Department of Special Education

Hello, I'm Research Assistant Burak Türkman. I am one of the first graduates of Istanbul University Cerrahpaşa, Hasan Ali Yücel Faculty of Education, Special Education Department. After graduation, I worked as a teacher for some time. Then I went to the United States for my master's and doctoral studies. I have been working as an academic in our department since 2017. The Special Education Department was established in 2012. Until 2016, it only provided education for the candidate teachers who would teach gifted students. With the decision of the Council of Higher Education in 2015, undergraduate courses for the Hearing Impaired, Mentally Handicapped, Visually Impaired and Gifted Students were integrated under the one single program of Special Education. Since 2016, our department produces Special Education Teachers. We have produced our first graduates in 2020. In the first year, our students usually take vocational knowledge, general culture and other service lessons. As of the second grade, our students take more field-based courses. In the first year, our students begin receiving education by taking only general courses such as Introduction to Special Education and Autism Spectrum Disorder. Special Education Teaching addresses a wide range of internships. Our students complete their internship in the form of institution observation in the second grade, school experience in the third grade, and teacher practice in the fourth grade. In special education, students complete their internships by working with different student groups in different years so that they can get to know different types of students in the field, such as the Hearing Impaired, and Mentally Handicapped, the Visually Impaired and the Gifted. Our education faculty has student exchange program agreements with many universities abroad. Students of the Special Education Department can benefit from these programs if they meet the required grade point average and language criteria. Special Education Department organizes the "National Education Congress for Gifted People". The "National Education Congress for Gifted People", which we organized in Istanbul in 2019, is one of the events and congresses our department holds. Our department has a student club established by its own students. Our students also organize many activities and events. Students who graduate from the Special Education Department can work in different fields after graduation. These could be guidance and research centers, science and art centers, rehabilitation centers, special education subclasses and various positions within the Social Services Institution. We do not have a course in which our special education students have difficulties with. Faculty members and staff of the department have different office hours for the benefit of the students. Our students can go to their faculty and ask for help in terms of support during these hours. I would like to recommend this to my friends who will choose Istanbul University, Cerrahpaşa Hasan Ali Yücel Faculty of Education, Special Education Department. The teaching profession is a profession that requires great sacrifice and passion. If you’re going to work with individuals who require a special sort of education, the sacrifice you’ll have to make and the passion you’ll have to have will be far greater. Therefore, your choices should be based on this love and sacrifice. Choices which are made due to employment concerns and other reasons will cause you to be unhappy in the long run. If this is the profession you dream of, Special Education Department is definitely a suitable field for you. Our education faculty moved to Büyükçekmece Campus in 2019. In our Büyükçekmece Campus, there are student dormitories, a dining hall, library, social and sports facilities where students can spend time. Istanbul University Cerrahpaşa has campuses in different places in Istanbul. Our students can benefit from facilities provided in the many campuses of Istanbul University Cerrahpaşa. I wish success to all students and hope them to settle in the departments they love and dream of enrolling in.