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With Massey’s Postgraduate Diploma in Specialist Teaching you can develop your interest in specialist teaching.
Find out more about entry requirements, fees and courses in the planning section.
The Postgraduate Diploma in Specialist Teaching gives you advanced theoretical and research-based study of specialist teaching.
This programme adopts an enquiry-based inter-professional education approach using a range of blended learning options for all students regardless of location.
There are seven specialist endorsement areas:
The Postgraduate Diploma in Specialist Teaching has four compulsory courses: core theory and foundations; specialist theory and foundations; evidence-based practice; and a practicum. The inter-professional approach allows specialist teachers in inclusive education to learn with, from and about each other within a community of practice.
Massey is ranked in the world’s top 150 universities for education in the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) ranking.
Please note that the Postgraduate Diploma in Specialist Teaching does not qualify you to be a teacher in New Zealand. If you want to be a teacher, you will also need to take a postgraduate teaching qualification. Please explore your options in our education pathways tool.
Compare qualifications and academic information across different New Zealand institutions.
“I have a lot more confidence in my own ability…”
I was born and raised in South Africa during Apartheid. I was lucky enough to be able to attend a private secondary school, and so could gain an education of the kind denied to most black students during this time. I believe the experiences of growing up during this time contributed to my desire to ensure everyone in our society has the opportunity to gain a quality education.
I moved to Aotearoa New Zealand as a qualified teacher, with seven years’ experience in a range of schools in both South Africa and the United Kingdom.
Currently I am based in Perth, WA, working with senior students in a unit attached to a Catholic School, John XXIII. The students I work with have a range of disabilities and learning difficulties.
I decided to undertake the PGDipSpecTchg as I knew that I wanted to work in the field of special needs. However, I felt that I did not have sufficient knowledge of my chosen field. It was important to learn more and find ways in which I could better support the students in my care.
I wanted to obtain a qualification in special teaching needs as I believed this would add an important academic dimension to my existing applied teaching skills. By engaging in this course I felt that the studies I undertook would assist me in unlocking the full potential of the students I have the privilege of working with.
I feel a definite sense of achievement having completed the course. In the last few years I have not only grown in my field as a Special Needs teacher, but I have developed a determination to become better and continue to provide my students with learning opportunities and experiences that will best prepare them for the future.
By the end of the programme I was putting a lot of what I had learned into practice, and definitely felt I had grown as an educator. In addition the course prompted me to undertake a great deal of research into methods and approaches that I would likely not have come across without it, and gave me the tools to critically evaluate new approaches and evidence of their efficacy to help determine the potential value to my students. I have a lot more confidence in my own ability, and this helps me when I am dealing with health professionals and therapists, as well as with other educators.
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