Course Descriptions

EDU 5000: Orientation to the Graduate Teacher Education Program
This seminar provides an orientation to the program and technology skills necessary for successful participation in GTEP. Students will be introduced to university systems designed to provide support and services during the formal program of studies, i.e., academic advising, course materials and schedules, the portfolio process, Educator Accomplished Practices, etc., Students will learn technology skills, i.e., using email, sending attachments, navigating the Internet to locate GTEP Web sources, accessing the NSU Electronic Resources, using APA form and style, locating and using the GTEP Web site, and using WebCT for online classes. The seminar also provides students an opportunity to meet with an Academic Advisor/Enrollment Services Representative. Attendance at this non-credit seminar is required for all students entering the Graduate Teacher Education Program (GTEP). Students should complete EDU 5000 during the same session that they take their first graduate course.

CBD 502: Diagnosis and Assessment of Exceptional Students
This course introduces participants to the proper evaluation of educational and psychological assessments and the correct interpretation and use of assessment results specifically for students with disabilities. Special emphasis is placed on preparing participants to be sensitive to the social and ethical implications of assessment use.

CBD 503: Classroom Management
This course assists students in integrating teaching methods, principles of curriculum development and evaluation, and methods for dealing with student behavior in a cohesive, well-managed educational program. This course also covers techniques for communicating with parents and methods for working effectively with the school’s administrative structure. A field experience component is included.

CUR 526: Educational Research for Practitioners
This course introduces students to the concepts and skills needed by educational practitioners in accessing, critically reviewing, and designing research. These skills include the use of electronic databases, synthesizing research for application in instruction and training, developing objectives to evaluate both progress and process, and collecting and analyzing data within an educational context. Students are required to design an action research project that is relevant to their specialization.

EDU 601: Professional Seminar I
This course is designed to assist the students in understanding the portfolio process that is a program requirement. Students will become acquainted with the organization and strategies for managing the portfolio based on the Educator Accomplished, Professional, and Preprofessional Competencies for Teachers for the Twenty-First Century. Instruction will emphasize the procedures for creating, assessing, and recording of portfolio evidence.

EDU 602: Professional Seminar II
This course is designed to ensure students have completed the portfolio according to program requirements. Students will review all the portfolio evidence they created during the program to ensure that it is of acceptable quality and content as required by the Educator Accomplished Practices. The course will also include practical applications of the portfolio process to the student’s professional settings. Prerequisite EDU 601

CBD 515: Methods for Teaching Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disabilities
This course introduces preservice and inservice teachers to the historical, professional and social contexts of the field of emotional and behavioral disorders. The course integrates the multiple perspectives necessary for understanding and influencing children's behavioral adjustment, and provides information on how to plan, organize, and manage instructional programs for students in different settings.

CBD 512: Characteristics and Needs of Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders
This course involves a study of the characteristics of children and youth who are identified as emotionally and/or behaviorally disordered. Students will develop an understanding of diverse theoretical perspectives, definitions, and intervention models; symptomology and etiological factors that contribute to EBD; and the descriptive data currently used in both the literature and the professional discipline. 

CBD 508: Methods and Strategies in Behavior Management
The principles introduced in this course not only explain why certain behaviors exist, but also offer participants a methodology to produce desirable changes and improve the academic and social development of students with emotionally and behavioral disabilities.

CBD 509: Social Skills Training
This course introduces students to the interconnections between biological, cognitive, social, and emotional dimensions of emotional and behavioral disorders. The interplay of race, gender, social class, and ethnicity with factors of family structure, peer relationships, and school experiences will be examined.

CBD 514: Methods for Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities
This course introduces participants to the various educational programs and teaching strategies for students with learning disabilities Methods of managing and teaching students with learning disabilities utilizing visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile concepts in remediation are explored.

CBD 511: Characteristics and Needs of Students with Learning Disabilities
This course is designed to provide a comprehensive overview of the field of learning disabilities. Characteristics, definitions, historical perspectives, assessment, social/emotional issues and medical aspects are among the major topics covered. Special emphasizes will be placed-on theoretical and practical applications and research relating to individuals with learning disabilities from varying age-groups including young children, school-age children, adolescents, and adults (3 credit hours).

CBD 516: Teaching Mathematics to Exceptional Learners
The primary focus of this course is on teaching of mathematics to children and youth with disabilities. The overall context in which these teaching approaches are considered are the national curricular reforms in mathematics. This course primarily attends to the domains of pedagogy and its relationship to subject matter, curriculum, and pedagogical content knowledge. Specific attention is provided to teaching that responds to the reform recommendations identified by National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM).

CBD 517: Teaching Reading to Exceptional Learners
This course will concentrate on the best practices for teaching reading to students with disabilities. Participants will conduct research on literacy problems in the United States and examine reading approaches for students with reading difficulties. Understanding of best practice strategies for teaching reading will be applied through a major research project.

CBD 513: Methods for Teaching Students with Developmental Disabilities
This course focuses on the various strategies and techniques used to educate and train students with developmental disabilities. Emphasis is on normalization and the array of services available to students from infancy to adulthood. Special attention will be devoted to developing individualized program strategies for classroom organization and management, behavior change strategies, and on enhancing learning through microcomputer technology.

CBD 510: Characteristics of Students with Developmental Disabilities
This course is designed to provide a comprehensive overview of the field of developmental disabilities. Characteristics, definitions, historical perspectives, assessment, social/emotional issues and medical aspects are among the major topics covered. Special emphasizes will be placed-on theoretical and practical applications and research relating to individuals with developmental disabilities from varying age-groups including young children, school-age children, adolescents, and adults.

CBD 501: Special Education Law
This course will provide participants with a clear understanding of the Federal laws and regulations that apply to working with individuals with disabilities and their families in preschool and school settings. Legal and ethical issues, responsibilities, professionalism, and accountability of administrators, educators, and other service providers will be reviewed. Accommodations and modifications for students with disabilities will be explored. Inclusion and related issues will be discussed within the context of the laws.

CBD 504: Curriculum and Instructional Materials for Exceptional Learners
This course introduces participants to the various curricula and instructional materials used with students with disabilities. Specific suggestions for selecting, modifying, and developing appropriate curricula materials are explored for students including those with emotional and behavioral disabilities, learning disabilities, and developmental disabilities.

CBD 505: Working with Families of Exceptional Learners
This course will enable students to develop knowledge of historical influences of parents in the provision of education to children with disabilities. Participants will become familiar with past and present issues, priorities, problems and concerns facing parents of students with disabilities. Further, participants will examine the emotional stages that parents of children with disabilities frequently experience and be able to identify behavioral characteristics of the different emotions that parents encounter. Cultural factors impacting on parents’ emotional reactions will be explored. Emphasis will be placed on participants’ gaining an understanding of parents’ emotional responses to their children’s disability and enabling them to communicate and interact effectively with parents.

CBD 506: Transition of Exceptional Learners
This course will focus on the strategies, methods, curriculum, and assessment for facilitating an effective transition from school to adulthood for students with disabilities. Special emphasis will be placed on career development and independent living.

ESE 699: Applied Professional Experience in Exceptional Student Education
This course will require students to complete applied professional experiences in Exceptional Student Education in K-12 educational settings. Students will maintain a reflective journal and create a portfolio that includes samples of their students' work and the assessment instruments used to demonstrate achievement of professional and state standards, under the guidance of a certified teacher in exceptional student education
Prerequisite: 33 credits, including CUR 526

Note: Students must spend a minimum of 5 hours a week, one hour a day or 5 hours in a single day, or a minimum of 40 hours in this 8-week-long course working and interacting with k-12exceptional students and their teachers. Students are encouraged to spend more than the minimum of 40 hours working with exceptional students, and to seek a new experience in a special education setting different from the one they are familiar with.
If students enrolled in this course are teaching, this applied professional experience must be conducted outside of their classroom under the guidance of a special education teacher, and with students other than their own students.