An Inside Look at the Special Education Profession

An inside look at the Special Education Profession show us the main axes that should shape the special education of the future would be:.

•           Encourage curiosity and interest in students

 Any special education that fails to motivate those who receive it is bound to fail, sooner or later. For many plans that are designed or for a lot of budget that is available, if the student are not interested in learning, it will not. (I think what I mention in the following points can help build this motivation).

•           Customize teaching

Each person has their own interests, their particular abilities, their weaknesses or deficiencies, their character, their family context, their intelligence, their learning pace, their affections and their hatred, etc. Pretending that we all learn the same, in the same way and exactly at the same pace, can lead to frustrations, school failure, formative gaps or simple disinterest

•           Preserving and promoting creativity

It has almost become a commonplace, but it has been repeating the mantra that schools kill creativity. And if creativity has always been important, more and more will be in a world where technology and robotics are making disappear the most repetitive and less skilled jobs. Undoubtedly, the most valued skills will be those linked to the creative, be it the resolution of complex problems, the design of new products, software development, qualitative data analysis, decision making, marketing, etc. .

•           Learn throughout life

 I think it is obvious that studying to the age of twenty and not doing it again is already a thing of the past. The dizzying advance of technology in a world that changes faster and faster means that we must continue learning and updating throughout our lives. Those who do not run the risk of falling behind definitely, not getting a job or feeling completely out of society. Fortunately the technology is making this aspect much easier, allowing us to access quality training free of charge, through MOOCs , language learning websites, countless special educational apps , essay help etc.

•           Design our own special education

This would be a further step in personalizing special education, so that we are increasingly responsible for designing our personal learning plan. Here, too, new initiatives in special education (such as Coursera ,EdX , Udacity and similar) put the configuration of a unique special educational itinerary in line with our needs, interests and objectives.

•           Compatibility of teaching content with skills

That of learning the list of Gothic kings or rivers of Europe now seems a dusty vestige of the past, having as we have in our pocket a device that can provide us with that information in just a few seconds. This does not mean that we should eliminate content learning, but rather emphasize learning skills, information search, knowledge of learning mechanisms and application of acquired knowledge; In short, learn to learn .

•           The Last Words

 It may sound a little silly, but I think we should not forget to provide each person with certain tools or knowledge that will help them to be happier throughout their lives, irrespective of learning or other disabilities. In this way, it would be very beneficial to study the psychological mechanisms behind our moods, to provide tools to deal with frustration or to keep motivation, to develop our social skills, and so on. In short, "happiness is not doing what you want but wanting what you do. "