MS Special Education Domains of Study

Areas of Study Within the
Master of Science, Special Education Program

The WGU Master of Science in Special Education program content is based on research on effective instruction as well as national and state standards. It provides content and pedagogical knowledge related to preK–12 teaching. The Master of Science in Special Education program content and training processes are consistent with the accountability intent of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEIA) of 2004 and the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLBA) of 2001. The Master of Science in Special Education program includes appropriate and rigorous subject-matter preparation and research-based pedagogical course preparation.

The following section includes the larger domains of knowledge, which are then followed by the subject-specific subdomains of knowledge.

Foundations of Special Education Domain

Research Fundamentals Domain

The research fundamentals domain prepares students to conduct research and also to become informed consumers of research. Your studies in this domain will include the following:

Foundations of Research
Focuses on differentiating between different research paradigms, including qualitative, quantitative, and action research.

Literature Reviews for Educational Research
Focuses on selecting an appropriate research topic, evaluating the reliability of primary and secondary source information, and conducting a literature review.

Research Proposal
Focuses on developing a research proposal that includes the literature review, research questions, methodology, and data analysis.

Issues in Research Fundamentals
Focuses on developing a research strategy that clarifies what data to collect and how to analyze it using descriptive and inferential statistics.

Assessment, Evaluation and Management Practices Domain, Part I

Assessment, Evaluation and Management Practices Domain, Part II

Professional Planning, Design, and Development

Instructional Design Domain

The Instructional Design domain prepares students to identify an instructional problem and design the blueprint for solving that problem using various principles of instructional design. Your studies in this domain will include the following areas

Instructional Design Theories
This course focuses on creating effective and efficient instruction.

Analysis
This course focuses on using analysis of needs, learners, and tasks in order to define the instructional problem.

Issues in Instructional Design
This course focuses on learning theories, cultural sensitivity, task analysis and design theories for creating effective, well-articulated, and efficient instruction.

Instructional Design Production
This course focuses on the application of a systematic process of instructional design, namely the concepts and procedure for analyzing, designing, developing, and evaluating successful instruction.