Profile

In research and teaching, the Institute of Special Education represents the field of education, training and rehabilitation of people living with development difficulties.

The research tasks consist of:

• The analysis of developmental impairments
• The conception, testing and evaluation of models to improve educational processes and social participation of people under difficult developmental conditions
• The analysis, development and evaluation of action competences in special educational contexts
• The reflection of scientific theory on the construction of special educational concepts and theories
• The historical reappraisal and comparative analysis of special educational fields of work

In teaching, the Institute of Special Education has the task of preparing students for in-school and out-of-school activities based on research findings in very diverse areas of special education. The course prepares students for special educational activities which are based on research and which are ethically justified. Special needs educational action is determined by historical, political, economic and cultural conditions and aims to improve these conditions in the sense of humane coexistence. The study of special education is intended to convey that special educational action is part of a comprehensive effort to understand, respect and promote the development of people of the most diverse individual and cultural identities.

This view of the subject of special education requires special educational knowledge and methods to be developed within the framework of theoretical analyses. This view also requires that self-awareness and self-reflection are called for and promoted during the course of studies. Competence in special educational action is promoted by forms of work that require students to participate responsibly in teaching and in selected areas of special educational practice and enable them to form individual priority areas. The teachers of the Institute coordinate their courses in a cooperative discourse.