Browsing by Subject "opettajan tuki"

According to research, teachers starting their careers face many challenges in the school world, one of which is the challenging behaviour of students. Previous studies have also shown that, in order to survive the first years of work, teachers need the support of others. The purpose of this study is to examine the experiences of special education teachers at the beginning of their careers relating to working with students with challenging behaviour. The study examines how special education teachers build their competence when dealing with students who behave in a challenging manner. The study also examines what kind of support special education teachers at the beginning of their careers need when working with students with challenging behaviour. The research data was obtained by interviewing five special education teachers at the beginning of their working career. They had a maximum of three years of work experience, and all of them had graduated with a master's degree in special education. The interviews were conducted as semi-structured interviews and the collected data was analysed using data-based content analysis. The results of the study show that the special education teachers felt insecure about their own competence when working with students who behave in a challenging manner, especially as newly graduated teachers at the very beginning of their career. Through work experience they felt that their competence had developed. The special education teachers starting their careers built up their competence in working with students with challenging behaviour with the help of work experience, work community, education, model learning, self-reflection and knowing their students. They needed support especially in dealing with violence, intervening in bullying, dealing with students' psychological symptoms, cooperating with different parties, limiting the amount of work and building self-confidence. Support was required from work communities, mentor teachers, university studies, the schools’ operating cultures and further education. The most important conclusion is that teacher training should be developed in such a way that it would give more competence in dealing with the challenging behaviour of students. The support of the working community should already be present in the structures of every school and working community, so that it is available to all special education teachers from the beginning of their working career.