A research for about approaches of preschool teachers to mentally handicapped childrens? education through ainstreaming training in Sakarya

This research is completed to find out the attitudes and methods of preschool teachers, used in mentally handicapped students? education through the mainstreaming training in Sakarya.The research, sample consists of 106 preschool teachers located in Sakarya, who have experience in the mainstreaming training of mentally handicapped students and worked for the institutions which applied mainstreaming training in 2009-2010 educational year under the control of Ministry of Education.To determine the attitudes of participant teachers about mainstreaming training, ?The Scale of Teachers? Attitudes Towards Mentally Handicapped Students? and ?teacher survey sheet? which was developed to gather information about teachers, are used. The obtained datas were analysed using the statistical package programme SPSS 13.0.The gathered data shows that the attitudes of preschool teachers towards mentally handicapped students general and mainstreaming trainings had no relation with the teacher?s; age (p=0,909>0,05), working duration (p=0,524>0,05), marital status (p=0,928>0,05), number of children (p=0,456>0,05), graduated school (p=0,374>0,05), while she/he studied special training (p=0,476>0,05), his/her attendance to the special course, seminar trainings about mainstreaming training (p=0,935>0,05), his/her attendance/participance to the courses about mainstreaming education (p=0,519>0,05), his/her attendance to the courses, seminars about mainstreaming training (p=0,159>0,05) and support taken during mainstreaming training (p=0,380>0,05).On ?The Scale of Teachers? Attitudes Towards Mentally Handicapped Students?, it was determined that teachers with the highest tendencies were; 42 years old and more (p=0,855>0,05, NA=58,94), married (p=0,788>0,05, NA=70,42), have children (p=0,174>0,05, NA=72,00), university graduates (p=0,458>0,05, NA=56,33), attending special training courses (p=0,257>0,05, NA=70,86), attending a course about mainstreaming training (p=0,492>0,05, NA= 71,03), attending course, seminar about mainstreaming training etc. (p=0,315>0,05, NA=72,09), and support taken during mainstreaming training (p=0,849>0,05, NA=70,46).On the other hand, teachers with the highest tendencies towards mainstreaming training were; between ages 18-25 (p=0,862>0,05, NA=57,06), single (p=0,580>0,05, NA=74,88), without children (p=0,785>0,05, NA=74,48), university graduates (p=0,495>0,05, NA= 56,44), attended a course, seminars about special trainings (p=0,946>0,05, NA=74,32), attending a course about mainstreaming training (p=0,674>0,05, NA= 74,68), attending course, seminar about mainstreaming training etc. (p=0,112>0,05, NA=76,54), and support taken during mainstreaming training (p=0,112>0,05, SO=76,15).He was observed that when the general attitude of preschool teachers towards mentally handicapped children improved; attitudes of preschool teachers towards mainstreaming training had improved (r=0,575, p=0,000<0,01) greatly as well.Key words: Handicapped Children, Mentally handicapped Children, Special Training, Preschool Teachers, Mainstreaming training.