Vocational Special Needs Teacher Education (in Finnish)

Vocational special needs teacher education is further education intended for the teachers of vocational institutes. Basic teacher education and vocational teaching experience are the basic entry requirements. The education constitutes 60 credits and is organised as multi-mode education lasting for three semesters. The education provides the qualification for special needs teaching within vocational education.

The education is implemented as alternating periods of in-class study and distance study. The programme consists of development projects related to special needs teaching, assignments and teaching practise.

All the elements of special needs teacher education are interlinked with regard to content and time, and are completed with summarizing assignments. The various stages of the education may be very individual and include personal focuses, because students’ backgrounds, competences, and expectations vary considerably.

The renewed programme of special needs teacher education includes a more comprehensive interpretation of the large-scale expertise of vocational special needs teachers. It also seeks to develop each student’s work and operating environment on a practical level. This implies the aim of becoming deeply aware of one’s own philosophy of special needs teaching. These objectives are reached through thematic entities. The content and proceeding of the themes are based on students’ growth into the profession through a research on their own work.

Further information

Katariina Jouhiaho, Study Advisor, +358 40 752 5358, firstname.lastname@jamk.fi
JAMK University of Applied Sciences

Teacher Education College in Finnish