Examining the Awareness Levels and Opinions of Prospective Teachers on Inclusive Education

This study focuses on understanding the awareness levels of teacher candidates from different branches towards inclusive education and their views on this issue. The "Awareness Scale for Inclusive Education" scale developed by Kılcan and Şimşek (2021) was applied to 320 teacher candidates continuing their education in different branches, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 2 students from each branch. This method was adopted in order to support the research with both quantitative data and to deeply understand the experiences of the participants. The scale was distributed to teacher candidates working in different branches and the participants were allowed to fill it out. After the scale application, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 2 students from each branch with low and high inclusive education awareness according to the analysis results. The interviews were designed to understand the perceptions of teacher candidates about inclusive education in more depth. During the interview process, interviews were conducted freely around pre-determined main themes. The research results determined the awareness levels of teacher candidates in different branches regarding inclusive education and presented important findings regarding their needs in this area. The findings provided a clear guide on issues such as which teacher candidates in which branches are more knowledgeable about inclusive education or which subjects they need more training in. It was determined that special education students have higher levels of knowledge about inclusive education and that mathematics teachers need more. In addition, it was determined that teacher candidates have deficiencies in certain subjects related to inclusive education and that they are open to receiving inclusive education as elective courses on these subjects. These results provide a concrete roadmap for experts preparing curriculum to develop more effective strategies regarding inclusive education.