Special Education
More than 10 percent of school-age children have diagnosed disabilities requiring special education services. An estimated 25 percent are at-risk for academic or social difficulties requiring early intervention and related services. New research is transforming our understanding of how children grow and acquire language, knowledge and skills. We also have new understandings of how children conceptualize their social, emotional and moral worlds. These discoveries have enormous implications for the development of children at risk and with disabilities.
The doctoral program is designed to prepare students to apply the research from the fields of cognitive and neuroscience to teacher training, intervention and prevention programs in education and related interdisciplinary service delivery fields.
Special Education (Doctoral)
The Doctoral Study And Applied Research In Special Education is an interdisciplinary approach to the preparation of special education scholars and leaders. The program is designed to support the development of doctoral students who possess knowledge of emerging research from the fields of cognitive and neuroscience and an understanding of its capacity to change understanding of human growth and development processes across the life span. The program incorporates the changing knowledge landscape of human growth and development by offering opportunities to translate and apply new neuroscience research for populations at risk for atypical development and learning processes. The special education curriculum and student research opportunities are aligned with developing knowledge about the plasticity of the brain and neurological processes as they relate to cognition, language and social-affective development. The course work is designed to deepen knowledge of disability in society and understanding of the response of social institutions to atypical development.
Special Education (Education Specialist)
This program provides advanced professional preparation for individuals who have demonstrated capacity for leading in the field. The program is supported by faculty expertise in the areas of infants' early childhood, emotionally disturbed, vocational, bilingual and transitional special education. The program offers four areas of concentration: leadership and policy development, personnel training, assessment and programming, and research. Supporting courses in related interdisciplinary fields across the Graduate School and University may be part of the program of study.
