Module 1: Learning About Special Education - What did I know before module 1?

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Learning objectives of Module 1 include the opportunity to:

• explore person-first language
• comprehend the basic principles behind special education policies
• evaluate the eligibility factors and funding for high and low incidence categories
• analyze school organization’s policies for special education

Before beginning the Special Education 1 course, I knew a little. 

I was familiar with:

• the importance of person-first language -I think person-first language is important because it takes the focus off the exceptionality recognizing that a person is a person despite any differences they may have. I first heard this language when learning about children with autism in a course on Coursera. Instead of referring to children with autism as “autistic children” letting their exceptionality define them, we can recognize they are children that happen to have autism. 

•  about some charters, namely the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and their importance for equality knew everyone had equal rights as protected by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. I had completed some coursework on human rights when doing my undergraduate degree, where I scrutinized the application of human rights in Southeast Asia. These documents, as far as I know, hold the basic principles behind special education policies.

• about supplemental funding for students with designations. I knew that there were many different exceptionalities and that the BC Ministry of Education denoted a letter to each one that allocated a certain amount of funding to schools these students with designations attended.