学部における障害児教育教員養成のカリキュラムに関する研究

Recently in Japan, there has been a movement towards merging the three kinds of special education teacher certificates into a single "General certificate". As a result, the teacher-training curricula of undergraduate and graduate courses have to be modified. This study investigated the contents of curricula that are presently used in special education teacher training courses in Japanese universities. A questionnaire about the contents of teacher training course criteria was sent to 47 faculty offices. 31 responses have been received. As compared to our (Hiroshima University) course, we noted a series of differences in constructing the curriculum. One of the differences was the total number of units required for obtaining the elementary school certificate in the graduation criteria. The reason for this is that many faculties have their own criteria. Also, in those faculties students must obtain the first-grade elementary certificate, while in our course they do not, because the number of units for liberal education is higher. It is also suggested that the concepts of special education subjects and the number of subjects made available to students might influence the contents of the study in one specific field of special education.