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The Exceptional Students and Elementary Education (ESEE) program is one of a small number of merged elementary and special education programs in the nation. The ESEE Program is designed to provide the knowledge and skills to plan, implement, and assess instruction for children with and without disabilities in diverse K-6 classrooms. The program is grounded in culturally relevant pedagogy, universal design for learning (UDL), response to intervention (RtI), co-teaching, and evidence-based practices (EBPs). These topics will be covered extensively in courses as content, be modeled by faculty as they co-teach university courses, and candidates will be expected to demonstrate understanding and skill with these techniques in their field settings.
The Center for Research on Education, Diversity, and Excellence (CREDE) Hawai‘i Project promotes educators’ use of research-based strategies of effective practice for culturally and linguistically diverse students. These strategies are derived from Vygotsky’s theory and over 30-years of research from the national CREDE project. The ESEE Program has adopted the CREDE standards as a part of the culturally relevant pedagogy and this skill set will support candidates in meeting diverse needs in the classrooms of today.
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) UDL is a set of principles for curriculum development that give all individuals equal opportunities to learn. UDL provides a blueprint for creating instructional goals, methods, materials, and assessments that work for everyone--not a single, one-size-fits-all solution but rather flexible approaches that can be customized and adjusted for individual needs (CAST, 2015).
Response to Intervention (RtI) is a multi-tier approach to the early identification and support of students with learning and behavior needs. The RtI process begins with high-quality instruction and universal screening of all children in the general education classroom. All candidates will participate first hand in the RtI process in semester one field experience. Candidates will be providing tier II reading intervention for a student whom the schools have identified as at-risk for reading failure using a universal screener. Candidates will continue to learn about the RtI framework to integrate assessment and intervention within a multi-level, school-wide prevention system to maximize student achievement and reduce behavior problems.
Co-teaching is two or more people sharing responsibility for teaching some or all of the students in a classroom. It involves the distribution of responsibility among instructors for planning, instruction, and evaluation of students. Some say co-teaching is a creative way to connect with and support others to help all students learn. Others say that co-teaching is a way to make schools more effective. Co-teaching has been likened to a marriage. Partners must establish trust, develop and work on communication, share the chores, celebrate, work together creatively to overcome the inevitable challenges and problems, and anticipate conflict and handle it in a constructive way (Friend, 2008). The field of education is increasingly collaborative and all educators must collaborate with a variety of other professionals and many teachers will be asked to co-teach during their careers. The ESEE Program will ensure that candidates leave with the skills necessary to use collaboration and co-teaching to meet the educational needs of their students. All courses will be co-taught and the program utilizes an apprenticeship model where candidates co-teach with their mentors during semesters two and three field experiences and semester four student teaching.
In education the term Evidence-Based Practice is used both as a noun and as a verb. As a noun an evidence-based practice is an intervention that is based in science. As a verb evidence-based practice is the disposition of a practitioner to base the selection of their interventions in science. Teacher candidates will learn how to utilize specific evidence-based practices (EBPs) during the program as well as credible sources for identifying EBPs to meet the needs of diverse learners (Cook, 2015).
Instructional technology will be utilized within the program, during the two years of the ESEE Program each teacher candidate will be issued an iPad mini for their personal use. Faculty will strive to demonstrate how to utilize instructional technology to enhance learning, candidates will utilize this device and other forms of instructional technology as a student as well as an instructor in their field settings.
Upon program completion, qualified candidates will be recommended for initial teacher licensure in BOTH Elementary (K-6) and Special Education (K-6).
This website provides information for faculty, mentor teachers, and candidates to assist them in the successful partnership necessary to prepare knowledgeable, effective, and caring educators for the future.