Teaching Philosophy for Special Education

Alana Harris
Learning should be a life-long process, and its my belief that the job of every teacher is
to stimulate and further each childs motivation and capacity for a lifespan of discovery.
For my students, I seek to encourage this growth by facilitating connections; providing
appropriate levels of support; maintaining high expectations; and respecting student
diversity. I accomplish this through the application of multiple evidenced-based
strategies that promote use of effective measures for learning.

Instilling a Life-long Passion for Learning

Motivating children to be diligent students is a matter of making the material
accessible to their individual needs and abilities, and creating buy-in through explicit
connections to what they already know. Research tells us that students learn best when
they are given a contextual framework based around their existing knowledge; when
new material is relatable, it is both easier to understand and appears more interesting.
For instance, in addition to showing my students how a new concept relates to previous
elements from their education, I demonstrate how this new knowledge is applicable in
their daily lives. This approach also encourages students to generalize their learning in
the future, an important skill that as their teacher I consistently model.

Along with helping my students make personal connections to their learning, I actively
assess their understanding of the material we cover to make sure I am delivering
concepts in ways that make this learning possible for each child. By engaging in
frequent assessments and using that feedback to direct my teaching interventions, I
am able to respond to student performance quickly and effectively. For example, if a

student scores poorly on a quiz or fails to meet a benchmark, I can immediately

address this learning gap and strategize for the future. Not only does this help in
keeping students from slipping too far behind, this approach also allows me to gauge
whether or not a given intervention is appropriate for a student, or if there needs to be
a change in strategy.

It is also worth mentioning here that I am a proponent of Direct Instruction strategies.

The evidence is overwhelmingly in favor of this teaching method in terms of its
capacity to deliver consistently effective instruction for every caliber of student.
Research shows that teacher-directed and efficient teaching methods, hallmarks of DI,
promote better outcomes for students, and can be especially potent for students who
have typically struggled in school. In my classroom, you will see me use DI techniques
when I explicitly highlight what I want my students to learn, in my use of data-based
decision making to determine the pace and scope of my teaching, and in the
organization of my lessons which promote active understanding of relationships
between concepts.

Cultivating High Expectations

In working with children receiving special education services, my most critical objective
is to accelerate their learning so that they can reach the same level of academic
achievement as their peers. This calls for setting challenging goals that help drive their
progress to meet general education standards whenever possible. By setting high
expectations, my students are driven to continue pushing themselves and their
learning achievements. In addition, believing my students are capable of achieving
these goals also influences their success. In other words, setting only moderately

difficult objectives sends a message to students that this is the highest ability expected
of them, and they need not exceed that outcome. When given ambitious targets,
studies have shown students are much more likely to find academic success.

Supporting Proactive Behavior and Social Skills

Student, and teacher, behavior is ultimately the most important factor in determining
whether students can learn in a classroom. Unfocused or inappropriate behavior
directly competes with the learning process, and can severely impede the classs ability
to meet educational benchmarks. To thwart these effects, I employ the evidencedbased tactics of Positive Behavior intervention Support, and Response to Intervention
to analyze and better understand a childs behavior. This understanding lets me
address potential triggers contributing to undesired behaviors, and exchange these for
conditions that have been identified as encouraging positive behaviors. I can also
adjust how I respond to my students so that I give them appropriately styled reinforcing
feedback that acknowledges their positive efforts.