Validation of the Citizenship Education Curriculum Model for Students with Special Needs (Intellectual Disability)

The purpose of the present study was to validate the citizenship education curriculum model for students with special needs (intellectual disability). Citizenship education equips students' knowledge, skills and understanding and plays an effective role in their public life.

The present study is an applied-developmental study in terms of its purpose, and it is a cross-sectional survey research in terms of the method and time frame of data collection. A semi-structured interview and a Likert scale questionnaire were used to collect data. The statistical population of this research in the qualitative part includes experts and experts of special curriculum planning and experts of exceptional organization. Sampling of the qualitative section continued until theoretical saturation was reached and 24 experts participated in this section. Since the statistical population is 182 people (experts and teachers of mentally retarded students) and the sample is calculated based on the Cochran table with an error of 0.1, the number of 79 people. In order to analyze the data in the qualitative part, the foundation's data analysis method was used to identify research indicators, and structural equation modeling and SMARTPLS softwa re were used to validate and present the final model.

Based on that, the linear relationship between research categories, including causal conditions, central categories, background conditions, intervening conditions, strategies and consequences was determined.

The results presented in this research show that the most important results obtained from the interviews emphasized the content of citizenship education and teaching methods. In terms of teaching and training methods, the formation of informal groups and supervision of group activities, learning in practice and student-centered and cooperative teaching methods have been emphasized