Improving the process of the Individualized Education Program (IEP) team in an elementary school: An action research

The purpose of this study is to (a) determine the needs of the team members in the IEP preparation, implementation and evaluation processes of the IEP team in a primary school in Eskişehir, (b) develop action plans for the IEP team in line with these needs, and (c) reveal how these action plans develop or improve the work of the IEP team (IEP preparation, implementation, evaluation and transition processes). For this purpose, three classroom teachers, two school administrators, three students with special needs and their mothers were included in the study. The research was conducted as an action research from qualitative research approaches. The research consisted of case determination, implementation, post-implementation and monitoring stages. Observation, interviews, document analysis, researcher's diary and field notes were used to obtain data from the participants. The researcher conducted a systematic analytic analysis process while the process was ongoing, and at the end of the processes, analysis processes were carried out through inductive analysis. The research findings were reported in the form of situation determination, implementation, post-implementation findings and findings at the monitoring stage. As a result, the findings obtained after the implementation phase of the research and in the follow-up phase revealed that the action plans carried out during the process led to a positive change in team functioning and that this change was sustained.