Examination of the process of preparing social skills education program for students in primary school inclusion classes

In the classrooms where inclusion practices are carried out, it is not enough for the students to be in the same environment, but it is also necessary to ensure the acceptance of the students to the class and develop their sense of belonging. In case that students with special needs, foreign students and student at risk group who study in these settings experience problems in many social skills areas such as expressing themselves, establishing relationships is seen as an obstacle to acceptance and belonging, which is one of the foundations of iinclusion. In this research, which aimed to examine the development and implementation of a social skills training program to be prepared in order to improve the social skills of students studying in primary school classes was studied in a primary school where inclusion practices is carried out. In order to develop the program, first of all, data were collected through observations, interviews and sociometry, and with the information obtained from these sources, a program based on teaching and practice was developed to improve students' various skills such as empathy, cooperation, playing games, and adapting the rules. Practices were implemented with activities held once a week for 20 weeks. The implementation process was examined with the videos taken in the lessons, the interviews with the teachers and the sociometry forms filled by the students. The findings obtained as a result of these examinations show that the students developed the targeted behaviors in the process, acceptance and preference in the classroom increased, and communication of the students with each other improved.