By Lauren Rothering
Arts & Entertainment Editor
Saint Mary’s University education administrators Rebecca Hopkins, dean of the graduate School of Education, and Jane Anderson, dean of the School of Education, are helping create the first special education teacher training program in Palestine.
Although special education centers exist in Palestine for children with severe disabilities, said Anderson, many children with ADD, dyslexia and suspected post-traumatic stress disorder are taught in traditional classrooms with up to 40 other students. Teachers are unable to give these students the assistance they need to learn because of their lack of training and crowded classrooms.
Anderson’s previous experience in special education, combined with Hopkins’ knowledge of graduate-level courses, allowed them to pioneer a program to help Palestinian teachers. Hopkins and Anderson joined Dr. Sami Basha, project director and faculty member of Bethlehem University, a Lasallian college that will host the program.
Ideally, beginning in the fall of 2010, current Palestinian teachers will be able to take courses at Bethlehem University focusing specifically on teaching methods for children with disabilities. A Masters in Special Education will be offered with an emphasis on practical “action plans” for teaching special education in schools, Hopkins said. Hopkins and Basha hope to have at least 30 students when the program opens.
The opportunity to create this type of program in Palestine is not only exciting, said Anderson, but also a way to establish new means of identifying and instructing special education students.
“There are many things that are cumbersome about identifying special education students in the U.S.,” said Anderson, many of which include a “wait-for-failure” method of teaching. Anderson hopes the program will be able to avoid such restrictions and bureaucratic laws and instead do things “the right way.” Anderson has already started this process; a kindergarten screening instrument she created is now being translated into Arabic for use in Palestinian schools.
“Kids fail in Arabic in many of the same ways they do in English,” said Anderson. By emphasizing the “prevention of failure,” Anderson hopes that Palestinian schools will be able to help more children more effectively.
Special education training “is an emerging, burning, critical issue in Palestine,” said Hopkins. According to Hopkins and Anderson, in Palestine there is often a stigma associated with children who have special needs. Anderson emphasizes a need to “change society’s attitude” toward these children by creating and implementing programs that allow special education students to succeed in an academic setting.
“Children have special needs, but they also have special gifts,” said Anderson.
No comments:
Post a Comment