CONT504: Special Education Part 1

Course Schedule

Course Description

This course helps you deepen your understanding of special education through equity, inclusion and anti-oppressive frameworks. You'll develop guiding principles for teaching learners with special education needs, ensuring respectful support that values individual strengths, identities and experiences. Focusing on rights-based frameworks and policies, you'll examine creating inclusive learning environments that address systemic barriers faced by learners with disabilities and marginalized groups. You’ll analyze individual education plans, the identification, placement and review committee process and support models for learners with special education needs. You'll develop practical strategies to identify and support learners using differentiated instruction and a tiered approach, centering learner and family voices. The course also covers essential transition planning strategies.

What You Will Learn and Do

In this course, you’ll have the opportunity to

• reflect on  the importance of taking an anti-oppressive approach to supporting learners with diverse needs and adopt it as a guiding principle of teaching
• address individual and systemic bias, discrimination and barriers and explore strategies to address barriers that impact accessibility of special education programs and services
• examine the disproportionate representation of learners from equity-seeking groups within specialized programs
• critique the role of the educator as the champion of inclusion
• examine disability rights-based frameworks and Ontario legislation, including The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action, focusing on how they guide educational practices and frameworks in schools
• apply a social justice approach to a school board special education delivery model and its effectiveness in supporting learners who require special education support
• understand the importance of identifying the strengths and needs of learners who require special education support
• explain the purpose of an individual education plan (IEP) and how it supports learners in the regular learning environment
• recognize ethical responsibilities related to a learner's IEP, safety plan and transition plan
• analyze about the purpose of the identification, placement and review committee (IPRC) process
• identify the categories and definitions of exceptionalities
• review and reflect on educational research and literature regarding professional practices related to special education
• develop effective assessment and teaching strategies, taking into account learner lived experiences when developing programming
• evaluate the importance of transition planning for learners
• reflect on the importance of the role of the parent or guardian in supporting learners with special education needs

Application Requirements

We will use the OCT number you provide during online registration to confirm that you are an OCT member.

Course Materials

Accommodations

Applicants who require accommodations for a specific learning need (e.g., learning disability) within their AQ/ABQ course, should click here for further information and support.

Have a question? Contact us!

Refund Schedule

• If you drop a course by the midpoint of the course, you will receive 100% of your course fee
• If you drop a course after the midpoint, before the end of the course, you will receive 50% of your course fee

For more about our refund policies, visit our Fees & Refunds page.