Participatory Action Research for Creating an OnlineBased Play Therapy Training Program: Training on Play Therapy for Children with Developmental Disabilities for Experienced Play Therapists.

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to develop a play therapy training program as a form of alternative learning for children with developmental disabilities. This study conducted a play therapy training program for experienced play therapists using flipped learning and analyzed the process of cooperation and change between researchers and the play therapists. Methods: To enable researchers and participants to create an online-based play therapy training program and to analyze the process of cooperation and change, a participatory action research (PAR) methodology was applied. Five play therapists with six to seven years of play therapy experience were the participants. The study analyzed various qualitative data (recorded materials for online conferences, learning results, video, online community activity materials, chat rooms, e-mail, participants' reflection essay, researcher notes, interview materials). Results: This study followed a process in which participants discussed specific educational contents and method through online communication, and then reflected on this discussion in the subsequent educational session. This study composed the final program through three action research processes. Also, the results of the study revealed topics such as: 1) "Come alive" (subtopics: Notice, “I'm not a beginner..."; Be aware, “I know but…”); and, 2) "Alive-alive" (subtopics: “LAN cable” colleagues; Learning “with my own”; Learning “in my opinion”) in the process of cooperation and change between researchers and participants. Conclusion: The findings of this study could be used for creating an online educational environment as a form of alternative learning. It is expected that the application of Participatory Action Research (PAR) methodology, that helps participants become subjects of learning through a cooperative process and mutual communication with researchers, can help overcome the limitations of the existing play therapy supervision method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]