Training Process Cycles for Special Education Teachers and University Supervisors: A Turkish Context

In special education teacher training programs, the teaching practicum's role is both wide and extensive. Since, during this process, providing qualitative and satisfactory consulting services to supervisors is crucial, it is very important that university supervisors be experienced and have obtained proficiency in the field of consultation. However, for the program which the university study is currently implementing, no study has yet been made systematically reporting the teacher training process in Turkey. As such, this present study has aimed to reveal the training process cycle for university supervisors and to describe teaching practicum applications. In this study, there were two groups of participants, one of them direct participants, and the other indirect participants. Data were collected via voice and video records, field notes, and university supervisor candidate's diaries. At the end of the data analysis, researchers delineated four basic themes, being (1) the process of practicum, (2) the skills which a potential university supervisor should have, and (3) the weekly working schedule, roles and responsibilities, and components of the practicum cycle. The subthemes of the practicum meetings, reading folders, and observations, which made up the components of the practicum cycle, were focused on. Consequently, it was observed that the practicum process provided multi-dimensional learning and teaching opportunities for university supervisors, potential supervisors, and pre-service teachers.