Exceptionalities, MEd

Program Description

The Exceptionalities degree program is offered at the graduate level and provides a Master of Education (M.Ed.) degree for candidates desiring to gain knowledge and experience working with individuals with exceptionalities, but who do not seek to obtain a professional teaching license in the Intervention Specialist field. The program provides candidates insight on both high-incidence disabilities and low-incidence disabilities across multiple age ranges and how exceptionalities impact the process of learning.

Admission Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution, with a minimum cumulative undergraduate GPA of 2.7

• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution, with a cumulative undergraduate GPA between and including 2.6 - 2.69,, but with a 3.0 or better for the last 60 semester hours earned toward the undergraduate degree.

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Program Learning Objectives

Prepare candidates on:

The impact of learners’ academic and social abilities, attitudes, interests, and values on instruction and career development.
The educational implications of characteristics of various exceptionalities.
The relationship of special education to the organization and function of educational agencies.
The issues in definition and identification of individuals with exceptional learning needs, including those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
Educational implications of characteristics of various exceptionalities.
Characteristics and effects of the cultural and environmental milieu of the individual with exceptional learning needs and the family.
Similarities and differences of individuals with and without exceptional learning needs.
Similarities and differences among individuals with exceptional learning needs.
Differing ways of learning of individuals with exceptional learning needs, including those from culturally diverse backgrounds and strategies for addressing these differences.

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Required Professional Core

The following 24 credit hours of coursework are required for all candidates in the Exceptionalities M.Ed. program.

ED 6040 - Phonics and Word Study for Intervention Specialists Credit Hour(s): 3
ED 7110 - Student Learning and Motivation Credit Hour(s): 3
EDS 6510 - Foundations of Special Education Credit Hour(s): 3
EDS 6570 - Instructional and Behavioral Management for Intervention Specialists Credit Hour(s): 3
EDS 6590 - Assessment for Intervention Specialists Credit Hour(s): 3
EDS 7030 - Learners with Exceptionalities Credit Hour(s): 3
EDS 7050 - Special Education Research & Analysis Credit Hour(s): 3

Professional Electives

Choose any two of the following courses

EDS 6650 - Transitions of Students with Exceptionalities Credit Hour(s): 3
OR
EDS 6670 - Collaboration for Inclusion Credit Hour(s): 3