The purpose of this study is to examine perception of Chinese teachers who teach
students with visual impairment on qualification standards as teachers of the visually
impaired. This study evaluated efficacy and qualification of total 206 teachers who
had a teaching certificate and more than three years field experience from 10 local
sense impairment schools and visual impairment schools in Zangxi, Chongging, Sandong,
Zhejiang, Anhui, Xuzhou, Nanjing, Yangzhou and Shenzhen, China. The findings are as
followed;
First, the evaluation of importance for qualification of Chinese teachers for visually
impaired students showed a very positive result, and in the areas of the qualifications,
the area of teaching strategy had the highest score but that of diagnosis and evaluation
is the lowest. The evaluation of importance standard of 30s teacher is the highest, but
50s teacher is the lowest. And teachers with normal eyes showed better recognition
of importance than the teachers with impaired eyes, and teachers who had less than
3 to 5 years of career and less than 5 to 10 years of career in special education had
the highest score of teaching strategy, teachers who had less than 10 to 20 years of
career and more than 20 years of career in special education had the highest score
of student’s development and characteristic.
Second, the teachers showed positive result for self-evaluation in following 9 areas:
basic knowledges for special education, communication, teacher’s proficiency and ethics,
student’s development and characteristic, diagnosis and evaluation, teaching strategy,
teaching plan, study environment and interaction, and collaboration. Especially, communication was given high score for self-evaluation, but diagnosis and evaluation relatively low.
And male special education teachers had better high score than female teachers in
self-evaluation. The teachers with normal eyes had higher self-evaluation in communication,
collaboration and the teachers with impaired eyes had higher self-evaluation in teacher’s
proficiency and ethics. The teachers 30s had higher self-evaluation in proficiency and
ethics, and those with assigned positions showed higher self- evaluation compared to
general teachers. And teachers who had less than 5 to 10 years of career in special
education had higher self-evaluation compared to those of less than 3 to 5 years.
Third, the teachers for visually impaired students in China showed higher score in
overall proficiency for teacher’s qualifications but self-evaluation was low.
Providing an opportunity to examine perception of Chinese teachers who teach students
with visual impairment on their efficacy and qualification standards as teachers of the
visually impaired, this study may have implications for Chinese education and training
programs of teachers who teach students with visual impairment.