Üniversite Öğrencilerinin Özel Gereksinimli Akranlarına İlişkin Tutumları: Karma Desen İncelemesi

This study aimed to determine the level of university students' attitudes toward their peers with special needs and the thoughts in forming these attitudes with metaphors. In this direction, a total of 113 students studying at Bandırma Onyedi Eylül University Faculty of Sport Sciences and different faculties constitute the research study group. Convergent parallel design, one of the mixed research methods, was used in the study. In the study, "Multidimensional Attitude Scale Towards People with Disabilities" was used to obtain quantitative data. The scale consists of 31 items with three sub-dimensions: emotion, thought, and behavior. The qualitative data of the study were collected by completing the sentence "When I see a peer who is a university student with special needs, I am ........., because " In the quantitative findings, it was determined that there was a significant difference in the total attitude score and thought sub-dimension of the scale according to the gender variable. In addition, no significant difference was found in the variables of taking a course on disabilities, having a relative with disabilities, age, grade, and department of education. Considering the qualitative findings, the metaphors produced by university students were categorized under 4 themes. These categories were determined as "Empathy/Support", "Successful/Struggling ", "Accessibility/Opportunities", and "Equality", In conclusion, as a result of both qualitative and quantitative findings, it was found that students had positive attitudes toward their peers with special needs. In this direction, positive attitude scores showed a parallel result with the findings in the metaphor analysis.