TEACHING IN AN EXTRA MILE: “TINGUHA” - A LOOK AT THE EXPERIENCES OF SPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHERS IN THE NEW NORMAL
Abstract
The disruption caused by COVID-19 presented challenges in face-to-face educational settings for learners with special needs and disabilities. Besides, teachers needed support in making their lessons adaptive and responsive to the learning of students with special educational needs. Based on a descriptive approach, this paper discussed special education teachers' experiences as they change over to distance learning in this new normal. This research attempts to structure an accurate framework of special education teachers' explicit attitudes and experiences. The approach that followed for this study was a descriptive approach that provided a cautious framework of special education teachers' explicit attitudes and experiences. Results showed that special education teachers had varying experiences while implementing their teaching in the new settings of education that were influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic. They require more support, work tools, innovation, flexibility, and unlimited efforts they offer the learners. Moreover, teachers assisted parents in controlling children with disabilities through online facilitation of communication, homeschooling, parent engagement, psychological safety, and empathetic language strategies. The general essence is that teachers of students with special needs needed to connect with and establish relationships to tailor their teaching to fit the needs of the learners, and in the end, it was durability.
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