Special Education Reflection Essay example -- essays research papers

Running Head REFLECTION PAPERReflection PaperEn Tseh WangLehigh University peculiar(prenominal) Education 332 (Education and Inclusion of Individuals with Special Needs) has been enlightening for me as a secondary mathematics educator. In the beginning of the semester, my feelings towards spare program line were those of apathy and in esthesia. I now understand that my feelings were due to my drop of knowledge and my judgment based on stereotypes.I always knew that making fun of students with breeding disabilities was wrong. However, I never felt that inclusion of special education students in general education classes was plausible or made sense. I felt that special education students belonged in their own classrooms and that is why we have special education educators.As a prospective secondary mathematics educator, I felt that it was unfair that I would have special education students in my classes. I would rationalize my attitude by saying that I signed up to teach normal st udents, and that the special education students were non my problem or responsibility. I did not want to deal with them. I did not see them as individuals who seek meaning through learning.As a constructivist, my goal as an educator is to provide students with meaning by imparting knowledge. As I reflect on my feelings towards special education students, I ask myself why do I not see them in the same way. If they are students as well, why do I discriminate against them? Why is it, when I think about pedagogy students with learning disabilities, I get uncomfortable? It is due to my lack of knowledge of students with learning disabilities.It was not until I saw the movie (before our class) I Am surface-to-air missile, my thoughts about heap with learning disabilities started to change. The movie changed my perception that mentally challenged individuals are strange by nature because they do not seem to understand when people talk to them and is different from myself. The movie show ed me that they do comprehend information, have feelings as I do, and most importantly, that I have wrongly stereotyped their differences.This course not only gave me the knowledge I needed to understand students with learning disabilities, I was also able to empathize with these students through active participation in the sensitivity activities. Participating ... ...ities and that I have done a complete one-eighty in my view of these students. There was several times where I caught myself using the term retarded, in describing something that was unintelligent. I must understand that my advocacy towards this issue will only grow if I continue to find out more about learning disabilities, to watch what I say, and to be careful when trying to teach others to change their views.Overall, I must admit that I have been blessed from taking this course. I feel that I have grown throughout the course of the class, where I once stereotyped students with learning disabilities to understandin g students with disabilities. Many people judge and associate what they do not understand, and through that ignorance is birthed. I am thankful that I have taken this class as I have become sure of my ignorance and have a deeper understanding and acceptance of those with learning disabilities, inside and outside of the classroom.ReferencesTurnbull, R., Turnbull, A., Shank, M., Smith, S.J. (2004). Exceptional Lives Special Education in Todays Schools. Upper Saddle River, NJ Pearson Education.