Learning objectives that UAlbany students are expected to attain through their course of study within their academic program.
Bachelor of Science
Human Development
a. Graduates critically assess social and cultural frameworks and the ways in which individuals, families and communities are situated within them.
b. Graduates recognize issues of equity and social justice as they impact human development.
c. Graduates think critically about developmental theories; research on issues of human development; recognize the characteristics of studies and publications that provide credible research findings; practice ethical behavior across academic, research and professional settings; apply theory to practice.
Individual Learning Differences
a. Graduates understand how ability, language, culture, and family background influence the learning of students.
b. Graduates know the psychological, social, and cultural facets of human development and learning. Graduates use understanding of development and individual differences to respond to the needs of students, showing their understanding of the commonality and diversity of patterns of development.
Learning Environments
a. Graduates create safe, inclusive, culturally responsive learning environments to engage students in meaningful learning activities and social interactions through collaboration with general educators and other colleagues.
b. Graduates demonstrate the ability to develop and apply effective, culturally responsive-sustaining procedures and proactive behavior management strategies that provide differentiated behavioral supports.
Standards
a. Graduates choose and apply current standards to design student learning (e.g., NYS Next Generation Learning Standards across content areas; Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education Framework).
b. Graduates enact teaching standards in their instruction (e.g. NCTM, NCSS, ILA classroom teacher standards, Next Generation Learning Standards).
Assessments
a. Graduates use knowledge of measurement principles and practices to interpret assessment results and guide classroom educational decisions in alignment with federal and state legal requirements.
b. Graduates use or design assessments to identify learner strengths and areas of growth across a range of skills and practices to inform their instruction and decision making.
c. Graduates evaluate the affordances and constraints of a range of assessments (e.g., diagnostic, formative, summative) to develop comprehensive assessment plans/comprehensive learner portraits and convey this information to a range of stakeholders.
d. Graduates minimize bias (e.g. racial, linguistic, ability) by selecting and/or using technically sound, equitable formal and informal assessments.
Materials, Resources, and Digital Technologies
a. Graduates evaluate, select, and integrate relevant materials, resources, and digital technologies for classroom teaching and assessment that are inclusive of cultural and linguistic diversity.
b. Graduates embed resources into authentic instruction that supports critical conversations and student inquiry.
c. Graduates foster supportive learning environments where learners draw on multimodalities to create meaning, responsive to purposes and audiences.
Engagement
a. Graduates co-create learning environments with students.
b. Graduates teach for understanding and meaning-making through inquiry.
c. Graduates provide opportunities for learners to experience learning practices as intentional, purposeful, and authentic.
Development of Literacies
a. Graduates understand the reciprocal relationships among literacy development including (but not limited to) oral language, print concepts, phonological awareness, alphabetics, decoding, vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, and writing.
b. Graduates use their knowledge of literacy development to identify a learner’s current level of performance, plan instruction, and monitor growth.
Disciplinary Literacies
a. Graduates understand the historical, theoretical, and evidence-based foundations of literacies and the role of literacies in building disciplinary practices.
b. Graduates support learners in accessing, developing, and communicating discipline specific/content area knowledge (or practices common across disciplines) including content knowledge, genre knowledge and vocabulary.
c. Graduates build disciplinary literacies over time with attention to material selection and assessment of knowledge and literacy development.
Content Knowledge in Special Education Settings
a. Graduates understand the central concepts, structures of the disciplines, and tools of inquiry of the content areas they teach (e.g., science, mathematics, ELA, social studies).
b. Graduates can organize this knowledge, integrate cross-disciplinary skills, and develop meaningful learning progressions for students.
c. Graduates understand and use general and specialized content knowledge for teaching across curricular content areas to individualize learning.
d. Graduates modify general and specialized curricula and materials to support all students.
Instructional Planning and Strategies
a. Graduates incorporate an individual’s abilities, interests, learning environments, and cultural and linguistic factors in the selection, development and adaptation of learning experiences for all learners.
b. Graduates use technologies to support instructional assessment, planning, and delivery.
c. Graduates develop and/or implement a variety of special educational plans across a wide range of settings and different learning experiences in collaboration with and/or the consideration of the perspectives of students, families, and teams.
d. Graduates teach to mastery and promote generalization of learning.
Responsive Teaching
a. Graduates plan for and enact a range of instructional approaches and practices to meet the needs of each learner (e.g. historical knowledge, vocabulary development, writing processes)
b. Graduates ensure students have equitable access to high quality, engaging, and comprehensive instruction, curriculum, and authentic learning.
c. Graduates turn learners’ attention to using productive strategies.
Data Based Decision Making
a. Graduates collaborate with colleagues to analyze assessment data and reflect on teacher practice to create instructional plans that respond to student needs.
b. Graduates critically consume published research studies to inform instructional planning and decision-making.
Learning as Sociocultural Practice
a. Graduates understand that learning practices occur across multiple contexts, not only schools, and for multiple purposes.
b. Graduates build on students’ funds of knowledge (e.g. linguistic diversity; cultural, family, and community resources) to inform instruction.
c. Graduates are self-reflexive about how their positionalities, lived experiences, and identities shape their instructional practices and teaching philosophies.
Critical Perspectives and Equity
a. Graduates create teaching and learning contexts in which students value multiple perspectives in the service of equity and social justice.
b. Graduates promote civic engagement and inspire learners to take action in local and global communities.
c. Graduates create teaching and learning contexts in which students critically consume and produce media.
d. Graduates effect change in educational inequities, including bias stemming from races, classes, genders, languages, abilities, and sexualities.
Respectful Representation of Youth, Families, and Communities
a. Graduates notice, name and build upon learner strengths and progress.
b. Graduates interact and engage with youth, families, and communities in ways that respect diverse life experiences.
c. Graduates foster empowering partnerships by learning from and with youth and families to support learners.
Professional Learning and Ethical Practice
a. Graduates use the Council for Exceptional Children’s and the New York State Professional Ethical Principles and Professional Practice Standards to guide their practice.
b. Graduates understand that diversity is a valued aspect of families, cultures, and schools, and that complex human issues can interact with the delivery of special education services.
Professional Learning Communities and Reflective Practice
a. Graduates engage in professional learning communities (PLCs) with colleagues as reflective practitioners who work to improve teaching practice. Graduates engage in reflective inquiry on practice both independently and with others to foster continual professional growth and learning progression toward more sophisticated understandings.
b. Graduates advocate for students through instructional practices and professional collaboration to promote the well-being of all students.
