Special Education

Students with different special needs demand varied approaches to discipline. Provide examples of at least two different approaches you used that were effective for the particular students in question. Focus on your attempts to understand what the problem behavior really means as well as how to modify it.

Highlight your role on the team as an advocate for your students. Emphasize your ability to work collaboratively with other teachers and support staff to help your students succeed including regular consultation regarding progress towards educational, social, emotional and physical goals.

Demonstrate that you act as a valuable resource for the general education teachers by providing specialized activities, modifications, IEPs for your students.

Highlight your expertise in differentiated instruction when answering special education teacher interview questions. Discuss development of individual educational plans (IEPs). Give specific examples of modifications, group work, assessments and explicit communication techniques.

Show your understanding of the different classifications such as speech disorders, ADD, emotional disorders and language processing difficulties. You will be expected to have basic knowledge of a wide range of disabilities.

Effective classroom management depends on providing the structure and routine required by special education students. The students need to know what rules and procedures apply to them. Specific and clear communication of these rules and procedures is key. Each student needs to know on a daily basis exactly what is expected of them.

Often students are not motivated to learn, particularly when they feel inadequate or have experienced failure.

What creative methods have you successfully used to build motivation? You have to be innovative in coming up with new ways to build the students' self esteem and belief in the possibility of success.

Your ability to motivate students will be carefully evaluted with special education teacher interview questions. Student motivation to complete tasks can be enhanced through making positive changes to the learning environment, increasing the interest of the activity, analyzing the task to identify areas of concern, responding to individual limitations and strengths and providing appropriate reinforcers or rewards. Provide a specific example to support your answer.

Include elements such as assessing the cause of unacceptable behavior to design a behavior support program, clearly describing and demonstrating what is acceptable and unacceptable behavior and explicitly communicating the consequences of this behavior. Provide supporting examples.

Ongoing communication with the family fosters a supportive relationship. This includes providing a clear explanation of the student's IEP, regularly sending out IEP report cards on student progress towards set goals, management of expectations by providing clear measurements, keeping accurate records of interactions with parents and really listening to parents.

Show how you determine where each student is and prioritize learning accordingly. The focus may be on developing basic social skills or on task completion. Highlight your ability to use different teaching styles and resources to meet diverse needs.

Your experience of student assessments will be explored with these special education teacher interview questions. Show that you have in-depth experience and knowledge of a variety of assessment techniques.

Demonstrate how you adapt the assessment to make it appropriate to the student's needs, strengths and limitations with specific examples.

Focus on your planning and organizational skills. Provide an example of the time management techniques you utilize. Demonstrate your understanding of the need for the large amount of administration (including Committee on Special Education meetings) and paperwork involved and your willingness to take accountability for the process.

Before your interview read up on the school district's procedures for determining which students need special education services. Find out what services and resources are available in the school for special needs students.

Read up on the latest inclusion strategies. Be prepared to support your answers to special education teacher interview questions that explore your teaching philosophy with hard facts.

Demonstrate your knowledge of federal and state special education regulations, current trends and research in the field of special education. Give examples of your commitment to ongoing professional development through attending workshops, seminars and courses.

There are no right or wrong answers to this special education interview question. Research shows the common reasons for becoming a special educator include coming into contact with someone with special needs when growing up. This encouraged the educator to value and understand the challenges faced by children with special needs and to want to help.

Other reasons include a desire to find meaning and significance in a career by making a positive difference in a child's life and the stimulation and rewards associated with the challenges of working with students with special needs.

This is one of the few special education interview questions that has one consistent answer: differentiated instruction. No matter what level of special education and age group you will be working with for the given position, differentiated instruction will be a huge component of the job. Be prepared to talk about specific adaptation methods, such as creating modified materials with pictures, and how you will incorporate these materials into various types of lesson plans.

Collaboration is a key aspect of any teaching position. This is especially true for special education, as teachers frequently collaborate with teacher aides, general education teachers, speech-language pathologists, and more every week. Emphasize your cooperation and team skills during the interview and give specific examples of positive collaborations that you've had in previous positions.

There are numerous possibilities for assessments, many of which are valid and reliable. Whenever it is possible, bring examples of assessments. If you haven't had a teaching position yet, bring school assignments in which you designed assessments and any student teaching work that includes assessments.

Be honest about your difficulties and challenges. Good administrators understand how challenging some of your students will be and will do their best to provide the support that you need for them. Also, clearly illustrating how you rose to these challenges and had successes with these students will be a big asset for you.

Many teachers are very idealistic. There is nothing wrong with expressing your idealism, but you also need to be realistic about your expectations for this job and your students. Just a few of the reasons that people choose a career in special education include wanting to help others, assisting students with reaching their goals, and watching student progress.

Effective strategies include creating schedules, creating a work basket that aides can take from as they have time, and keeping the lines of communication open. Give your aides the opportunity to talk to you.

Without any students around as needed. Discuss specific examples of techniques that you have used before or will use the future whenever possible.

Additionally, don't be afraid to discuss techniques that weren't effective and why you'll be using different strategies in the future.