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A Qualitative Case Study on Individualized Education Status in General Kindergarten Teachers; Focusing on Jeju regions Baek Jin-young Major : Special Education of Early Childhood Department of Special Education Graduate School of Special Education, Daegu University Directed by Prof. Baek...

A Qualitative Case Study on Individualized Education Status in General Kindergarten Teachers; Focusing on Jeju regions Baek Jin-young Major : Special Education of Early Childhood Department of Special Education Graduate School of Special Education, Daegu University Directed by Prof. Baek, Sang-soo (Abstract) This research aimed to identify the needs for inclusive education to be accepted and to seek the foundation for the acception by investigating the realities and difficulties through interviews with general kindergarten teachers regarding inclusive education. Specific research issues are as follows accordingly. 1) How are individualized education are provided by general teachers in inclusive education classrooms? (1) Diagnosis and assessment for inclusive education are done? (2) What role do the IEP (individualized education plan) team members play? (3) How is IEP utilized after written? (4) Is IEP execution evaluation made? 2) What efforts are general kindergarten teachers with special classes and those without special classes making for inclusive education? (1) What are the difficulties in planning individualized education and evaluating individualized education executed? (2) How are the difficulties resolved? 3) What improvements need to be made by general kindergarten teachers? This research was conducted through interviews with 4 teachers responsible for inclusive education at public kindergartens with special classes and 5 teachers at public, private kindergartens without special classes, all of which are located in Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, Korea. The findings as follows: First, regarding “How are individualized education are provided?”, teachers were aware of diagnosis, evaluation processes but they had no exact idea about what evaluations are made and what tools are used in detail. Some teachers were found to be interested in evaluation processes and tools. For kindergartens with special classes, individualized education teams were organized. And for kindergartens without special classes, however, individualized education teams were not being operated. In the role recognition and the collaboration of individualized education teams, the collaborative role as collaborative team members was low-levelled, since the clear guidance was not prepared that specifies roles to be played by inclusive education classroom teachers. Thus, they were getting support from special education teachers when teaching children with disabilities. In the case of kindergartens without individualized education teams, challenges were being addressed through the collaboration among teachers using specialized books or with the help of itinerant teachers. Reasons for making collaboration difficult included lack of the positive attitude of the parents who intended to change the time due to the inference with activities of inclusive education classrooms resulting from the use of private treatment facilities by children with disabilities; lack of time due to the busy work schedule of teachers; less opportunities for collaboration due to the short time for individualized education by itinerant teachers; and low interest due to the absence of participation by inclusive classroom teachers due to the planning of individualized education. For kindergarten with special education teachers in terms of the recognition of belonging to classrooms regarding children with disabilities, special education teachers had low responsibility for children with disabilities because of their awareness of children with disabilities as students of their own classrooms and thereby inclusive education teachers also had low responsibility for children with disabilities. For kindergarten without special education teachers, the absence of collaborative teams was found to be due to the failure of the systematic collaboration. Second, regarding “What efforts are they making for inclusive education?”, the analysis of teachers revealed lack of the concept and recognition on how to cerate individualized education plans in terms of use and practice, practical imperfection of the use of individualized education plans, and flexible attitudes toward setting short-term and long-term goals. In terms of teachers’ attempt to adjust curriculums, the analysis showed lack of adjusting teaching environments, modification of teacher population tailored to characteristics and properties of classes of children with disabilities, adjustment of teaching methods using preferred activities, adjustment of educational levels considering characteristics of children with disabilities, efforts to use evaluation materials and methods provided by special education teachers, and use of evaluation results to understand and to reflect the development of children with disabilities. Inclusive education teachers were observed to make efforts to achieve goals by setting short-term and long-term goals and applying inclusive education situations. They were also found to try to modify curriculums in various ways considering characteristics of children with disabilities. Third, regarding “What improvements need to be made by general kindergarten teachers?”, the analysis of teachers’ responses confirmed that they require support under administratively difficult circumstances, practical education for improving teachers’ expertise, and plans for activation of collaboration, as well as that they need to make efforts to improve awareness of personalized instructions.

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