This study aims to examine special education teachers and parents social skills expectations of students with mental retardation who are attending Turkish special education schools and special classrooms. The participants of the research were 277 special education teachers and 562 mothers. In order to determine teachers and mothers expectations for the students with mental retardation, the importance dimension of the teacher and parent version of the Social Skills Rating System-Social Skills Scale developed by Gresham and Elliott (1990), was used. The percentage of the teachers who scored each item as not important, important and critical for success by the teachers and the mothers were identified. Also, the order of importance of items that are considered as important was determined by taking into account the weighted total. The results of the analyses indicated the fact that most of the teachers and mothers thought that none of the social skills were critical for the academic success of the students with mental retardation. However, they considered all skills in both forms as important. In addition, it was found that the teachers social skills expectations for their students with mental retardation are significantly higher than their mothers.
Key words: Social skills, teacher expectations, parent expectations, students with mental retardation
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