INVESTIGATION OF GRADUATE THESIS CONDUCTED IN FIELD OF MENTAL DISABILITIES IN TURKEY

Abstract

Disability is a situation where the roles expected from individuals cannot be fulfilled and restricted depending on gender, age, cultural and social factors due to disability. The mentally retarded individual, on the other hand, has a negative impact on his educational performance and social adaptation to mental development; is a severely, moderately or mildly affected individual. Community mental disabilities are having the biggest percentage of disability groups within the scope of special education in Turkey. For this reason, it is important to examine postgraduate theses on mentally handicapped people. The aim of this study is to examine the different variables of the graduate thesis on the mentally handicapped are made in Turkey. In the searches made in the Higher Education Council thesis search center with the code "mental disability", a total of 76 theses, including 10 doctorate and 66 master's theses, were reached. The universe of the research consists of 76 theses. The research was carried out with document analysis and Bibliometric analysis, among qualitative research methods. Five-step document analysis technique was used in the analysis of the data. Looking at the results of the research; It is seen that the most theses written on the mentally disabled were produced in 2009, the majority of thesis advisors had the title of associate professor, the number of male authors was relatively higher than the number of women. It is seen that most of the theses were written in Abant İzzet Baysal University and Anadolu University, the institutes of educational sciences produced the most theses as the institute, and the special education department produced the most thesis in the field of the mentally disabled. Looking at the levels of the theses; it has been revealed that master theses are more than doctoral theses, quantitative research methods are preferred more in these theses, and theses mostly focus on method-program and material effectiveness according to the subjects.