Essay On Philosophy Of Special Education

The amount of people who live with disabilities is a controversial number. Depending on what law and diagnostic tools used, a person may have a visible disability, or one that may lie beneath the surface of his or her appearance. Some people believe that the term “disability” is merely a label use to hold back, or prescribe helplessness. Meanwhile, individuals who have been properly diagnosed with disabilities struggle to maintain respect and acceptance every day. In plain language, there is a lot of misunderstanding between people with disabilities and those without. It is firstly important to get everyone on the same page regarding the definition of disability.

In today’s world there are more and more children coming into the general education classes having a disability. More general education teachers have to take on a bigger responsibility than what they signed up for, but that is part of being a teacher. I feel as long as the teachers collaborate with each other they will be putting the student’s needs first.

I have been a teacher of students with special needs for the last couple of years in alternative settings. The students I like best tend to be the most challenging both behaviorally and academically. Success can be more apparent, yet at times there is frustration. I feel I am good at it, but need to learn more. Most importantly I love teaching kids with special challenges. The key is to be creative and keep trying.

My personal philosophy of special education drives not from teaching in the field, but from, observations, and personal experience, and the workshops I attended. I have had the opportunity to work with individuals with special needs in many different settings, all this help cultivate my knowledge in handling the needs of the special needed student. Special needs students have the ability to learn, to function, to grow, and most importantly to succeed. The difference comes into how they learn or how they need to be taught. There are as many beliefs about the "hows" as there are teachers and each of us forms our own philosophy through our experiences and research. As a student in a special education teachers’ program, learners with

When I was first asked, “What is your philosophy of teaching special education,” I didn’t really know what to say. I have taught general education and specialized classes, but I have never taught special education before. Regardless of whom my audience is, my basic philosophy of teaching remains unchanged and is applicable to any audience whether they are general education students or special education students. My philosophy of teaching postulates first, everyone can learn; second, everyone learns in different ways; and third, I am a facilitator of learning.

The purpose of schooling is to help our special education students to be functional and independent in the real world. I want them to learn how to deal with real life situations and to be able to understand and adapt to the changes it may bring. For example, being an autism teacher of high school students, my philosophy is different than of an autism teacher of elementary students. The most important thing of concern for the older students is to make sure they are as independent as possible and teach them some type of job skill to help them acquire a pay check to help with their care. I also help them have an

“Cameras in Special Education Classrooms a Complex Issue” has stemmed a controversial debate across the nation. Terrence Rideau received unexplained injuries while attending a middle school in Texas. Terrence is now 21 years old and is diagnosed with severe cognitive and physical disabilities. Terrence’s mom felt the need to lobby for cameras in special

Within the past decades and a big discussion has occurred regarding the most appropriate setting within which to provide education for students in special education. Although the change in the educational environment is significant for handicapped student the concepts of inclusion also bring up new issues for the regular education classroom teachers.

My classroom management philosophy has developed through many years of teaching experience, but through it all I believe all students can learn and grow, even students with special needs. I teach in a classroom designated for slow learners, many of which have cognitive impairments. My students may not learn in the same way as others or as much as other students, but they can learn and should be given that opportunity. I believe in focusing on my students’ gifts and talents, not their disabilities and what they cannot do.

Special Education is a topic of controversy with many advocates fighting for the justice children and adults with special needs so rightfully deserve. With laws being passed and modified so frequently, it is important that the educators being brought into the world have an extensive knowledge of the developmental needs of many different types of children. With this knowledge and their constant measures to keep up to date with the fast-moving world of education, they will be able to deliver an appropriate atmosphere that is in accordance with the law that ensures ethical practices and guidelines are always being followed.

Special education has faced many changes during the last century. During this time there have been many opinions on the way students with differences should be taught and treated. This paper will discuss the history of special education during the twentieth century. We will also discuss the laws associated with Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Finally we will discuss the current and future challenges that the laws have on special education.

Special education students have severe behavior or emotional issues that can disturb the classroom learning environment for themselves and the non-disabled peers. Disabled students often act out from not feeling accepted, frustration from the difficult material, and their cognitive obstacles. According to the article Time to leave inclusion out, seventy percent of teachers blamed the inclusion of children with special needs for increasingly bad behavior in the classroom.

Being a special educator, there are different roles and responsibilities separate from a general education teacher. As a special ed teacher, you need to be able to be more flexible and open-minded when it comes to teaching. These students, whether in a self-contained classroom or an ICT class, will have such differing needs than their counterparts. While they may still have some same needs, most of them will be different and individual. Even though we may have several students with the same disability in our class, that doesn’t mean that we can treat them the same; each student has differing abilities that we must figure out individually. This is one huge problem that I see prevailing in schools today. Teachers tend to think that if a child has autism, they have the same issues and needs as another child with autism but this is not the case. One child might need headphones for noise-canceling features while the other child might be ok with sound but need more social interactions skills. The ability to discern what a child needs based on their own performance is a crucial aspect to supporting every student equally. As a special educator, we need to not only look at their deficits but their capabilities as well. To define someone by what they can’t do is such a negative point of view. If we go into the classroom trying to find what is wrong with a child, we may never notice what exceptional skills they may have. For example, in class when Mark Sarabian came to talk about the

Throughout my years at Lehigh, I have proclaimed that I have a passion to teach, to show students that mathematics is not difficult, and that they are able to understand mathematics. However, when it came to special education students, my philosophy changed, due to their learning disability. I was ignorant to the special education movement of inclusion, because I feared the idea of teaching students who were not “normal”.

Every person deserves an education. It is what shapes us, allows us to grow. As future and current educators or parents, understanding the perspective of persons with disabilities in the classroom is important. Being confident in your own abilities and not being afraid to use the resources available to you.