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Program Codes:
MSQSPEDAB
Master of Science
Availability: campus
Introduction
The graduate department in Special Education and Applied Disabilites Studies is designed to afford providers of educational and behavioral services opportunities to (a) refine their critical thinking and analytical skills to the highest level of proficiency necessary to attain excellence in the field, and (b) develop applied research competencies necessary to create innovations in education and behavioral services that benefit individuals with disabilities or unique learning needs. Graduate students are encouraged to become scientist-practitioners, in which they refine and redefine the links between teaching and research, theory and researchbased practice. Following a scientist-practitioner model, graduates from our program will have the unique ability to advance both the science and art involved in a meaningful careers in services for individuals with disabilities. This concentration is for graduate students who are looking to specialize in applied behavior analysis. The course sequence focuses on integrating research, basic principles, and specialized coursework in the areas of intellectual and developmental disabilities, autism, and behavioral health.
The graduate department in Special Education provides the candidate with the experiences in field-centered activities, strongly supported by the principles of evidence-based practices, effective and appropriate education, normalization, critical pedagogy, and tolerance of individual differences. Candidates are prepared to assess learning and behavioral strengths and deficits in order to help individuals grow and achieve their goals within the contexts of special education and behavioral service settings.
Mission Statement
The mission of the graduate department in Special Education is to provide current and future special education practitioners with the skills and experiences necessary to implement evidence-based practices in the helping professions of teaching, behavior analysis, and disability services. A Mercyhurst, the graduate of Special Education is prepared to create learning opportunities that allow individuals with educational and behavioral challenges to realize opportunities for self-determination and independence. Our graduates are encouraged to follow a scientist-practitioner model, serving the field in three evidence-driven ways: to incorporate research in their practice as teachers and clinicians; to produce applied research or datadriven strategies in both their graduate studies and their professional careers; and to disseminate their clinical or research endeavors through the presentation of resulting data to others in the field.
Admission Requirements
Students seeking admission to the graduate program in Special Education at Mercyhurst must meet the following minimum requirements and submit the following items:
The graduate program in Special Education operates on a semester schedule. Fall and spring semesters are each 16 weeks long. Summer session courses and advanced institutes are also offered to meet the needs of school personnel in the area. On-campus courses are offered in the evening, meeting once or twice per week. Several courses are available online. New students are admitted to the program each semester.
Accreditation
The Association for Behavior Analysis International has verified the following courses toward the coursework requirements for eligibility to take the Board Certified Behavior Analyst® or Board Certified Assistant Behavior Analyst® examination. Applicants will need to meet additional requirements before they can be deemed eligible to take the examination.
In addition to being a required Special Education graduate course for all students, this course meets the requirements of the Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) graduate certificate program, and serves as the third course in this sequence of instruction. It is also one of the three required courses in the Autism concentration/endorsement program. Instruction and related activities will cover advanced concepts related to behavioral theory, and behavioral assessment and intervention techniques related to teaching, learning, and management of aberrant behaviors within the group-oriented context of the classroom. Of particular interest will be the application of basic principles of operant conditioning to group-oriented behavioral contingencies, the development of systems support concepts to ensure that such interventions may actually be carried out, the incorporation of solid behavioral principles in teaching practices and curriculum design, strategies to develop self-management, generalization procedures, strategies to promote independence within classroom routines, and differential schedules of reinforcement. Students will have the opportunity to review behavioral assessment techniques and applications, reinforcer assessment, singlesubject research design, and data analysis. Above all, this course will focus primarily on practical applications of ABA within a group/systems context.
This graduate course will examine educational research, with emphasis placed on understanding, conceptualizing, and critically analyzing single case experimental design. Special emphasis will be placed on the application, analysis, strategies, tactics, of single case research (within, between, and combined series designs) related to educational and clinical practices, and social issues. In addition, students will learn to critically evaluate published single case research paying special attention to design, methods, visual analysis, and experimental control.
The ultimate goal of behavior analysts and classroom teachers is essentially the same; alter the environment to improve socially relevant behavior to a meaningful degree. As the professional practices available to achieve this goal are seemingly limitless, one must use a set of professional values or ethics to determine which practices are acceptable and which are not. Furthermore, educators are often presented with situations that require decisions to be made based on social values, ethical principles, and/or legal grounds. This course is designed to expose students to the legal and ethical issues that influence our professional practice. Students who successfully complete th is course will gain experience with the laws and ethics that (a)influence those practice, and (b) effect marginalized students.
Capstone Research
The Graduate Thesis is meant to establish a “permanent intellectual dis-quiet,”asking you to act and re-act, search and re-search (Freire, 1985, p.3). TheThesis is an applied, research-driven manuscript that (a) best meets the futureeducational needs of the graduate student upon completion of the GraduateProgram, and (b) serves as a graduate capstone documenting the link betweentheory/research and practice/application. The Thesis is the culminating scholarlywork, requiring the application, synthesis, and critical evaluation of yourgraduate studies. The graduate thesis must be original, research-based work.
Capstone Experience
This 210-contact hour clinical internship is designed to establish, and ultimately solidify a link between research-application/scientist-practitioner within the field of special education, with the focus on student engagement. This internship requires graduate students to (a) plan, organize, and manage the educational environment, (b) present, teach, and engage students, (c) develop educational leadership capacity, and (d) develop a critical philosophy of learning.
This 6-week (3 credit) or 12-week (6 credit) capstone experience is designed toprepare the pre-service teacher to assume full teaching responsibilities in a SpecialEducation (3 credit) or Special Education and Early Elementary (6-credit) classroom.
In this course, particular interest will be the application of basic principles of behavior analysis to group-oriented behavioral contingencies, the development of systems support concepts to ensure that such interventions may actually be carried out, the incorporation of solid behavior principles in teaching practices and curriculum design, strategies to develop self-management, generalization procedures, strategies to promote independence within classroom routines, and differential schedules of reinforcement.
Students will have the opportunity to review behavioral assessment and intervention techniques and applications, reinforce assessment, single case research design, and data analysis. Above all, this course will focus primarily on PRACTICAL applications of ABA.
This course will give students a comprehensive overview of functional behavior assessment and intervention development. Behavior analysts are often tasked with developing interventions designed to change challenging behavior. Interventions based on a thorough assessment of behavior often yield the best outcomes. To this end, students will be exposed to a variety of non-experimental and experimental functional behavior assessment methodologies. Students will be taught how to select, develop, and implement functional behavior assessments. Students will also learn how to develop interventions based on the results and findings of a functional behavior assessment. A focus of this course will be on building upon the technical and theoretical skills obtained in previous courses, and then gaining extensive practice in applying these skills to technical writing. This course will also provide students the opportunity to obtain a certificate of FBA training sanctioned by the Pennsylvania Bureau of Autism Services (BAS) by completing the video training modules developed by BAS.
The Advanced Seminar in Applied Behavior Analysis will examine the multiple facets of behavioral research and practice issues. In addition, students will critically evaluate published educational current research in the field of autism, developmental disabilities, and educational practices, while attending to research design, methods employed, and experimental control. Faculty will present recently published, current, and ongoing research and contemporary topics through a series of seminars and workshops.
One additional elective course (3 credits) with the EDSP prefix.
