ABSTRACT
The skills of teaching tend to be a constant factor, despite the fact that there has been too much ‘mystery’ and ‘myth’ associated with special education and the teaching of children with SEN. It is important from the training viewpoint to be clear about the difference between the knowledge base that guides teachers’ actions and overall planning (e.g. knowledge about disability or about specific medical conditions) and teaching skills that enable the teacher to organise the learning environment and communicate with children. These are two distinct things and are both important but it must be said that the teaching skills are what all teachers have in common. Good teachers in mainstream schools, given the opportunity to refer to a new or different body of knowledge to guide their actions, will have the skills to be good teachers in more specialised settings. Figure 7 illustrates this.
