I• A Brief History

The Department of Special Education has been well recognized as the headquarter of expertise development in the field of special education in Taiwan. The master's program was established in 1986, directed toward fostering special education professionals. The undergraduate program was launched 4 years after, followed by the doctoral program in 1992. Professor Wu-tien Wu, Ph.D., the former Director of Special Education Center of the University, was the first-term Chairperson of both undergraduate and graduate programs. Founded on the solid achievements of the Special Education Center, the Department has grown and boomed as if it had a history of more than 3 decades.

II• Goals and Objectives

A. Expertise Development

The primary goals and objectives of the Department involve fostering of teachers, researchers, and administrators in the field of special education. The Department also lends a hand to related departments, on and off campus, in offering special education programs as well as delivering on-the-job training programs for special education teachers and professionals of all education levels.

(a)Undergraduate programs: preparing special education teachers for middle schools.
(b) Master’s programs: fostering administrators and special education teachers for elementary and middle schools.
(c)Doctoral programs: developing administrators, academic researchers, and teachers for colleges and universities.
(d) Summer programs: empowering on-the-job skills and competencies of administrators and elementary/middle school special education teachers.

B. Non-Teacher Preparation

(a)Undergraduate programs: developing expertise in areas related to special education, e.g., for resource-room counselors of colleges, educational administrators, vocational counselors for individuals with impairments, and experts in special/gifted education, SOHO workshops, and assistive technology corporations.
(b) Master’s programs: upgrading techniques and competencies in related professionals (e.g., physical therapist, occupational therapist, speech therapist, and psychological therapist).

C. Academic Research

The Department encourages faculty members to engage in research works on special education and in the related fields (e.g., education and psychology). Efforts are also made toward taking initiatives in exchanging and collaborating with institutions, domestic and abroad.

D. Social Services

The Department endeavors in distributions of research findings to the public and publication of scholarly work. Faculty and staff members are encouraged to reach out to the community, advocating and, if necessary, making corrections of myths and misconceptions concerning special education.

III• Faculty and Staff

The faculty and staff of the Department consist of 22 members and 10 adjunct lecturers. Among the faculty team, 11 are full professors, 6 associate professors, 2 Assistant Professor, and 3 teaching assistants. Except for those teaching assistants, most of the faculty members had studied abroad in the United States , and Japan , to name a few, and thus have developed their international perspectives and a great variety of expertise in the field of interest.

IV• Curriculum and Instruction

The undergraduate program employs a bi-track system. Students are required to choose either “Teaching-Oriented Group” or “Non-Teaching Oriented Group.” For undergraduates in the Teaching-Oriented Group to earn the bachelor degree, they are required to complete a minimum of 138 credit hours in a period of four academic years. Among the required credit hours, 10 credits are demanded by the College of Education, whereas the rest are involved with special education, such as Practicum in Special Education and Teaching Practice in Disabilities (Mild/Severe). For those in the Non-Teaching Oriented Group, a minimum of 128 credit hours are required to be able to earn the degree. Additionally, students are allowed and, in fact, encouraged to take their minors or earn dual degrees.

The master’s degree is awarded to graduate students who have obtained a minimum of 30 credit hours and finish by a thesis. To be awarded the Ed. D., a doctoral student is required to complete a minimum of 30 credit hours, pass the comprehensive examination, publish at least one paper on a journal, have an oral presentation prior to the application of dissertation proposal, and finally complete the dissertation.

V• Features and Honors

As research is one of the highest priorities of the Department, our faculty members have demonstrated tremendous efforts in research studies. In other words, nearly 100 research projects has been recognized and approved by the National Science Council (NSC) or the Ministry of Education (MOE) in the past five years, not to mention those funded by other institutions. Most projects were also awarded by the Government; for example, 12 of the studies were awarded by NSC in the year of 2007.

In addition, The Bulletin of Special Education is a professional journal published in Chinese by the Department of Special Education, NTNU. Published its first issue in 1985 and previously issued once-yearly and twice yearly afterwards, this journal has been published quarterly currently. It was the second best education-related journal in Taiwan and was awarded the Excellent Journal by NSC in 2002. The Bulletin of Special Education is now included in TSSCI.

VI• Future Perspectives

The Department has developed a list of guidelines for future growth. On the list are enhancing teacher training programs, upgrading research, refurnishing facilities, promoting in depth curriculum and instruction, increasing the amount of books and other software resources, developing test instruments, training more professionals who take leading roles in special education, establishing international scholarly collaborations, and providing more social services.