Course content

Contents of the course includes:

• Prenatal and first year’s development of the human brain and central nervous system.
• Social, cognitive and motor development of the child.
• Behavioral analytic approaches to enhance developmental trajectories and foster learning.
• The presentation, consequences of extreme prematurity and intervention options.
• The detection and assessment of early developmental concerns.
• The basics and application of neuroimaging and other neuroscience techniques, including magnet encephalography (MEG); electro encephalography (EEG); neurofeedback and working memory training; structural, functional, and resting state magnet resonance imaging (sMRI, fMRI, rsMRI), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), molecular imaging (positron emission tomography [PET], magnet resonance spectroscopy [MRS], single -photon emission computed tomography [SPECT]; eye-tracking; and genetic analyses methods.
• The neuroscience, psychology and sociology of pedagogy using examples from creativity, mind set research, brain research of reading and neuro-education.
• The neuroscience of developmental conditions: autism spectrum disorder, language disorders, Tourette’s syndrome, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, genetic syndromes, intellectual disability, and developmental coordination disorder.

Kursplan UQ009FU (178 Kb)

Kurslitteratur UQ009FU (34 Kb)

Time Schedule

Spring semester 2020 (quarter speed, 25%)

The course will take place at Stockholm University (SU) and Karolinska Institutet (KI), with meetings on 27-29/1 (SU), 12-13/3 (KI), and 25-26/5 (SU).
*Accommodation for those student in need will be provided within the course for PhD students of the research school in Special Education but not for external course participants. You can find the course schedule here.

Contact

For any enquiries contact Director of Research Studies at the Department of Special Education, Jenny Wilder, jenny.wilder@specped.su.se

Course content

The course will have the following course content:

• Different types of study design
• Validity and reliability
• Power analysis for different designs
• Causality
• Test construction and psychometrics
• Reproducibility of analyses
• Open Science
• Pre-registration of studies
• Meta-analyses and systematic reviews

Learning outcomes

After having completed the course, course participants will be able to:

• analyze pros and cons with different designs in relation to validity, reliability, and causality
• psychometric evaluation of instruments
• write a pre-registration of a study, including power analysis
• describe different aspects of reproducibility and Open science relevant to the students’ own research
• describe the different parts of, and perform the coding parts of, meta-analysis and systematic reviews

Kursplan UQ007FU (148 Kb)

Litteraturlista UQ007FU (426 Kb)

Contact

For any enquiries contact Direct of Research Studies at the Department of Special Education, Jenny Wilder, jenny.wilder@specped.su.se

Course content

The course presents philosophies of interventions as improvement in educational and special educational research and practice. Theories and frameworks of intervention and implementation in early childhood Special Education: system theory, transactional theory, bio-ecological model, concepts of vulnerability and resilience; developmental model of early intervention; socio-cultural theory, theory of change, response to intervention, (RtI) multi-tiered framework of intervention, ICF CY as a framework for evaluation and intervention; evidence-based practices in the educational field. Implementation science and lessons learned from interventions. Typologies of early interventions: individual, group, learning environment, professional development, coaching. Examples of international and national interventions programs and studies.
Long term effects of early interventions.

Learning outcomes

After having completed the course, course participants will be able to:

• develop insight into the motives for intervention in Early Childhood Special Education
• identify strengths and challenges in intervention research and implementation
• develop awareness of ethical issues in intervention research with children and families
• gain a deeper understanding of the components of assessment, intervention and evaluation and their specificity and interconnectedness to an intervention’s theory
• synthetize common elements in various frameworks of intervention
• apply theories and frameworks of intervention to a specific topic of Early Childhood Special Education
• reflect upon the own intervention project in relation to philosophical standpoints, and established theories and frameworks

Kursplan UQ006FU (161 Kb)

Litteraturlista UQ007FU (426 Kb)

Kursbeskrivning UQ006FU (918 Kb)

Course content

The course content entails how research evidence can be generated ethically in the research process when doing early interventions and applied research in Special Education. In the course doctoral students will problematize and critically reflect about ethical dilemmas in intervention research with and about children, both in a national and international perspective. Knowledge about doing research with vulnerable groups will be reflected upon in relation to The UN convention on the rights of the child and the UN convention on the rights of persons with disabilities as these conventions forms a sound base when conducting research with and about children.

Contents of the course includes:

• Levels of children’s participation in research
• Ethical dilemmas/issues related to consent, both informed consent and passive consent
• Principles of research ethics and codes of practice for researchers
• Ethics related to intervention and control in research with children
• Understanding ethics issues when using data collection by proxy persons, in comparison with children’s own voices
• Risk, bias, ethical considerations and trustworthiness of research findings
• International comparisons in ethical issues in research with and about children
• Multicultural aspects of ethics in research

Kursplan UQ008FU (162 Kb)

Kurslitteratur UQ008FU (39 Kb)

Learning outcomes

After having completed the course, course participants will be able to:

• Identify ethical dilemmas in conducting early interventions and applied research in special education
• Develop knowledge concerning ethical principles in relation to research with and about children
• Critically reflect over ethical considerations concerning the whole research process in relation to research with and about children
• Reflect upon and compare international differences in research ethics in relation to research with and about children
• Reflect upon ethical aspects about trustworthiness when children or proxy persons are informants
• Compare ethical principles and dilemmas when using data from proxy persons and/or children
• Critically ethically reflect over the researcher’s own approach in relation to collecting data from children and proxy persons, as when analyzing the data
• Apply ethical principles and ethical aspects when using observations as data collection and reflect on validity and reliability

Contact

For any enquiries contact Direct of Research Studies at the Department of Special Education, Jenny Wilder, jenny.wilder@specped.su.se

Course content

The course gives the student an overview of basic statistic theory and methods: measurements, confidence interval, correlation, t-test, variance analysis, regression. The course gives introductions to specific methods and applications, related to research questions taken from current research, including practical work with three methods and analysis of data and interpretation of graphical or numeric outputs: for example, correlation, analysis of variance, regression, confirmatory factor analysis, non-parametrical analysis methods, single-case research methods. The topics of the seminars cover methodological issues: i.e. comparison of methods in analysis of intervention effects or differences between groups (structural equation modelling and regression approaches); myths, critique and debates on various contents (i.e. missing data, construct validation procedure, reliability and validity, factor analysis).

Education

• The course's activities will be to a large extent web based, but they include one or more on-site meetings.
• The course consists of three modules:
  1)individual module with self-paced video-recorded lectures;
  2) small group module with three workshops;
  3) whole group module with three method seminars and a final seminar.

Kursplan UQ010FU (164 Kb)

Fall 2020 Preliminary Schedule

Fall semester 2020 (quarter speed, 25%)

Please note that this is only meant to give an insight of the extent of teaching, including when it is taking place during fall semester 2020. More precise time schedule will be published at latest a month prior course starts.

The course will take place only on ZOOM with meetings as below:

September: 1/9, at 10-12, 11/9, at 9-11, 24/9, at 13-15
October: 12/10, at 13-15, 19/10, at 13-15
November: 12/11, at 13-15, 24/11, at 9-11

2021 January: Final seminar 11/1 at 10-16.30

Link to course schedule in TimeEdit

Application

Application can be made until the 18 August 2020.

The course will prioritize PhD students who are part of the Research School in Special Education, and PhD students in Special Education. Other PhD students will be accepted according to availability (the course will accept max 15 students). Send your application to course administrator Noelle Rossnahan forskaradministration@specped.su.se with your name, email address and information about your research subject and University you are attending.

Contact

For any enquiries contact Eva Siljehag eva.siljehag@specped.su.se