Special Education Degrees

Teaching special education requires additional courses and training than general education teaching. Through a special education degree program you will gain the special skills to teach students with special needs.

Introduction to Special Education

Special education teachers work with children and youth who have a variety of disabilities. Special education teachers modify the general education curriculum to meet disabled children?s specific needs. Special education teachers work in a variety of settings. As a special education teacher you may have your own classroom and teach only special education students, or you may work with special education students for a few hours a day in a resource room, separate from their general education classroom.

As a special education teacher, you will learn and use various techniques to promote learning among students with varying disabilities, and, depending on the severity of the child? disability, you will be in charge of designing and teaching appropriate curriculum that will best help your students to learn and develop.

Special Education Degree Programs

Many colleges and universities across the United States offer programs in special education at the undergraduate, master?s, and doctoral degree levels. Training to be a special education teacher may require you to undergo longer periods of training than if you chose to study general education alone. In addition to general education and teaching requirements courses, additional courses taught in a special education degree program would likely include such topics as educational psychology, child growth and development, as well as courses that will provide you with the specific skills and knowledge you will need for teaching students with various disabilities.

Job Requirements/Opportunities

There are excellent job prospects for qualified special education teachers. Although some states do require a master?s degree in special education to teach special education in schools, most states only require you to have completed a bachelor?s degree program in addition to completion of an approved teacher preparation program, as well as proper teaching credentials, such as a teacher?s license, in order to qualify for a teaching position in special education.