How a short in-service teachers’ professional development course provide hand-on experience and knowledge of indvidualized education planning and students with autism

This chapter reports a case study in Hong Kong of how to design the curriculum of a professional development course in order to allow the in-service teachers to have handson experience both in individualized education planning (IEP) and intervention skills on students with Autism. Research has suggested the importance of teachers' professional development in order to help them acquire skills in handling children with Autism. However, the core problem of most of these professional development programs had to do with its short-term and top-down transmission model, which did not provide teachers with ample opportunities to acquire hands-on experiences. Furthermore, little room has been left for teachers to reflect on their practice after applying the newly acquired knowledge. In response to this, the authors developed a case based fieldwork model to build up the teachers' competence in writing up IEP, as well as trying out various strategies to help the students with Autism during the interventions. The purpose of this chapter is to identify the key factors in helping the teachers to lead the whole process of IEP and intervention successfully. Factors including the collaborative mode of professional development, on-site practice, mentoring system, continuous assessment emphasizing teachers' reflection will be discussed. This chapter will shed light on the delivery mode of professional development of teachers in special education. Copyright © 2016 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.