Special Education (Intervention Specialist)

Many school-aged children in the United States cannot benefit from the standard curriculum that schools offer. Because of physical, mental, behavioral, learning, or sensory differences, these students require special services to help them learn. Special education is designed to recognize these differences and to set up individualized instructional plans.

As a special education major at Miami, you will take courses in behavior management, career and life span education, communication with parents, assessment, and overview of exceptionalities. You may select an area of emphasis in gifted, mild to moderate, moderate to intensive, or early childhood intervention.

Miami's special education program leads to a Bachelor of Science in Education with an Ohio four-year provisional certification in two of the above areas of special education. With some additional course work, you can also become certified in early intervention or obtain a double major/minor option with early childhood education.

Many students choose Miami's special education program because the program can be completed in four years. You are able to concentrate on special education specifically and the program is small enough for you to get to know the faculty well. You have direct contact with your professors and a variety of options to choose from within the field of special education.

You'll have practical field experiences in classroom settings beginning your sophomore year. You can also get valuable experience in the Miami chapter of the Student Council for Exceptional Children, an active service organization that attracts students in many disciplines.

Education at Miami

For nearly a century, Miami University has been offering programs to prepare teachers for the classroom. Today's preparation focuses on meeting the needs of contemporary schools, families, and communities. Our teacher education programs are widely recognized for their quality, and teacher education ranks among the top 10 programs at Miami for the number of majors.

Distinctive Features

Extensive classroom experience: Our teacher education program gives you more classroom experiences than most programs at other universities. Early in your second year, you get a feel for teaching by spending time in school classrooms. In methodology of teaching classes, you spend a quarter of the term in schools, working directly with teachers. And during the semester of student teaching, you are regularly visited by a Miami student-teaching supervisor for consultation and guidance.

Multicultural experiences: During your methodology field experiences, you will interact with students of various cultural backgrounds, gaining familiarity and skills in working with different ethnic traditions. This range of experience will be helpful as you look for teaching positions, since the most successful graduates are those who are most flexible in where they locate.

Student teaching abroad: A very popular option at Miami is our Student Teaching in Europe Program where you teach in English with an American-style curriculum. Programs are available from kindergarten through high school in Department of Defense Dependents Schools that serve children of U.S. military and civilian personnel stationed in Europe. International schools and Luxembourg may also be used for placements. These are private schools serving children of English-speaking and international communities living in or near large urban areas.

In all our international programs, you receive the same quality of supervision as you would student teaching in the United States. You are supervised by a Miami University faculty member, and you work under the guidance of a cooperating teacher at the school where you teach.

Licensure Programs

In many of Miami's education programs, you can choose to earn either the Bachelor of Science in Education, the Bachelor of Arts, or the Bachelor of Science degree.

All degrees require the same core of education courses, field experience, and student teaching. The difference is in other degree requirements: the Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science, because they are liberal arts degrees, require additional liberal arts courses (including a foreign language); the Bachelor of Science in Education does not have these additional requirements.

Enrollment Restrictions

Some programs have enrollment restrictions to ensure high quality experiences for all enrolled students. If you are interested in special education, please call the Department of Educational Psychology at 513-529-6621 for more information about enrollment policies.

Foundation Courses

All teacher education programs take place within the Miami Plan for Liberal Education. Through the plan's foundation courses, you hone skills such as thinking critically, understanding contexts, reflecting and acting, and engaging with other learners. These courses are in the broad discipline areas of English composition, fine arts, humanities, social science, world cultures, natural science, formal reasoning, and in the social foundations of education. The principles and content of the foundation are the basis for the professional education sequence and the content specialization.

Professional Education Sequence

Teaching requires such knowledge as the characteristics of learners, social structures of schools, families and communities, assessment techniques, classroom practices, law, statistics, electronic support systems, curriculum, and resources.

In the professional education sequence, you investigate this knowledge and combine it with extensive experiences in a variety of schools. As you progress through the professional education sequence, you spend increasing time with experienced teachers in a variety of urban, suburban, and rural schools. Your experiences will range from helping individual students in the schools to being responsible for an entire classroom of students.

Teaching Licensure

Each of the teacher education programs is accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education, and the State of Ohio.

While Miami participates in licensure of teachers through an interstate agreement, if you are planning to teach in another state, you should contact that state's certification office so you can apply for certification or licensure in that state.

For More Information

For general information about Miami University, please contact:

Office of Admission
301 S. Campus Ave.
Miami University
Oxford, Ohio 45056-3434
513-529-2531 (v/t)
www.muohio.edu/requestinfo

For specific information on the Special Education major, please contact:

Office of Student Services
School of Education, Health, and Society
200 McGuffey Hall
Miami University
Oxford, Ohio 45056
513-529-6418
eap@muohio.edu
www.muohio.edu/eap/departments/ted/ted.htm