Special Education Improving the Resource

Special Education

Improving the Resource Room in Special Education

The resource room special education teacher must work with a variety of students of varying needs, all at the same time. The teacher must meet the needs of students with a number of disabilities, which may include autism, emotional problems and learning difficulties. This philosophy does not allow the teacher to provide education for the individual student in the least restrictive environment. The educational requirements of these various students require interventions that are specific to their particular circumstance. This research will explore the proposal that policies within the special needs department must be made that provides more specialized teachers for each group of students with a particular type of disability.

This proposed strategy would require special education teachers to specialize further in their field. For instance, the LD teacher would be matched to LD students. EI teachers would be matched to students that require these specialized services. This would allow the teachers to specifically meet the needs of the student and be able follow their IEP more closely. This system has several advantages over the current methods used in the special education resource room.

Teacher Qualification

Using the proposed strategy that matches teacher qualifications to the specific needs of the children will result in teachers that are better equipped to deal with the specific needs of the student. Every disability, or group of disabilities requires different intervention strategies (ISER, 2007). Yet, special education teachers are required to meet the needs of this varied group using a format that uses a "one size fits all" approach to special needs.

The teacher is more likely to be more or less experienced with certain disabilities than others. Those students that have disabilities with which the teacher has less experience may suffer. The teacher is likely to become stressed over the inability to meet the needs to students that are not in his or her realm of teaching experience or education. Providing a higher level of specialization within the classroom will provide students with a teacher that understands fully the intricacies of their particular needs.

Within the special needs population, certain marginalized populations exist, such as those with poor health or from a different ethnic group than the dominant population. Education for these groups is often not even addressed using the current system (UNEXCO, 2007). The proposed system would allow schools to hire someone to target this special population within a special population.

Time Management

Currently, teachers must create individual plans for various disabilities within their classroom. The proposed plan will result in better time management as teachers will only have to create lesson plans for one particular disability. They will be able to concentrate on only one particular type of disability. They can devote all of their time to one particular type of disability, rather than having to split the time between the preparation and delivery of several different lesson plans. This more efficient use of time management will also mean more quality instruction for the students as well. They will not have to sit through lessons that are not meant for them. Every lesson would be targeted towards that particular group of students.

Teacher Retention

Special education is a highly specialized field making teacher retention an even more important issue than in the general population of teachers. Teaching a diverse array of students with specialized needs increases the workload of teachers more than those who only have to concentrate on a single subject. When teachers become overwhelmed, they are likely to experience higher amounts of job related stress. This stress translates into job dissatisfaction and can lead to lower teacher retention (Greiner & Smith, 2006). The proposed strategy would reduce teacher workload by allowing them to concentrate on the needs of only one group of students. They could become more proficient in the needs of this particular group of students, resulting in fewer job related stresses.