventions to and support students with special needs. Research shows that teachers' attitudes toward students with special needs can affect the quality of the education they provide. In this context, it is important to determine the attitudes of teachers and prospective teachers toward students with special needs. Based on this idea, the aim of the study is to determine the attitudes of pre-service teachers toward the education of students with special needs. Based on this purpose, the research was conducted with pre-service teachers selected by using the easily accessible case sampling method using the survey model. It was conducted with 422 pre-service teachers who were studying in the 3rd and 4th grades of 10 different programs of education faculties of three state universities and who voluntarily wanted to participate in the research. The "Attitude Scale Towards the Education of Individuals with Disabilities" developed by Kösterelioğlu (2013) was used to collect the data. The data obtained were analyzed using SPSS 21 package program. The analyzed data were examined and interpreted according to gender, age and different fields of teaching. According to the results of the study, it was determined that the attitudes of female pre-service teachers were more positive, and the attitude scores of the participants aged 26 and over were higher than the attitude scores of the participants aged 18-21 and 22-25. Finally, as expected, it was determined that the attitude scores of pre-service teachers studying in the Department of Special Education were higher than those of pre-service teachers studying in other programs.

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