The Ph.D. in Special Education is intended for students interested in special education, deaf education, or early intervention. The program requires a minimum of 69 credit hours beyond the master’s degree, and it emphasizes four areas: generating knowledge to help shape the future of the field; sharing knowledge with others so that they can understand it and use it to improve their practice; facilitating strong professional relationships through collaboration; and creating, interpreting, and implementing special education policy and procedures. Students in the SES doctoral program are required to successfully complete all listed course work. Additional course requirements are determined on an individual basis and in consultation with the student’s major advisor and advisory/dissertation committee.

For information regarding deadlines and requirements for admission, please see https://grs.uncg.edu/programs/.

Degree Program Requirements

Required: 69-81 credit hours

Course List

Code	Title	Credit Hours
Doctoral Seminars in Special Education (15 credits)
SES 753	Issues and Trends in Special Education	3
SES 755	Critical Review of Special Education Literature	3
SES 757	School Reform and Leadership in Special Education	3
SES 758	History and Future of Specialized Education	3
SES 759	Grant Writing in Special Education	3
Research/Inquiry (27-30 credits)
SES 760	Single Subject Research Design	3
SES 765	Advanced Qualitative Research for Specialized Education and Related Professionals	3
SES 775	Directed Research 1	3-6
ERM 780	Intermediate Statistical Methods in Education	3
ERM 781	Design and Analysis of Educational Experiments	3
ERM XXX	A third quantitative methods course (3 credits) 2	3
TED 730	Qualitative Methods in Curriculum and Instruction	3
TED 738	Mixed Methods Research Design in Curriculum and Instruction	3
TED XXX	A second qualitative methods course (3 credits) 2	3
Professional Practice (6-12 credits)
SES 761	Coaching and Supervision of Teaching and Learning (required)	3
SES 763	College Teaching & Adult Learning Theory (required)	3
ERM 741	Evaluation of Educational Programs (optional)	3
ERM 752	Applied Educational Evaluation (optional)	3
Specialization (9-12 credits) 3
Select a minimum of 6 credits from courses in a related area of interest		6-9
SES 749	Internship in Specialized Education	3
Dissertation (12 credits) 4
SES 799	Dissertation	12
Total Credit Hours		69-81

¹

May be repeated once.

²

Selected with advice and approval of the student's doctoral committee members.

³

Students are expected to work closely with the major advisor and advisory/dissertation committee members to identify a set of courses in a related area of interest that forms a specialization, including an internship. This course work may be in the areas of counseling, educational leadership, teacher education, early childhood, family studies, psychology, or others.

⁴

Each candidate for a doctoral degree must prepare and present a dissertation that focuses on some aspect of special education, that is, in one of the three areas noted above (early childhood, special education, deaf education). This product must demonstrate independent investigation and a synthesis of the skills learned in the program. The dissertation must be acceptable in form and content to the student’s dissertation committee and The Graduate School.

Required Milestones*

• Residency (Immersion)
• Plan of Study
• First Year Review
• Research Competency
• Comprehensive Exam (Written & Oral)
• Dissertation Proposal
• Admission to Candidacy
• Dissertation Defense
• Filing the Final Approved Dissertation

*

General information about milestones for doctoral programs is available in Section III of the Graduate Policies page in the University Catalog. For information about how milestones are accomplished for a specific program, please refer to the doctoral program's handbook.