Sardes International: Special Education
Strengthening special education in Turkey
By the end of 2004, Turkey was given green light to start negotiations to become member state of the European Union. The task of the Turkish government is to harmonize their legislation, policy and practice with the guidelines and directives as laid down in the Acquis Communautaire of the EU. During a two-year project (2005-2006), Sardes lead a consortium with the "Seminarium van Orthopedagogiek" (part of Utrecht University for Professional Education) to provide technical assistance to the Turkish Ministry of Education (Directorate of Special Education and Guiding and Counseling Services) in strengthening policy and practice of primary education aimed at children with special educational needs (SEN). Focus lies on improvement of quality and on education for all.
Policy
In close cooperation with our Turkish partner, we analyzed the way in which legislation and regulations are implemented in daily practice at schools attended by children with special educational needs, and we formulated suggestions for improvement.
Practice
In two one-week seminars we provided training sessions and workshops for over 100 Turkish teachers and professionals working with children with SEN, either at special education schools or at regular schools (inclusion). We asked the participants to reflect on their own practice and the obstacles they encountered and we gave them insight in how they could improve their teaching skills. In thirteen regions throughout Turkey, they developed their own small-scale pilot projects in which they try out new approaches of teaching special educational needs children. The project creates a lot of interest in the Turkish media.
Public awareness
We also set up public awareness activities, aimed at parents of SEN children and the public at large, about the ways in which the Ministry can inform parents of SEN children about the educational opportunities for their children and about the need to send them to school.
The project ended in November 2006 with a presentation and evaluation session during the 16th National Special Education Conference in Samsun.
More information: Jeroen Aarssen
This site has been modified on 10-01-2012