| Abstract [eng] |
Many children with learning difficulties are integrated into ordinary secondary schools in order to provide a successful education. So it is very important to improve education and training of special pedagogues, reorganize the curriculum and adapt it to a changing situation of educational institutions. The aim of this work is to find out how special teachers evaluate their competence to educate pupils with special needs at secondary schools. In the theoretical part of the work LR law acts, regulating special education, the preparation of pedagogues and their activity normative documents, the educational system problems, the concept of professional competencies and the concrete integrated educational requirements for competencies in the space of integrated education are discussed. A special research was done to find out the content and quality of special pedagogues’ competencies. A survey was conducted among the special pedagogues working at secondary schools of Vilnius, Šiauliai, Utena and Telšiai. The results of the research showed that according to the opinion of the special pedagogues they lack competencies to choose and adapt educational methods creatively referring to a child’s needs and strengths, to encourage pupils’ communication and collaboration in a heterogeneous group, to communicate with parents who have children with special needs. However there are competences which special pedagogues evaluate very well: to form the educational content, to coordinate the requirements of education with individual pupil’s needs and strengths, to evaluate a pupil’s abilities and determine educational needs, to communicate and collaborate with other pedagogues and specialists. The analysis of the research showed that the University, where the qualification of a special pedagogue was acquired and the work experience with children having special needs influences the quality of special pedagogues’ competency. The competence in special education acquired at Vilnius University was evaluated higher. |
