Special Education

Creating conditions and environments for all learners to reach their full potential are keys to making our global citizenship mission real. An Ed.D. with an emphasis in Special Education from Webster University, prepares you to better understand the developmental, socio-emotional, and academic needs of exceptional learners. With these highly developed skills and competencies you will better design programs and conduct advocacy for the academic and social success of exceptional learners. This program offers practicing educators, related service professionals, and other qualified individuals opportunities to advance their understanding of special education issues and interventions in schools, community agencies, and other clinical settings. This specialized program utilizes extensive research, modern and classical theories, and application of the knowledge learned in the classroom. This program is designed to prepare a student to enter a teaching, leadership, or researcher role in the field of Special Education. This role could be in school buildings, district offices,  universities, government settings or non-profit agencies.  

In order to meet the requirements of the program, a student must complete a total of 40 credits hours. A student must enter the program with a closely related master's degree. 

course schedule


Copy of Ed.D. with Emphasis in Special Education

content course Information

When doctoral students join a cross-listed content area course as a doctoral student, he or she will be required to complete a list of additional readings and assignments (including a research paper) at the doctoral level and participate as a discussion leader either in-person or online. The doctoral student will learn to become an educator-scholar and is therefore required to work closely with the professor to facilitate discussion, expand the course content, and assist with the management of the course. This experience will help the doctoral students build competence in classroom management at the graduate level, build rapport with professors and graduate students, and socialize into the role of a professor at the tertiary level. Special Education doctoral students take four content area courses via EDOC7000 Doctoral Module in the first year of study.

Second year coursework

This course is for increasing the doctoral students’ academic writing competence and to prepare them for dissertation writing. The course will prepare students for reading and writing academic texts extensively. It offers hands-on experience for using research databases, creating in-text citations and references with relevant software, and educating students about citation format (APA, MLA, or Chicago Style). In this course, logic-of-inquiry or systematic consistency will be emphasized. Doctoral students will read examples of dissertations and understand the role of the literature review in context. Epistemological and ontological assumptions will be explored. In addition, doctoral students will learn about the skills and strategies for writing a literature review with relevant synthetical and analytical competence.

This is a doctoral level quantitative research methods course. The course focuses on identifying the logic-of-inquiry, epistemological and ontological stances of research studies using quantitative methods. Students will learn about human subjects research, obtain the training required by the IRB, read extensively about quantitative studies published in academic research databases, What Works Clearing House, and ProQuest. Students are required to be competent in determining sample size, statistical power, generalizability, validity, and reliability upon completion of the course. Students will also have hands-on experience with JASP, understand the rationale and logic behind the statistical results, and know how to determine if a study yields significant results. 

This is a doctoral level qualitative research methods course. The course focuses on identifying the logic-of-inquiry, epistemological and ontological stances of research studies using qualitative methods. Students will be able to understand a variety of qualitative research methods, focus on case studies, ethnography, narrative studies, and grounded theory research. Students will utilize a variety of data analytical approaches such as narrative analysis and discourse analysis, as well as understand the systematicity required for data collection (triangulation) and analysis. Students will develop competence in determining the credibility and trustworthiness of a study. Data collection methods will be explored and Nvivo data analysis will be applied.  

This is a one-on-one course between a prospective dissertation chair and a doctoral student. The objective is to prepare the student to write the prospectus, which is the first three chapters of the dissertation, so that the student will be ready to defend the prospectus in the subsequent term. The student should identify the rest of the dissertation committee and obtain comments and feedback from all members regarding their prospectus before the end of the term. IRB approvals for dissertation projects which involve human subjects should be submitted by the end of the term. A final draft of the prospectus should be submitted as the final deliverable for the course. Doctoral students are recommended to work closely with the Writing Center for improving their academic writing quality. Students need to ensure that their writing will not require major editing towards the later stage of dissertation writing.

OR EDOC 7005 Research Design for Doctoral Digital Portfolio (DDP) (3)

This course is to prepare doctoral students in designing their Doctoral Digital Portfolio (DDP) with appropriate research methods. Students would have already made the decision to pursue a DDP in lieu of a dissertation. Doctoral students will explore the scholar-practitioner model in Ed.D., and the inquiry of practice that is relevant. Research design that is aligned with the inquiry of practice is examined. Upon taking the quantitative and qualitative research methods courses, doctoral students explored the foundational knowledge regarding the philosophical framing of research studies with quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods. Doctoral students will further develop the required skills for using quantitative data analysis software such as SPSS, JASP, and R, as well as qualitative data analysis software such as NVivo, MAXQDA, or Dedoose. Students will submit an IRB draft (if applicable) and a DDP proposal by the end of the course. Pre-requisites: EDOC 7001, 7002, 7003.

This course is designed for students to complete the comprehensive exam and prospectus defense. Students who pass the comprehensive exam will make advancement to doctoral candidacy. The comprehensive exam is credit-bearing (3 credits) and it will happen in the Summer; the prospectus defense should happen after the student passes the comprehensive exam and it is non-credit bearing. This is a pass or fail course. Students who pass the comprehensive exam will earn the credits with a pass. Students who fail the comprehensive exam on the second attempt will fail the course. The course creates a streamline process for students to enter the dissertation writing phase in the subsequent term or semester. Students who cannot complete the prospectus defense due to scheduling difficulty with the dissertation committee can attempt the prospectus defense in the subsequent term or semester. 

Third year dissertation credits (10)

The student works to complete the doctoral dissertation research and write the dissertation, which demonstrates the student's ability to design and conduct research on education from a global perspective. Candidates may register for 1-5 credits at a time per individual need. Candidates are required to complete a minimum of ten dissertation research credits. Prerequisite: The student must have successfully completed all other doctoral course work, passed comprehensive exams and achieved status of doctoral candidate.

The student works to complete the doctoral dissertation research and write the dissertation, which demonstrates the student's ability to design and conduct research on education from a global perspective. Candidates may register for 1-5 credits at a time per individual need. Candidates are required to complete a minimum of ten dissertation research credits. Prerequisite: The student must have successfully completed all other doctoral course work, passed comprehensive exams and achieved status of doctoral candidate.

^Students who do not complete dissertation writing with 10 hours of EDOC 8000 will take EDOC 8010 Doctoral Project Completion (1 hour) until completion. Please read our Graduate Catalog for further information: https://www.webster.edu/catalog/current/graduate-catalog/degrees/doctor-of-education.html#.YmA4kS9h2Rs 

OR Third year Doctoral Digital portfolio (10 credits) 

This course is part of a two-course sequence, EDOC 8001 and 8002, which offers scholar-practitioners guidance for completing the Doctoral Digital Portfolio (DDP). DDP is a culmination of knowledge on educational theories, research, and applications in the field. The semester-long course offers lectures, seminar discussions, and learning exchange forums. During the semester-long course, doctoral candidates begin their research, data collection (if applicable), and analysis of their DDP projects. Doctoral candidates may choose to complete an individual DDP or group DDP. All DDP topics and methods need to be approved by the instructor. This course is a credit (CR) or no credit (NC) course. Students must have passed the comprehensive exam before taking this course. Pre-requisite: EDOC 7005.

This course is the sequel of EDOC 8001, which offers scholar-practitioners guidance for completing the Doctoral Digital Portfolio (DDP). DDP is a culmination of knowledge on educational theories, research, and applications in the field. The semester-long course offers lectures, seminar discussions, and learning exchange forums. During the semester-long course, doctoral candidates continue on their research, data collection (if applicable), analysis of their DDP projects, and completion of the DDPs. Doctoral candidates may choose to complete an individual DDP or group DDP. All changes in DDP topics and/or methods need to be approved by the instructor. This course is a credit (CR) or no credit (NC) course. Pre-requisite: EDOC 8001.