Scientific Collection «InterConf», (39): with the Proceedings of the 8th International Scientific and Practical Conference «Science and Practice: Implementation to Modern Society» (December 26-28, 2020) at Manchester, Great Britain

preparation. The competency-approach is widely used in both systems as a 
fundamental one. Nevertheless, all around the world highly qualified teaching staff in 
higher educational institutions creates new methods and renews the old ones to foster 
professional skills obtaining by prospective special educators.

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4. System of retraining and licensure of special education teachers. Until recently 
Ukrainian teachers have had almost no experience in obtaining teaching certificates. In 
order to begin one’s pedagogical career, a teacher needed a diploma issued by a 
teachers’ college or university. Nowadays the system of obtaining licenses is 
introduced to the society, thus not obligatory. On the contrary, the US system of 
teachers’ licensure is well developed in each state by professional associations. In order 
to earn a special education teacher’s certificate with American Board, a person is 
required to obtain a bachelor degree (in some states – a master’s degree) plus the 
passage of certain state certification tests. All states have standards related to this type 
of certification, and the process for getting certified varies from state to state. 
Obviously, licensure providing experience is valuable for Ukrainian educational 
system. 
5. Informative and scientific subsystem of special education system is rapidly 
developing in both countries due to advanced digital technologies used to manage all 
kinds of activities within the field, to announce the coming events and opportunities or 
to promote the last findings. In connection with the coronavirus lockout the usage of 
informative subsystem has increased greatly. Any problem within the subsystem 
becomes obvious, dramatic, and calls for improvements, mostly those connected with 
distant education of both: initial special education teachers and students with 
disabilities.
6. Subsystem of special education teachers’ pre-service preparation and in-field 
practical work management. The principal items defining American system of special 
educators’ preparation are less subjects to study, mentoring, and a sufficient amount of 
in-field experience in comparison to Ukrainian one. Outlining the mentioned items 
should become a goal for our further research work.
7. Financial and economic subsystem of training and retraining of special 
education teachers. The difference in governmental funding of the preparation of 
special educators in the USA and Ukraine could be explained with the social and 
economic problems that Ukraine faces within the last years resulting in the level of 

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modern digital technologies development and usage differs dramatically. Human 
Development Index signifies the existence of problems Ukrainian government has to 
deal with to overcome inequality for every citizen.
Meanwhile US special education implies quality assurance of diversified 
placement types approved by the law, Ukraine is on the way of reforming educational 
system by introducing full inclusion as the only type of placement in mainstream 
schools and reducing the number of special schools. The main innovation in Ukrainian 
teachers’ training system is canceling government funding for preparation prospective 
special education teachers on generalized instructional programs. Since 2020, there are 
only five instructional programs (either for bachelor’s or for master’s degrees) eligible 
for government funding: teaching individuals with visual impairments, with hearing 
impairments, with orthopedic impairments, with intellectual impairments and speech 
pathologists’ preparation. Traditionally, a speech pathologist is an educational 
profession in Ukraine. Naturally, such specialists should have obtained professional 
competences for correction of language and speech impairments and for teaching 
individuals with the named impairments. Having analyzed the special features of two 
different special education systems and having outlined the criteria for comparing 
special education teachers’ preparation systems in the USA and Ukraine, the further 
stage of our research is implementing the mentioned criteria to prove their 
effectiveness.