There is a great deal of concern in respect to the increase autism prevalence rates. Teachers are responsible for teaching students in their classrooms. However, research findings suggest that special education teachers are underprepared and express 'low" to "moderate" levels of knowledge about autism. Analysis of several databases revealed no studies concerning levels of knowledge about autism among pre-service special education teachers. The presented study aimed at investigating pre-service special education teachers' levels of knowledge about autism. A test was developed for the purpose of this study. Further, a sample of 56 pre-service special education teachers responded to the study test. Participants were enrolled in a training session of 12 hours, 4 times a week. The participants responded to pre-and posttest. Results indicated that the levels of knowledge among the study sample was within the "low" range. However, this shifted toward the "moderate" levels after finishing the training. Additionally, there were no differences between male and female participants and year level in respect to the levels of knowledge about autism either before or after receiving the training. The participants differ in the levels of knowledge on GPA rating in the pretest results, but not the posttest results.

One of the most important factors in the success of educating children with special needs is the quality of the special education teacher. While teachers are responsible for a plethora of duties, it is important that teacher preparation programs provide adequate training to ensure teachers are well prepared for the teaching profession. However, previous research has found that teachers are not being adequately trained and consequently, they are experiencing problems within the classroom. Therefore, the current study aimed to investigate whether the gender of the preservice teacher, type of disability being taught, type of training institution, the university that the preservice teacher attends, and the number of hours credited for practicum training effects on the presence of five problem domains: training institution, problems related to university program, trainers/instructors, practicum plan and its requirements, and preservice teachers; and whether there was overall differences on the presence of the problems in general.A survey was developed and distributed to preservice teachers completing their practicum in four public universities in Jordan. A total of 148 responded to the survey. Different statistical procedures were used to investigate the study's questions. Findings suggest the existence of differences between groups on types of disability being taught, types of training institution, university student currently attending, and number of hours credited for practicum training. Results were discussed and recommendations were made.