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Seems to be a trend in Malaysia for professionals other than teachers to "become" special education teachers after doing short courses that do not involve teaching much less special education teaching.
Very often people from backgrounds in fields other than education such as law, finance, etc go on to do short diploma courses and in some cases a few short phonics courses and claim to be able to work with dyslexics and other learners with special educational needs. Another subset of "teachers" are those who claim to have experience and that serves as qualifications too.
Typically, a teacher has to go to teacher training college or university and gain a degree in education. From there, they are required to do a mandatory number of practical teaching hours under supervision before gaining their teaching credential. If they so wish to specialize, they have to further train in the specific area they wish to pursue such as special education.
Within special education, there are sub specialities too - one may decide to work with gifted learners, specific learning difficulties, Autism spectrum disorders or other moderate to severe difficulties. It is also a trend for special educators in Malaysia to claim and provisions to advertise, catering to learners with mild learning difficulties to severe ones all together. " We cater to Autism, Down Syndrome and Dyslexia, ADD and ADHD"! Now that is not even possible.
One has to specialise in one area - because the way a learner with autism spectrum disorders is taught is going to be completely different from the way a learner with say dyslexia is taught.
The analogy I like to use is that while all are doctors and even trained surgeons, you will never ever hear of an orthopedic surgeon doing neuro surgery! Its just ridiculous..
Something for us teachers to consider..
Very often people from backgrounds in fields other than education such as law, finance, etc go on to do short diploma courses and in some cases a few short phonics courses and claim to be able to work with dyslexics and other learners with special educational needs. Another subset of "teachers" are those who claim to have experience and that serves as qualifications too.
Typically, a teacher has to go to teacher training college or university and gain a degree in education. From there, they are required to do a mandatory number of practical teaching hours under supervision before gaining their teaching credential. If they so wish to specialize, they have to further train in the specific area they wish to pursue such as special education.
Within special education, there are sub specialities too - one may decide to work with gifted learners, specific learning difficulties, Autism spectrum disorders or other moderate to severe difficulties. It is also a trend for special educators in Malaysia to claim and provisions to advertise, catering to learners with mild learning difficulties to severe ones all together. " We cater to Autism, Down Syndrome and Dyslexia, ADD and ADHD"! Now that is not even possible.
One has to specialise in one area - because the way a learner with autism spectrum disorders is taught is going to be completely different from the way a learner with say dyslexia is taught.
The analogy I like to use is that while all are doctors and even trained surgeons, you will never ever hear of an orthopedic surgeon doing neuro surgery! Its just ridiculous..
Something for us teachers to consider..
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