Teachers' opinions on benefiting of museums in art education of students with special needs

Museums are institutions that contain objects belonging to many fields, build bridges from the past to the future, and gain different experiences for their visitors with the discovery of the educational aspect. Museums, which have been transformed into a learning environment with the education programs and regulations developed, have an important place in art education as well as in many educational fields. It is extremely important for both students with normal development and students with special needs to be able to benefit from museums actively and effectively in art education. In this context, in the research, the situations of teachers' benefiting from museums in art education of students with special needs were examined and the effective factors on this benefit status were determined, and the expectations of teachers from other teachers working in their schools, parents, school administration, Ministry of National Education and museums were determined. In the study, in which the qualitative research approach was adopted, the basic qualitative research design was used. Semi-structured interview form was used as a data collection tool in the study, in which a total of 14 teachers, including 7 special education teachers and 7 visual arts teachers, were consulted, and the obtained data were analyzed by descriptive analysis method. As a result of the research, it is seen that museums contribute to the development of students when an educational environment is created and necessary arrangements are made in museums for the needs of students with special needs; however, it is seen that museums are not used sufficiently in art education of students with special needs due to reasons such as the type and level of disability, official procedures, inability to cooperate.