Overview
Welcome to Educational Psychology 351: Inclusive Education for Students with Diverse Needs. This three-credit course is designed to introduce educators and other caregivers to issues related to educating children with diverse needs in inclusive settings, to the broad span of exceptionalities that children may have, and to the field of special education as it functions in Canada.
Learning outcomes
When you have completed EDPY 351, you should be able to do the following:
- Identify and describe effective services and models for supporting students with diverse needs in inclusive classrooms.
- Describe the process of developing an appropriate individualized education program (IEP) for a student with diverse learning needs.
- Discuss characteristics, informal assessment strategies, classroom adaptations/accommodations, and effective inclusive practices for a broad range of students with learning challenges, including communication disorders, learning disabilities, AD/HD, emotional and behavioural disorders, intellectual disabilities, autism, fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, sensory impairments, and traumatic brain injury; as well as students at risk and students with gifts and talents.
- Discuss effective classroom management practices to support students with diverse learning needs.
- Develop case studies that describe how educational professionals can arrange for assessment, adaptations and accommodations, and classroom teaching and management to ensure differentiated instruction for all students with diverse learning needs in the classroom.
- Describe positive strategies for communicating with and involving families of students with diverse needs in the education of their child.
Evaluation
Your final grade in Educational Psychology 351 is based on your performance on the Planning Activity, the four section quizzes, the Elementary Case Study, and the Secondary Case Study. To receive credit for the course, you must receive a minimum grade of 50% on the assignments, and a minimum overall course grade of 50%.
| Activity | Weight |
| Planning Activity | 10% |
| Quizzes | 40% (10% each) |
| Elementary Case Study | 25% |
| Secondary Case Study | 25% |
| Total | 100% |
To learn more about assignments and examinations, please refer to Athabasca University’s online Calendar.
Materials
Digital course materials
Links to the following course materials will be made available in the course:
Smith, T. E. C., Polloway, E. A., Patton, J. R., Dowdy, C. A., & McIntyre, L. J. (2015). Teaching students with special needs in inclusive settings (5th Canadian ed.). Pearson Education Canada.
Alberta Teachers' Association. (2016). PRISM Toolkit for Safe and Caring Discussions about Sexual and Gender Minorities (Elementary Edition). Edmonton: Author.
Other Materials
All other materials will be accessed online.