ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHERS’ EXPERIENCES REGARDING THE PREREFERRAL PROCESS

Informing teachers about identifying students at risk is necessary and important for effective application of interventions in the pre-referral process. The purpose of this study was to determine the adaptations that elementary school teachers did for their students at risk in the pre-referral process and to determine these teachers’ experiences in the process. In this study, the phenomenological design was used to determine the elementary school teachers’ views about the pre-referral process and their experiences regarding the process. In the present study, which was conducted to determine elementary school teachers’ experiences and views about the pre-referral process, three themes were obtained as a result of the analysis of the data collected via the interviews. The themes were as follows: teachers’ experiences and views about the identification phase, instructional adaptations in the pre-referral process and overall thoughts and suggestions regarding the pre-referral process. Informing teachers about the pre-referral process and about what to do in this process will not only help decrease the number of students involved in referral process by increasing the in-class adaptations but also allow keeping the students in the same class who will be able to continue their education with their peers with help of in-class interventions.   Article visualizations: