The personal philosophy paper gives students an opportunity to critically evaluate their professional and personal views of serving children with disabilities, examine the course of their professional training to date, and demonstrate their ability to choose research-based strategies specific to certain disabilities.

Write a 3-page paper Reference page is an additional page, not included in aforementioned requirements. Please adhere to page limits–points are deducted for exceeding page limits. The paper must be double-spaced, typed in a 12 point Times New Roman font with 1” margins all around. References must be cited in the body of your paper, as well as included in a reference page at the end of your paper. Citations & the reference page must be in APA (6th ed.) style (no abstract, title page or running head is necessary).

At least two references must be included to document your sources in this paper. One reference must be one of our textbooks and the others must be from a peer-refereed professional journal (not a book, web page, magazine, newspaper, etc.) published no earlier than 2013. You must use original sources, rather than secondary sources, i.e., you cannot use information from an article referenced in another publication, but must access the original publication yourself. You must paraphrase. Do not use direct quotes. The source for paraphrased material must be cited in the body of the paper using APA parenthetical citation. Failure to do so constitutes plagiarism.

USE THESE REFERENCES:

Heward, W., Alber-Morgan, S., & Konrad, M. (2017). Exceptional children: An introduction special education (11th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

The personal philosophy paper must include the following sections, and the following subheadings are preferred:

Students I Desire to Serve

Provide a description of the type of students you believe you would like to work with or teach at this point in your training (age/level, disability) and provide a rationale for your choice. You must choose a specific IDEA disability category rather than all students with disabilities. This will help focus your search for instructional strategies.

Instructional Strategies

Provide complete descriptions of two research-based instructional strategies you plan to use when you work with these students, and why, with documentation: (a) fully describe the strategies and give an example of classroom use; (b) cover how they address specific weaknesses and/or utilize the strengths of your chosen population; (c) provide scientific evidence (numerical data on the results of the study) of the strategies’ effectiveness; and (d) Provide proper APA citation for each strategy.

Extended Professional Skills Desired and Plan for Acquisition

Extended professional skills are those that reach beyond the skills and competencies required for licensure. Include a description of two extended professional teaching skills you hope to acquire to best serve your students and a concrete plan of action describing when, where and how you will acquire the professional teaching skills that you have described.

Personal Philosophy of Education

Include a statement of your personal philosophy of general or special education, including a reflection on serving diverse populations. Please see the prologue (p. 2) & postscript (p. 559) of the Heward textbook for suggestions on developing a personal philosophy of special education.

SPED 400/500 Personal Philosophy Paper Rubric

Description of the type of students I desire to teach at this point in training (age/level, disability) and rationale for choosing this population.	Response omitted the rationale and/or description. (0 – 1 point available)	Response included required description but provided a weak or inadequate rationale. (2- 3 points available)	Response provided required description and a well-reasoned rationale. (4 points available)
Description of 2 proven effective instructional strategies that will be used with these students. Make sure to: · fully describe each strategy and provide an example of classroom use of the strategy · describe how each strategy addresses a specific need of the chosen population · provide scientific evidence of each strategy’s effectiveness with the target population · provide proper APA citation for each strategy	Response omitted more than two of the following: a complete description, classroom usage, how the strategy supports the population’s needs, scientific support, and appropriate APA citations (0 – 9 points available)	Response omitted no more than two of the following: a complete description, classroom usage, how the strategy supports the population’s needs, scientific support, and appropriate APA citations (10 – 11 points available)	Response met all descriptive and citation requirements. (12 points available )
Description of 2 extended professional teaching skills that you desire to develop/refine and a plan(s) of action that describes how you will obtain the specified professional teaching skills.	Response described professional skills that were not beyond licensure and/or did not provide a reasonable plan for acquisition. (0 – 1 point available)	Response described one professional skill beyond licensure and provided a reasonable plan for acquisition. (2 – 3 points available)	Response described two professional skills beyond licensure and provided a reasonable plan for their acquisition. (4 points available)

Statement of personal philosophy of general or special education.	Statement was not thoughtful and/or did not provide a reflection on the instruction of students with diverse needs (0 – 1 point available)	Statement was provided but neglected to include reflections on the instruction of students with diverse needs (2- 3 points available)	Statement was thoughtful and included reflections on the instruction of students with diverse needs (4 points available )
References on reference page are formatted in APA style according to Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th edition only). In-text reference citations are formatted in APA style according to Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th edition only).	References on reference page and in-text citations evidenced more than 2 errors in APA 6th edition style. (0 – 5 points available)	References on reference page and in-text citations evidenced 1-2 errors in APA 6th edition style. (6 – 7 points available)	References on reference page and in-text citations conform to APA 6th edition style. (8 points available)
Response is well written (e.g., academic tone, proper grammar, spelling, punctuation, and conforms to formatting and source requirements).	Response evidenced more than 2 errors in writing competence. ( 0- 5 points available)	Response evidenced 1 -2 errors in writing competence. (6- 7 points available)	Response met all writing competence requirements. (8 points available)
Your score

Scoring Guide: Target: 40 points; Acceptable: 30-39 points; Unacceptable: <30 points