Undergraduate Program of Study
The Special Education Department recently redesigned its program to meet both a new Illinois certification system and Illinois Learning Standards. Prior to this redesign, the department reviewed surveys and comments from students, faculty, and others in the field. It was decided to add a number of content method courses to provide a better foundation for our teacher education candidates when they take special education methodology courses, as well as to learn how to adapt curriculum, lessons, and assessments to meet the needs of all kinds of learners. The new program has reading, math, science, and social science methods courses, as well as an adaptive physical education course. Through further collaboration between methods instructors from the various Western Illinois University departments, it was agreed that students would benefit from taking science and math methods courses together and reading and social science methods courses together. Now candidates will have the opportunity to learn to teach across disciplines as well as within disciplines. This new program has also been designed to emphasize collaboration between the general education teacher and the special education teacher in the delivery of quality instruction for a variety of learners.