Self-evaluation of inclusion skills of science teachers' and mtheir views on inclusive education

The Science Course has an important place in the students' daily life to ensure that they are successful in their communication and interaction. Teachers are one of the important elements in terms of being successful in the application of inclusive education. From this point of view, it is the problem state of the research to be able to have an idea about the inclusive education and the opinions of the Science Teachers on the inclusive education. The main purpose of this research is to examine the ideas of inclusion education and the inclusive skills of science teachers by using mixed research method design. Parallel mixed research method is the pattern of the study. In this context, the findings obtained from quantitative data were enriched with qualitative data. In this direction, the science of the research is composed of the Science teachers working in the central districts of Antalya in the 2017-2018 academic year. In the quantitative part of the study, data were collected from 88 science teachers determined by random sampling method. In the qualitative part of the research, six science teachers who were voluntary students in their class were selected by using purposive sampling technique. The quantitative data of the study were conducted as a questionnaire of "Science Teachers' Opinions on Inclusive Education", and qualitative data were conducted as semi-structured interviews using the "Inclusive Skills Self-Evaluation Tool". In the analysis of quantitative data, nonparametric statistical techniques were used and content analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data. Within the scope of the study, Kruskal Wallis-H, Mann Whitney U and T-test were used as parametric and non parametric techniques. The results of the content analysis carried out within the scope of the research were tabulated using descriptive statistics. According to the results of the analysis of quantitative data, it was concluded that the gender, age, presence of inclusive students in the class, classroom size, and the presence of a disabled person in the classroom did not make any difference about teachers opinions which are related to inclusive education. However, it has been determined that teachers who were educated for inclusive education have more positive opinions than those who were not. According to seniority status, it is concluded that there is a difference about the opinions' of teachers in the meaning of inclusive education and this difference is in favor of teachers with seniority. As a result of the analysis of the qualitative data obtained from the research, it was determined that the science teachers did not exchange enough information from the external experts in the mainstreaming practices. It has been determined that only the in-house specialist guidance teachers are consulted. It is seen that science teachers do not have sufficient knowledge and skills about integration applications and they need in-service training on inclusion education.