Undergraduate students' choice of special education programme as a career

Abstract

This study examined the undergraduate students' choice of special education programme as a career. A descriptive survey research method was adopted for the study. A total number of 100 undergraduate students from the special education department were randomly selected across the levels (100 to 400 levels). One research question was raised and two hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance, and the following were established: Majority of the respondents chose special education as a career education as a career willingly, also most of them chose special education as a career because of their interest for people with disabilities. A few of them however were constrained to choose special education because they could not meet up with the cut off of their initial course of interest. The t-test comparison analysis of male and female undergraduate students' choice of special education showed that the choice of special education as a career is not gender sensitive; and The t-test comparison analysis of undergraduate students with private and public school background showed no significant difference. In view of the above findings, recommendations were made that more awareness programmes should be mounted to enlighten the society about special education. Career talk given in secondary school to students should also be extended to include special education programme

International Journal of emotiaonl psychology and sport ethics Vol. 8 2006: pp. 81-88