Department of Special Education

National Changhua University of Education 

Department introduction:

    The Department of Special Education was established in 1975, is the first department in Taiwan to cultivate special education teachers. The master and doctoral programs of the Institute are also the first ones in Taiwan and lead the development of professions in the special education field. In the beginning, the department enrolled junior college graduates who participated in a three-year program; in 1990, the department enrolled high school graduates, and who trained through a four-year program. The department now has 8 classes to support the Bachelor’s degree (2 classes each grade, and all of them are student teachers), 2 classes that support the Master’s degree (including the Master of Individuals with Disability class and the Master of Gifted Education class), and a Doctoral class (including Disability Education group and Gifted Education group). The following is a brief description of the teachers and the performance of graduates in recent years. It summarizes the characteristics and advantages of the department itself and looks forward to the future.

    The department currently has 17 full-time professors and a number of adjunct professors. The full-time and adjunct professors have doctoral degrees from famous universities in Taiwan or abroad, and their areas of specialization include gifted and talented education, intellectual and developmental disability, hearing impairment, speech impairment, visual impairments, and learning impairments; emotional and behavioral disorders; and autism and multiple handicaps. The comprehensive and professional approach to this discipline effectively promotes high-quality and multi-disciplinary special education teaching, research, service, while leading the future development of Taiwan special education.

    Cultivation of talented secondary special education teachers, special education academic research skills and special education administrative abilities are the three major educational goals of our department. The organization of all coursework is rigorously set in accordance with these three major educational goals, and integrates "across-domains, the combination of learning and practicing, and the connection among pedagogical applications, government policy, study and research" as the practical guideline!

    The undergraduates of the Department are all student teachers. Students are required to complete the relevant credits according to the curricula requirements of the department before they can graduate and participate in teacher internships. Up to 95% of the students successfully pass the teacher certification examination and obtain certification as qualified special education teachers. In terms of career path and academic performance, most graduates choose to be special education teachers in secondary education programs. They have established a reputation for excellent performance in the workplace. A small number of graduates choose other varied careers, such as continuing onto the master or doctoral degree, entering academia, or holding a public office. Satisfaction surveys conducted by the Public Affairs and Career Development Center confirm that NCUE’s graduates from our undergraduate programs are highly valued by their employers.

    Research has established that most of our graduate students participate in internships within special education teachers in elementary, junior high or high schools, and they return to these schools to teach after graduation. Some non-major undergraduate students are able to apply for Special Educational Program for Secondary School Teachers during their study periods. They can also receive qualification as secondary special education teachers after their graduation if they pass teacher recruitment tests to become a full-time teacher in junior high or high school. The majority of doctoral students are in-service students and all serve in the universities or all levels of school system. In recent years, students from China, Hong Kong and Macao have applied for a full-time participation in the doctoral degree each year. Some non-major doctoral students are required to complete the professional foundation courses of the master's degree according to the requirements of our department. Some Ph.D. students transfer to the special education institute in college to teach after graduation, some go back to teach in their former positions, and some choose to enter special education related fields, such as cultural and educational undertakings, social welfare institutions and medical system. To enhance the research and professional knowledge of graduate students in the master’s program and doctoral program, the department actively encourages graduate students to participate in their professors’ research.in addition to engaging in rigorous peer review for their academic publications in order to qualify for graduation. Academic scholarship for on-the-job graduate students offers opportunities to combine practice application with research.

    In combination, all the above resources and professional achievements has successfully shaped the educational and quality brand of the Department of Special Education. In addition, the department has so far established the following features:

1. Graduates of this department are found in education units throughout Taiwan, and exert a strong influence on the direction of this department;

2. Professors within this department work in harmony with each other, and the department works smoothly with a high degree of consensus;

3. The Professors within the Department are consisted recognized for their excellent teaching performance and are ranked much higher than the standard set by the school in the annual university teaching evaluations;

4. The tutoring system of the department is well managed with excellent interactions between teachers and students;

5. The department has sufficient professional classrooms and facilities, and is one of the few special schools with independent departments in Taiwan. The learning space enjoyed by teachers and students is spacious and comfortable;

6. The department has excellent quality of service promotion and abundant contacts and resources in the practice field;

7. Most of the students in the department have additional specialities which makes them highly competitive in employment;

8. To cultivate special education teachers who meet the needs of the teaching classrooms, there are a lot of learning opportunities for undergraduate students to conduct educational site visits, take part in internships, and participate in field experiences;

9. The department has a special education professional proficiency assessment system for fresh graduates of the undergraduate department, which is designed to continuously assess the four-year professional competence of the graduates; and

10. The “special education journal” of our department is officially listed as a TSSCI journal on October 8, 2010, becoming the first academic journal of our school to receive this honor.

Our future is bright:

1. We strive to continue to lead the development of special education throughout Taiwan.

2. NCUE continues to invest the resources to maintain this high quality special education teacher pre-service training institute with the distinctive features that meet the demands of special education in Taiwan.

3. We are committed to advocating and leading Taiwan's special education training programs and the disability welfare sector.

4. This Department actively promotes the teaching and research of cross-school and cross-field special education.

5. As good citizens, we are committed to providing a world class educational experience that actively values the expansion of international exchanges and cooperation opportunities for students and faculty.