Initial teacher training and special educational needs

Abstract

For several years Chile has been making diverse efforts to improve the quality and equity of the educative system. There have been multiple innovations and reforms to reach greater academic achievements in students, all these focused on improving the initial teaching training program and also on stimulating students with better results to enter pedagogical careers. The studies endorse the importance of a good professor in order to obtain quality learning, and as well, teachers recognize the new and arduous labor demands. Among the challenges teachers face, it stands out being able to grant appropriate educative answers to the diversity of pupils in the classroom in a society that declares itself in favor of the inclusion. In this context, this paper presents the main findings from an investigation made on fourth year students of different pedagogical specialties at UMCE, in relation to their own academic formation in subjects related to scholastic integration, disabilities, special aids, and their corresponding pedagogical approaches.