The students of IMU Faculty of Educational Sciences, Department of Preschool Education, have been granted an encouragement award at the Dr. Yahya ÖZSOY Community Services Awards 2021 by Turkish Community Services Foundation (TOVAK).
A total of 18 project owners applied for the award in 2021 and our students Şerife AKDENİZ, Nisanur AKYÜZ, Rabia KARABacak, Buse YALÇIN, Merve Nur DEMİRCİ, and Eda DEMİR won the “Federation of Special Education Associations Encouragement Award” with the project titled “Be Aware of Disadvantaged Children”, which they carried out under the leadership of our faculty member Prof. Dr. Yeşim GÜLEÇ ASLAN.
“Prof. Dr. Yahya Özsoy Community Services Award” ceremony of the Turkish Community Services Foundation was held on 12.24.2021 at Anadolu University Student Center Hall. Our project team received their awards from Yunus Kılıç, the President of Anadolu University Special Education Associations Federation.
The project was developed to increase the awareness and knowledge of pre-service and in-service teachers from different fields about disadvantaged children. Our students explained the main reasons for implementing the project as “the right of disadvantaged children to be educated in general education schools in line with inclusion/integration practices, and the positive role of teachers’ awareness and knowledge about these children on educational outcomes in the context of the benefits of such training”.
As part of the project that includes three activities, a poster was first created to draw attention to the importance of supporting individuals with special needs. As the second activity, a seminar was held on “Viewing the Autism Spectrum Disorder from Teachers’ Perspective”. In the first session of seminar, Dr. Emine AYYILDIZ delivered her speech to an audience of 90 people, and Res. Asst. Ayşe Büşra SUBAŞI YURTÇU spoke in the second session. In addition, a guidebook on autism spectrum disorder was prepared and distributed within the scope of this study. In the third part of the study, Dr. Alperen BIKMAZER and Dr. Ömer TURAN talked about “How to Recognize and Prevent Child Abuse” in a seminar attended by 170 people.
