Special Education Teachers Are Walking Out

And The Reasons Don’t Involve Their Difficult Students At All

A lot of special education educators are leaving their classrooms and changing their professions. And while teaching differently-abled kids tend to be more challenging than doing the same with typical kids, they’re not set down their pens because of it.

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The Passion Of Teaching Students With Disabilities

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As teachers, we have to provide care for our students. We must consider thinking about their abilities and background and how they can freely interact inside the classroom. For those who are teaching students with disabilities, we must impose a respectful and friendly environment for them that will help them cope up with particular challenges in their life where they need assistance and considerations. Our primary goal is to make them realize that they can learn things that can allow them to make their own decisions.

There are tons of effective teaching strategies. However, it may vary on the type of disability the children have. We have to learn the proper development of designing a course or intervention practices that will help the students adapt efficiently.

Direct Instruction – The process of direct instruction focuses on content knowledge acquisition. It will allow teachers to focus on the underlying learning needs of the child such as introduction, development, guided practice, closure, independent practice, and evaluation. They can access their cognitive domains by providing clear examples and explanations and bring the lesson to a conclusion that is applicable for monitoring and assessment.

Learning Strategy Instruction – The integration of tools and techniques is a process where teachers give specific operations and procedures to the students that provide multiple opportunities for feedback and practice. This will also allow students with disabilities to have full responsibility for their tasks.

Inclusive Design – Though teachers may find it hard to incorporate their teaching strategies due to the condition of the children, they can always make an inclusive design that will determine the purpose of the course. They can use precise methods and instructions and know the required outcomes from the students’ tasks. This strategy also involves assessing ways on how the students can use these methods and determining student performance levels. It will be convenient for both teachers and students to have equal access to learning.

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TEACHING PROCEDURES – There are teaching procedures that teachers can also apply to be able to know if the strategy is working. It may offer some compelling intervention that can make a real difference in the student’s performances. Some of the mediation follows:

  • Provide prompt strategies that apply to all students with disabilities.
  • Use photos, diagrams, audios and videos that can help augment the said words.
  • Engage students in an environment that processes and answers typical questions.
  • Provide well-designed psychomotor activities that all students can participate in.
  • Present model instructions and practices that students can quickly follow.
  • Engage in a learning conversation that can boost student’s confidence.
  • Make regular quality assessment and feedback.

Though procedures and types of teaching methodology are present in the classroom, we must also consider that not all the students are able to adapt quickly. Students’ disabilities may differ from one another. It could be a low vision, chronic health disorders, PTSD, dyslexia, hearing loss, and the list go on.  We have to understand the need for considering our audience before using instructional materials.