Abstract:

Today classes consist of students with diverse developmental, cognitive, social and cultural characteristics. Educational, personal, and social needs of students with different characteristics are highlighted as significant components within the educational practices of teachers in inclusive education structured in line with the new education philosophy and laws. It is observed that although the educational practices of teachers have been researched from many perspectives, there are not sufficient studies aimed at their practices inside inclusive education environment. In this study, developing a scale towards defining the educational practices of elementary school teachers in whose class there are gifted/talented students has been selected in line with the purpose of the study. Within the study context, explorative and confirmative factor analyses were conducted on the 5 point likert type scale consisting of 25 items for with the aim of providing validity evidence. In result of the explorative factor analysis, a structure comprising of 3 factors and 18 items was obtained. In line with expert opinions and field literature, the first factor of the scale consisting of ten items was listed as “Education activities”, the second factor consisting of three items was listed as “Cooperation” and the third factor consisting of five items was listed as “Education Atmosphere”. The scale explains 46.29% of the total variance. For the purpose of contributing to the structure obtained through Affirmative Factor Analysis(AFA), also Dynamic Factor Analysis (DFA) analyses were conducted by adding data onto the data set on which AFA analyses were conducted. AFA and DFA covering similar sampling group is a limitation of this study. From the results obtained from DFA, it is defined that the model displays fine adaptation. Cronbach alpha internal consistency coefficient was calculated in regards to the reliability of the scale in general and the sub-dimensions. The reliability coefficient pertaining to the scale in general was found out as 0.89, while that of the sub-dimensions was observedas 0.86, 0.75, and 0.74, respectively. In addition, the item test correlation values under the relevant factor were obtained higher than 0.30 for each factor in conclusion of item analysis. In general, it can be said that the scale consisting of a three-factor structure is reliable and valid in line with the finding gathered from the study.

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