Examining Research-Based Solutions

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Research to Solve Problems in Professional Practice

Xavier Williams

Research to Solve Problems in Professional Practice

My field of professional practice involves interacting with special needs children and youth on a daily basis. It requires adequate training especially since special needs children and youth require unique guidance and instructions so that they can achieve their greatest potentials like others. The profession also requires individuals to be patient, dedicated, caring and understanding to the needs of the children. Without these qualities, it may be difficult to navigate the challenging and busy environment of a special needs teacher. This is mainly because the profession sometimes requires teachers to work with children with severe emotional, physical and cognitive disabilities. The job requires teachers to teach life skills and basic literacy while ensuring that everyone reaches their potential. In most cases students require individualized learning experiences hence the teacher must be able to modify the curriculum to suit their needs.

The two most significant problems in my profession that may benefit from educational research include how teachers can go about non-instructional responsibilities while handling other responsibilities and how they can deal with multiple disabilities. Although special needs teachers have been adequately trained to deal with the dynamics of special needs children, they easily become overwhelmed by other activities such as classroom assessments and attending meetings all while taking care of the needs of students. Dealing with multiple disabilities is even a bigger challenge and this forces teachers to modify their strategies and provide individualized learning. Unlike most professionals, they experience a higher rate of burnout hence the need for solutions to issues that affect them (De Stasio et al., 2017). I am interested in examining these issues so that special needs teachers can be more productive in their mandate.

References

De Stasio, S., Fiorilli, C., Benevene, P., Uusitalo‐Malmivaara, L., & Chiacchio, C. D. (2017). Burnout in special needs teachers at kindergarten and primary school: investigating the role of personal resources and work wellbeing. Psychology in the Schools, 54(5), 472-486.