Abstract:

The aim of this study is to determine the perceptions of prospective teachers about the concept of mentally disabled individual. The study group consists of 29 volunteer prospective teachers who are at the departments of Classroom Teaching, Pre-School Teaching, Turkish Language, Maths, Social Sciences and Science Teaching at Bulent Ecevit University Faculty of Education in 20122013 educational year. It is a qualitative study. To determine the perceptions of prospective teachers about “mentally disabled individual” two open-ended questions have been asked. Besides, they have been asked to draw the mentally disabled individual in their own environment. In the analysis of data: frequency, percentage and content analysis techniques were used. At the end of the content analysis of the participants’ answers to the question of “What do you understand about the mentally disabled individual?” 11 different themes were determined. The first five themes are “Individual who needs a person for living”, “Individual who are mentally development disability”, “Individual whose social life is handicapped”, “Individual lacking some skills”, “Individual who needs care”

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