The Effect of Special Education Teachers' Knowledge Sharing on Innovative Work Behaviors

Abstract

The dynamic and ever-changing structure of the special education field and the developmental needs of children with special needs make knowledge sharing important for special education teachers. The current study aims to examine the effect of the knowledge-sharing process on the innovative work behavior of special education teachers in private education institutions. This study employed a descriptive research model which is one of the quantitative research models. A total of 244 special education teachers, 75 male, and 169 female, were included in the study. The findings of the study show that the mean scores of the Innovative Work Behavior Scale and the Knowledge Sharing Scale do not differ significantly according to the gender of the teachers, the educational status of the teachers, and the type of the teachers' institution. On the other hand, the average score of innovative work behavior idea generation and implementation sub-dimension differs significantly according to the seniority of the teachers. In other words, in the idea generation and implementation sub-dimension, the average score of teachers with 11-15 years of professional seniority was found to be significantly higher than the average of teachers with 0-5 years of professional seniority.