Master Degree Curriculum

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Curriculum of M.Ed. in Special Needs Education

2018-01-23, (Hits: 8821)

Curriculum of M.Ed. in Special Needs Education

Office of the Dean

Faculty of Education

Tribhuvan University

Kathmandu

2015

Acknowledgement

Two-year Master of Education (M.Ed.) in Special Needs Education (SNE), a new academic programme started from March 2015, is designed to produce high level human resources required for governmental and non-governmental organizations and universities. Specially, the graduates of this programme will work as teacher educators to teach SNE courses at Bachelor level in different campuses and as experts at different agencies under Ministry of Education, and national and international non-governmental organizations.

This programme is jointly conducted at Central Department of Education, Kirtipur by Faculty of Education, Tribhuvan Univeristy/Nepal and Changwon National University/South Korea under Leading University Project for International Cooperation (LUPIC). The project has been providing technical as well as financial support to develop courses and run the academic programmes. A concerted effort was made to develop SNE courses in several stages. As an initial stage of course development, needs of Special Needs Education teachers and coordinators of assessment centres were assessed through workshops held in Biratnagar and Pokhara as well as from special and integrated schools. On the basis identified needs and consultation of literature on Special Needs Education, required courses were prepared by subject experts and then, were fine-tuned in a workshop after thorough discussion. After further refinement of those courses by incorporating the suggestions given by Subject Standing Committee of Early Childhood Development, Primary Education and Special Needs Education, these courses were submitted to Faculty Board of FoE for approval. Again, after incorporating the suggestions of Faculty Board, those courses were submitted to Academic Council. Upon the approval of Academic Council, these courses have been implemented as per TU rules and regulations.

More importantly, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Prof. Dr. Heera Bahadur Maharjan, Vice-chancellor, Tribhuvan University and Prof. Dr Chan-Gyu Lee, President, Changwon National University for signing Memorandum of Agreement to launch LUPIC under Tribhuvan University. Similarly, I gratefully acknowledge the contribution made by Prof. Dr Dae Young Jung, Changwon National University to get financial support from Ministry of Education, South Korea for implementing LUPIC. In the same way, special thanks are extended to Prof. Dr Arbinda Lal Bhomi for coordinating the project activities including course development for M.Ed. in SNE and its launching at Central Department of Education, Kirtipur and Ms. Boreum Kim & Hayun Lee, the Project Managers, LUPIC for providing managerial support to operationalize the project activities in Nepal including financial matters. Special thanks also go to Prof. Dr Basu Dev Kafle, Head of Special Needs Education and Prof. Dr Shiva Ram Neupane, Assistant Dean, Faculty of Education for providing support to develop and implement SNE courses. Thanks are due to Dr Bishwa Bala Shah Thapa, Dr Baburam Dhungana, Dr Shovakhar Aryal and Mr Ramchandra Giri for developing SNE courses. Finally, I would like to thank the staff of Dean's Office, Faculty of Education for facilitating the project activities.

Prof. Dr Prakash Man Shrestha

Dean

1. Introduction

Special Education in Nepal was commenced in 1967 A.D. with the operation of integrated education programme for blind students at Laboratory School, Kathmandu. Prior to it, some teachers of Laboratory School and some students of College of Education were provided with training on teaching blinds. Later, the effort for the planned development and expansion got momentum with the implementation of National Education System Plan (1971-1976). The formation of Special Education Council in 1973 was one of the outcomes of this plan. However, it could not develop and expand as expected because of several reasons such as less understanding of importance of special education by government and social sector, lack of human resources, lack of physical and instructional facilities and inadequate financial resources etc. In spite of these shortcomings, School for Deafs under Bal Mandir (Children’s Home) for deaf children, Khagendra Navjeewan Kendra (Khagendra New Life Centre) for blind and disable children, Nirmal Child Development Centre for intellectually disable children were established in non-government sector to provide special education to deaf, blind and, physically and intellectually disable children outside the formal school structure. Those centres were manned with teachers trained within the country and abroad.

Faculty of Education (FoE), the recent form/identity of College of Education established in 1956 had first prepared teachers for special education programme in late 1960s. Until the last decade of 20^th century, significant progress has not been made in the field of Special Needs Education under teacher education because of lack of specialized teacher educators. This lacking was filled up when seven senior faculty members of FoE came from the US after completing their M.S. in Special Education from the University of Oregon. With their active involvement, three courses were developed to provide at Three-Year B.Ed. and One-Year B.Ed. level. However, these courses were not found to have implemented in three-year B.Ed. Rather, one-year B.Ed. in Special Needs Education (SNE) has been operation since 2003 exclusively at Central Department of Education, University Campus, Kirtipur. A separate Department of Special Needs Education was established at Central Department of Education to run B.Ed. in SNE. However, this programme could not run effectively and extensively because six faculty members with M.S. in Special Education had got compulsory retirement and only one of them is working in the Department of SNE. A part time teacher is also working to run one-year B.Ed. in SNE. Hence, there is an acute shortage of human resources/teacher educators who can run M.Ed. and B.Ed. in SNE. Similarly, there is an extreme need of human resources in the field of SNE who can organize short-term training for government officials and school teachers.

Considering above scenario, it was realized that in order to run B.Ed. in SNE, it was necessary to prepare teacher educators who can teach SNE courses at B.Ed. level in the campuses/colleges of different part of the country. For this, M.Ed. in SNE programme is being launched with the financial and technical support of Changwon National University under Leading University Project for International Cooperation, South Korea

2. Aims and objectives

The major aim of Two-year M.Ed. in Special Needs Education Programme is to prepare theoretically and practically competent human resources who will work as teacher educators, government officials and NGO workers to provide services to the children with different types of disabilities.

The major objectives of this programme are as follows:

To prepare professionally sound special needs education teachers and teacher educators for Nepal
To produce efficient educational planners, administrators, managers, supervisors and other educational experts required for the development of special needs education in Nepal
To enhance ability by researching communication, hearing impairment, multiple disorders, physical disability, emotional and behavioral disorder, learning disorder and intellectual disorder as well as therapeutic teaching, educational evaluation.

3. Entry Requirement

Graduates who have Bachelor of Education from TU and equivalent degree from recognized higher education institution in any subject can apply for M.Ed in Special Needs Education.

4. Entrance Test

Examination Section of Dean’s Office, Faculty of Education will develop and administer entrance test. The test includes items related to professional education courses and special needs education.

5. Structure of Two-Year M.Ed. in SNE

M.Ed. in SNE consists of 69 credit hours. Its course structure is given in Table 1.

Table 1: Course Structure and Number of Courses in Each Semester

S.N.	Nature of courses	Semester				Sub total	Total Credit
S.N.	Nature of courses	1^st	2^nd	3^rd	4^th	Sub total	Total Credit
1.	Professional/Core Courses	2	2	2	1	7	3 credit hours x 7 courses = 21 credit hours
2.	Specialization Courses	4	4	4	1	13	3 credit hours x 13 courses = 39 credit hours
3.	Practicum	-	-	-	1	1	3 credit hours x 1 course = 3 credit hours
4.	Thesis	-	-	-	1	1	6 credit hours x 1 thesis = 6 credit hours
Total		18	18	18	15	22	69 credit hours

6. Professional/Core Courses

The professional/core courses to be offered in four semesters are presented in Table 2.

Table 2: List of Core Courses

S.N.	Code No.	Course titles	Credit hrs.
1.	Ed.511	Foundations of Education	3
2.	Ed.512	Measurement and Evaluation in Education	3
3.	Ed.513	Advanced Educational Psychology	3
4.	Ed.521	Curriculum Practices	3
5.	Ed.522	Education and Development	3
6.	Ed.531	Measurement and Evaluation	3
7.	Ed.532	Research Methodology in Education	3
Total			21

7. Specialization Courses

The details of specialization courses to be offered in four semesters are presented in Table 3.

Table 3: Structure and Cycle of Specialization Courses

First Semester

Second Semester

Third Semester

Fourth Semester

1. Psychology and Individual Differences

2. Fundamentals of Special Needs and Inclusive Education

3. Socialization and Communication Skills

4. Learning Diversity and Disability in Inclusive Classroom

1. Education for Children with Visual Impairment

2. Education for Children with Deaf and Hard of Hearing Impairment

3. Assessment of children with special needs

4. Theories and Practices of Behavioural modification

1. Assistive Technology in Special Needs Education

2. Instructional Techniques for Special Needs and Inclusive Education

3. Education for Children with Multiple Disability

4. Emotional, Behaviour and Autism Spectrum Disorders

1. Sports, Cultural and Recreational Activities for Special Needs Children

Multiple Intelligence Approaches to Teaching Children with Special Needs

2. Practicum

3. Thesis

Note: The courses mentioned in above table are developed for those students who study SNE from the beginning. When B.Ed. in SNE from TU will be produced, those courses will be revised to maintain vertical integration with special education courses of B.Ed.

8. Evaluation

Students will be evaluated during and at the end the course work. The evaluation system for theoretical courses is as follows.

8.1 Internal Assessment 40%

The concerned teacher will carry out the internal assessment of the students as per distribution of points stated below.

· Attendance	05 points
· Participation in learning	05 points
· First assessment	10 points
· Second assessment	10 points
· Third assessment	10 points
Total	40 points

8.2 Semester/Final Examination 60%

Examination Division, Dean’s Office, Faculty of Education will conduct semester/final examination at the end of each semester. The distribution of points for the types of questions to be asked in final examination is as follows:

· Objective type questions (10 Multiple choice items x 1 point)	10 points
· Short answer questions (6 questions x 5 points)	30 points
· Long answer questions (2 questions x 10 points)	20 points
Total	60 points

9. Thesis Writing and Evaluation

Thesis writing in M.Ed. in SNE is compulsory. Only those students who have passed all the courses of the first to third semesters will be allowed to undertake thesis writing. Students are required to complete all the requirements and follow all the procedures as mentioned in 'Thesis' course. The thesis has to be written under the direct supervision of the Faculty Member of the Campus /Department. Departmental Research Committee will constantly monitor the progress of the students in his/her thesis work to ensure the quality of thesis.

10. Practicum

Practicum is the integral part of the M.Ed. in SNE. It is designed to provide opportunities to student to actually participate in the activity of the campuses or the higher secondary schools. Each student is required to complete three activities classroom teaching, internship including case study and organizing seminar. This practicum course is carried out within or after the fourth of the programme for six weeks. Only those students who have passed all the courses of the first to third semesters will be allowed to participate in practicum.

11. Instructional Techniques

Instructional techniques in this programme will be the combination of several techniques. Class lecture, group discussion, demonstration, guest lecture, seminar, term paper , case analysis, problem solving, practical experience, field work and so forth are used according to the nature of courses to ensure active participation of the students and to make the teaching–learning research-oriented.

12. Teaching Hours

Two-year M.Ed. in SNE consists of four semesters. Each semester will be of 5 months. The teaching hours for courses depend on the nature of course whether it is fully theoretical, or theoretical and practical, or fully practical. Most of the courses are of 3 credit hours. One credit hour in theoretical courses carries 16 teaching hours and hence theoretical courses of 3 credit hours will have 48 teaching hours. For fully practical and partially practical courses, one credit hour will have 32 to 48 teaching hours depending upon the specialization areas.

13. Certification

Four-semester M.Ed. programme extends over two academic years. M.Ed. degree is awarded on its successful completion.

14. Attendance and Evaluation System

Minimum attendance in accordance with the university regulation is required (i.e. 80%) in each subject in order to be eligible for semester examination.

At the end of each semester, Examination Division of Dean’s office, FoE will conduct the final examination. Each student must appear in and pass all those examination in order to qualify for M.Ed. degree.

15. Grading System

Below is the grading system being applied in the semester system of FoE.

Grade	Grade Point Average (GPA)	Equivalent Percentage Based on Individual Paper Marks	Remarks
A	4.00	90 and above	Distinction
A-	3.70 to below 4.00	80 to below 90	Very Good
B+	3.30 to below 3.70	70 to below 80	Good
B	3.00 to below 3.30	60 to below 70	Fair
B-	2.70 to below 3.00	50 to below 60	Pass in individual course
F	Below 2.70	Below 50	Fail

First Semester Courses

	Course Title	Nature/Credit	Course Code
Core Courses	Foundations of Education	Theoretical(3)	Ed. 511
Core Courses	Advanced Educational Psychology	Theoretical(3)	Ed. 512
Specialization Courses	Fundamentals of Special Needs and Inclusive Education	Theoretical(3)	SN.Ed. 515
	Socialization and Communication Skills	Theoretical(3)	SN.Ed. 516
	Psychology of Individual Differences	Theoretical(3)	SN.Ed. 517
	Learning Diversity and Disability in Inclusive Classroom	Theoretical(3)	SN.Ed. 518

Second Semester Courses

	Course Title	Nature/Credit	Course Code
Core Courses	Education and Development	Theoretical(3)	Ed. 522
Core Courses	Curriculum Practices	Theoretical(3)	Ed. 521
Specialization Courses	Education for Children with Visual Impairment	Theoretical(3)	SN.Ed. 525
	Education for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing	Theoretical(3)	SN.Ed. 526
	Assessment of Students with Special Needs Education	Theoretical(3)	SN.Ed. 527
	Theories and Practices of Behavior Modifications	Theoretical(3)	SN.Ed. 528

Third Semester Courses

	Course Title	Nature/Credit	Course Code
Core Courses	Measurement and Evaluation	Theoretical(3)	Ed. 513
Core Courses	Research Methodology	Theoretical(3)	Ed. 531
Specialization Courses	Assistive Technology in Special Needs Education	Theoretical(3)	SN.Ed. 535
	Instructional Techniques for Special Needs and Inclusive Education	Theoretical(3)	SN.Ed. 536
	Education for Children with Multiple Disability	Theoretical(3)	SN.Ed. 537
	Emotional, Behaviour and Autism Spectrum Disorders	Theoretical(3)	SN.Ed. 538

Fourth Semester Courses

	Course Title	Nature/Credit	Course Code
Core Courses	Contemporary Issues in Education	Theoretical and Practical (3)	Ed. 541
Specialization Courses	Sports, Cultural and Recreational Activities for Special Needs Children	Theoretical and Practical (3: 1T+2P)	SN.Ed. 545
Specialization Courses	Multiple Intelligence Approach to Teaching Children with Special Needs	Theoretical(3)	SN.Ed. 546
Practicum	Education for Children with Multiple Disability	Practical(3)	SN.Ed. 543
Thesis			SN.Ed.