The effectiveness of the education program designed for teachers to prepare their students with developmental disabilities for transition to independent living

The purpose of this study was to (a) design an education program for teachers to prepare students with developmental disabilities for transition to independent living, and (b) examine the effectiveness of the program. The study was an exploratory sequential mixed method design and had three parts. The participants of the study are 44 teachers and 13 family members. Accordingly, the first part included semi-structured interviews, observation, and document analysis techniques to determine the needs of the teachers. Based on the data gathered from the semi-structured interviews, several topics of the education program were determined that were (a) characteristics of the individuals with developmental disabilities, (b) independent living skills, (c) transition, (d) behavior management, (e) errorless teaching, (f) video modelling, (g) direct instruction, (h) social stories, (i) material development and individualized education program. The Taba model was used in the designing process of the education program. In the second part of the study, a Knowledge Test consisted of 35 - multiple choice questions were administered to the teachers before (pretest) and after (posttest) the program. In the third part of the study, an open-ended questionnaire was provided to teachers to determine their views and the suggestions on the education program According to the results gathered from the pretest-posttest scores, the teachers' knowledge level about transition increased. The views of the teachers who attended the education program were generally positive.