An inclusive education professional development program for preschool teachers: The effectiveness of face-to-face and online program based on universal design for learning

The present study mainly aims to design a professional development program to enhance preschool teachers' knowledge and awareness of inclusive education and universal design in education and their competencies in practice and investigate the effectiveness of their face-to-face and online applications program. The study utilized the intervention design, an advanced mixed-method design. The study participants were determined using the criterion sampling technique. For all of the Intervention I, Intervention II and Control group participants, the criteria of being an independent kindergarten teacher and teaching at least one child who requires inclusive education practices were sought. An additional criterion, being an active internet user, was sought only for the Intervention II group participants. A total of 48 teachers, 16 in each group, took part in the study. In the intervention part of the study, the Inclusive Education Professional Development Program (IEPDP) was applied. IEPDP was applied face-to-face to the teachers in Intervention I group and online to the teachers in Intervention II group. IEPDP mainly comprised: Universal design for learning, attitudes/perspectives regarding children/teaching profession, and participation rights. The implementation of IEPDP lasted 16 weeks. During the IEPDP implementation process, the researcher gradually quitted the implementer role and handed it over to the teachers. Accordingly, IEPDP was implemented two days a week for the first month, one day a week for the second month, and one day every two weeks for the third and fourth months. The study carried out IEPDP-face-to-face with the Intervention I teachers in teachers' classrooms and IEPDP-online with the Intervention II teachers in virtual classroom environments [Google Classroom - Google Hangouts (Meet)]. The study used these data collection tools: Demographic Information Form, the revised form of Educators' Attitudes Towards Inclusion Instrument, Universal Design Principles in Education Interview Protocol, Semi-Structured Interview Form, and Education Evaluation Form. SPSS 25 software was used to analyze the quantitative data and Nvivo 25 software to analyze the qualitative data. The revised form of Educators' Attitudes Towards Inclusion Instrument collected the data by pretest, posttest, and follow-up tests. The data obtained herein were analyzed using the Generalized Linear Complex Model to evaluate the intervention effectiveness. As shown by the adaptation results, the Educators' Attitudes Towards Inclusion Instrument was a valid and reliable instrument to assess the participating teachers' awareness of universal design for learning principles and their related practices. The comparison of each of Intervention I and Intervention II groups—which received IEPDP-face-to-face and IEPDP-online, respectively—with the control group individually revealed that both educational approaches, IEPDP-face-to-face and IEPDP-online, are effective and permanent on the teachers' knowledge, perspectives, and awareness regarding Inclusive Education and representation, expression and engagement principles of universal design for learning. Furthermore, the participating teachers stated that they either plan to use or have already started to use the strategies highlighted during the IEPDP implementation. Comparatively, IEPDP-online, compared to IEPDP-face-to-face, was found to be more effective in enhancing the participating teachers' knowledge, perspectives and awareness in this regard. Considering all these results, the study made some recommendations to researchers, school administrators, teachers, policymakers, and material designers. The implementation part of the present study was completed before the emergence of COVID-19 as a global pandemic. During the COVID-19 pandemic, online education has essentially corroborated educational activities. Therefore, the present study is thought to contribute to the current literature in terms of serving as a model for improving teachers' professional development using online mediums in global crises like pandemics.