Special Education Instructor

It is unfortunate that despite skills and experience, one cannot possibly help every student in rehabilitating. There was a student who had an emotional disorder and his parents were sure he didn’t need a psychologist so he was brought to the institute where I worked. After six months of constant therapy, the child had a breakdown because he was unable to cope with how we were handling him. His parents finally agreed to psychological counseling but it did leave me upset for a while.

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.

As a special education teacher, your duties will go far beyond managing and promoting good behavior; you will be providing an education that stays with your students for their entire lives. As such, your interviewer will ask about your methods for assessing your students’ progress. The school at which you are applying may have its own standards that you will be expected to follow, but you should mention some of your own assessment techniques as well as the ways in which you have adapted them to meet the needs of your students. You should also mention the ways in which your methods address each student’s strengths and weaknesses—and provide specific examples.

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.

When I first started my career, I wasn't as focused on a speciality and ended up spending a lot of time working with students who had more low-incidence disabilities. I wish I had been introduced to more specific work, with individuals affected by Autism, sooner in my career.

The individuals with disabilities act is a federal law that governs and dictates the policies applicable in early age interventions for children with special needs.

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.

One of the most challenging courses for me while obtaining my degree was Statistics. Because I am more therapy and behavioural based by nature, it was difficult for me to fully embrace the factual parts of this course. I did find a tutor for that class and was able to pass it with a good grade.

I have worked with physical handicaps, ADHA patients, children with autism, mental retardation, Down’s syndrome and children with learning disabilities.

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.

I think collaboration benefits the quality of instruction and supports for students with disabilities. Resources are combined to strengthen teaching and learning opportunities, methods, and effectiveness. Each member of the team brings their individual skill set, training, and unique perspective to ensure that the individualized needs of each student are met.

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.

How do you set your teaching goals for special education? How have you monitored the progress of each child? How would you define success in special education teaching? Tell us about success/failures stories. Speak about articles you have read, and techniques you have observed. Of course, include your own – especially the more fascinating examples.

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.

RTI stands for response to intervention. It is basically a data based process of diagnosing and assessing learning related disabilities and to determine the appropriate instructional style to which the student responds well. In other words it is research based intervention to enhance and facilitate the process of learning among children with special needs.

In my current role I have had colleagues comment quite frequently that they are happy they can rely on me to be at work, complete what I say that I will, and fill in where necessary. I am a strong team player and will absolutely cover work for a colleague if asked. I also have perfect attendance in my current position.

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.

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.

I have been very lucky in working with a number of students with diverse special education needs. I have had the opportunity to deal with students diagnosed with ADHD, autism, emotional and speech orders and physical handicaps.