A Critical Look at the Training Process in the Department of Education of the Hearing-Impaired as a Teacher Educator: Self-Study Research

Abstract

In related literature, there are various studies focusing on teacher educators’ competencies. It is stated that newly-employed teacher educators should certainly undergo a training process to acquire the necessary competencies in conducting the teaching practices. The purpose of the present study was to examine the training process from a critical perspective as a teacher educator, who was also the author of this paper, employed in 2007 as a faculty member in the department of Education of the Hearing-Impaired at Anadolu University. The study was designed based on the self-study approach in which researchers report their experiences critically and comparatively. The author used the reflections he made in the research process as a data source. Analysis of the data collected was carried out regarding the research questions as themes. In the process of analysis, in order to prevent data loss and to avoid incorrect coding in the phase of coding, the faculty members experienced in the process were asked for their help. As a result of the analysis conducted, three themes were obtained at the end of the training process: teacher educator, elementary school teacher and the contributions of considering the two areas simultaneously to my professional development and experiences. Depending on the themes and findings obtained, the important characteristics of the training process included monitoring constantly in cooperation, providing feedback-based support, providing flexibility, providing rich experiences in every step, creating awareness, making reflections and maintaining balanced learning. Based on these results, the author suggested not only conducting a comprehensive study on the application processes and professional experiences of teacher educators in Turkey but also developing a standard teacher education program accordingly.