DEPARTMENT OF SPECIAL EDUCATION

 

In Turkiye, the scope and quality of education services provided to individuals with special needs are increasing every year. In this context, special education teaching undergraduate programs aim to train teachers equipped with theoretical and practical knowledge and skills that aim to enable individuals with special needs to be independent, active and productive in social life.

The Department of Special Education was established at Marmara University Atatürk Faculty of Education in 2000. For the first time in 2002-2003 academic year, students were admitted to the undergraduate program of Teaching Intellectualy Disabled under the Department of Education of the Intellectualy Disabled within the department. As of the 2016-2017 academic year, the scope and name of the program has been changed to Special Education Teaching. Our department is located in Atatürk Faculty of Education Prof. Dr. Hikmet Savcı Building in Göztepe campus. The academic staff of the department consists of one professor doctor, three associate professors, two assistant professors, one research assistant doctor and two research assistants.

Students are admitted to the Special Education Teaching Undergraduate program with verbal scores as a result of the undergraduate placement exam conducted by ÖSYM. In 2022, a total of 103 students were admitted to the undergraduate program with a base score of 427.814 and three school valedictorian quotas. The education period of the program is four years and the language is Turkish. In the Special Education Teaching undergraduate program; field knowledge, special education professional knowledge, general culture and application courses are included. In order to graduate, students must be successful in all courses in the program, complete a total of 240 credits, 14 of which are theoretical, and have a GPA of at least 2.00. Except for the Teaching Practicum courses, success grades are determined by the relative evaluation system.

Students of our department can also take double major and minor education in the departments of Psychological Counseling and Guidance, Preschool Teaching and Classroom Teaching. Thanks to the Erasmus program, which our university is also included in, student mobility is also provided between the students of our department and the special education departments of universities in foreign countries.

Our graduates can work in public or private schools and institutions for individuals with special needs. In addition, our graduates can continue their academic careers both in our department's master's program and in other universities' master's programs related to special education and/or special education (Psychological Counseling and Guidance, Language and Speech Disorders, Measurement and Evaluation in Education, Classroom Teaching, Preschool Teaching, Classroom Teaching, Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Curriculum and Instruction, Educational Administration and Supervision, etc.).

The Department of Special Education also offers a master's program with thesis in Teaching the Intellectualy Disabled within the Institute of Educational Sciences. Starting in 2002, the program aims to train specialists in the field of special education. Students who complete the master's program can continue their academic career in doctoral programs if they wish. It is planned to start accepting students in the 2024-2025 academic year.