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Makale Özeti:
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Special education is a mode of education in which specially designed instruction material
and environment is required to meet the diverse requirements of children with special
needs. In Pakistan, Open University (AIOU) exclusively initiated a program for teacher
preparation for Special Children through distance learning. This was a unique program of
its kind with no precedence of defined services for Special Teachers‘ Preparation. Dept of
Special Education AIOU - through Distance learning system, offers study/training at
graduate, masters and Ph. D. levels. Teachers are prepared in 6 specialized areas of
Visual Impairment, Physical Disabilities, Hearing Impairment, Intellectual Disability,
Learning Disability and Inclusive Education. The Open University has a well established
regional network, outreach system providing educational counseling and guiding
services to its students. University has 32 regional campuses with 86 part-time regional
coordinating officers throughout the country for providing assistance to the Regional
campuses. Over 900 study centers are established during the semester and are managed
through the university‘s regional campuses. Each student is assigned to a tutor who is a
subject specialist. To maintain consistency of on and off campus observations, University
faculty conducts reliability observations with adjunct Supervisors. Their professional
growth impacts the quality of the teaching cadre. It was for the first time in the history
of teacher training institutes of Pakistan that a teacher training program at Masters
Level in the area of Special Education was offered through distance education. This
paper gives the experiences, methodology and successes as outcome of the Distancelearning
Special-Educator Program in Pakistan. Also highlighted is the Special Teacher
Preparation Model through Distance Education System. Increased program completion
rates support the fact that Open University faculty have become better distance
educators, that more effective student support systems have been constructed, that
distance education delivery methods and technologies have improved and the remote
areas in Pakistan have become stronger partners in producing quality teachers.
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