Course: Educational Foundations and Pedagogy of the Exceptional Child

This course examines the education of children (birth to eight years) with special
needs, along with the historical, social, cultural, and legal foundations of special education in the U.S. It
explores the causes and effects of various exceptionalities, including emotional, intellectual, physical,
visual, auditory, orthopedic, speech and language and giftedness. Techniques for differentiated learning
and universal design approaches will be analyzed; issues of ethnocultural diversity and computational
thinking in teacher education including methods for working with the families of children with special
needs are integrated into the course. This course requires 30 Hours of Fieldwork, which may be
completed through video analyses and commentaries. Please, note that school sites may not be
available for fieldwork activities due to the coronavirus pandemic; we will make reasonable
adjustments to fulfill fieldwork requirements in the course.
This is a Writing Intensive course that fulfills the WI requirement for graduation. Writing intensive
courses pay special attention to developing critical reading, writing, and analytic skills to prepare students
for college-level coursework in general. Both informal and formal writing will be designed to maximize
your understanding of the subject matter. Formal writing assignments, at least 10-12 pages total, account
for a significant portion of your grade and will include opportunities for revision.