Rationale

To show my understanding for this standard, I have included a Developmental Interview Project from my EDCC 510: Human Growth and Development course. This was a very involved project that allowed me to build a case study on a person whom I suspected to have developmental problems, whether it be physically, cognitively, or socially/emotionally. I then conducted an interview with the learning disabled student whom I chose regarding the different areas of his development while trying to pinpoint where his developmental issues lie. I thusly documented recommendations regarding how my subject should continue living and growing as a person to get back on track, developmentally speaking. I also reflected on this experience so that I could apply what I learned to further situations. My work building a case study and creating a developmental plan for this individual shows my understanding of this standard in that I targeted the similarities and differences in human development and the characteristics between and among individuals with and without exceptional learning needs while showing my understanding of how exceptional conditions can interact with the domains of human development and using this knowledge to respond to the varying abilities and behaviors of individuals with ELN. This experience gave me a solid grounding on how I should further understand the development and characteristics of my learners in an individualized manner.

Action Research Tutoring Project

This Tutoring Project was done in accordance with best practice action research and was conducted for my EDCC 605: Educational Measurement and Evaluation course. I feel that this artifact illustrates my understanding of this standard because of the nature of how I met with the student that I tutored multiple times and documented his development of the skills that I was tutoring. For this particular project, I pinpointed a student who required tutoring in a specific area, namely organizational skills, and developed a course of action to help him better develop these skills. Every time I met with my student, I had to make sure that I based my theory and implementation off of our previous session to ensure that I was properly meeting the needs of the student. I had to research theory and practice, log each session, reflect, and ultimately chart and track my progress teaching my student the organizational skills. I had to consider my student as a unique human being and gear my teachings to how my student learned as an individual. This project has helped me to consider my students’ individuality and development while also preparing me for further action research.

Case Study

This Case Study of a Learning Disabled student was done for my EDTE 637: Preparation of Individualized Learning Prescriptions class. It involved me finding a child in need of an Individualized Educational Plan and researching his background, family history, educational history, behavioral history and aspects, etc. so that I could build a case study to later create and IEP for this child. This artifact is an example of my understanding of this standard in that I garnered a better grasp of how the experiences of individuals with ELN can impact families, as well as the individual’s ability to learn, interact socially, and live as a fulfilled contributing member of the community. I also had to track this child’s development so that I could understand what experiences made him who he was and how I could best create a plan for his successful future. As a special educator, I deal with IEPs everyday, and this assignment helped me understand how to better create and utilize IEPs.

Developmental Research

I included this combination of research done throughout my EDTE 629: Teaching Students with LD & ED class to demonstrate my understanding of development and characteristics of ELN learners. The topics of my research include risk factors, adaptive and assistive technologies, and definitions of learning disabilities and emotional disturbance. This research shows that I understand how exceptional conditions can interact with the domains of development and that how I will use this knowledge to respond to the varying abilities and behaviors of my special needs students.