GRC managers' perceptions of IEP implementation problems in Turkey

Individualized Education Programs

The journal article reviewed in this document is entitled "Guidance and Research Centers (GRC) managers' perceptions of problems encountered in the identification, placement -- follow up, Individualized Education Program (IEP) development and integration practice." It is written by Hasan and appears in Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice. This article discusses the fact that there are several different aspects of implementing an IEP for a student that need to occur correctly in order for that plan to actually improve the learning process of students. The article makes it quite explicit that there are common problems in the IEP process that reduce its efficacy for students.

One of the primary benefits of this particular article is the fact that it stratifies the various aspects of implementing an IEP according to initial evaluation, placement and follow-up, development of the actual plan and integrating the IEP into daily classroom use. Unfortunately, the article examines these factors as they appear in Turkey. As such, the article was obviously written by a non-native English speaker, contains a multitude of foreign jargon, and assumes the reader is familiar with educational processes in Turkey. Still, the information it provides regarding the problems of implementing IEPs is certainly applicable to the usage of IEPs in America, and is where the real strength of this article lies. Nonetheless, to get to this information the reader must first navigate through a multitude of grammatical and syntactical areas, an inflated introduction regarding the need for IEPs, and a pithy (and inconclusive) literary review regarding the study of this subject in Turkey.

The crux of this article is the original, empirical research that the author conducted. He created a questionnaire that was distributed to Guidance and Research Centers that addressed the two chief research questions: the first of which codifies the IEP process into the aforementioned four categories, and the second of which seeks to assess whether or not the input of GRC managers is affected by personal information including age, seniority, gender, and other factors (Hassan, 2012, p. 2027). The questionnaire issued was thorough and was able to categorize the responses (and the respondents) according to the stratifications of the research questions.

One of the most salient obstacles regarding the proper implementation of an IEP is in failing to correctly utilize parents as helpful resources in this process. The author (2012) identified numerous problems with notifying parents about the special needs of students from adequately transmitting the results of initial assessments to accounting for their needs and involvement with specific IEP (p. 2028). The implications are that parents are actually valuable resources in assisting student learning with IEPs, and that IEPs effectively represent a collaborative process between those producing initial assessments, those that create the plans, those that implement the plans at a classroom level, and those that can reinforce the goals of the plans at home and outside of the school environment (family and guardians). Although the author never expressly states this fact, his research findings imply it and the importance of what he terms the "multi disciplinary" nature of IEPs.