EDSPX505.CAS - Closure, Ambiguity, and Stress for Students with Significant Support Needs

Course Description

Number of Credits: 1

Over three, 2-hour sessions in this course, you will examine three primary areas: 1) the basic human need for closure and how it is reflected in educational programs, 2) ambiguity and how it increases stress and impacts active engagement, and 3) strategies for providing closure and reducing ambiguity to better meet the needs of the students we serve. Participants will gain knowledge and skills for more adequately and effectively meeting the significant support needs of students with disabilities so that these students are more available for learning

Session 1: The Basic Human Need for Closure: Why We Want It, Why We Crave It, and What Happens When
We Don’t Get It

This first session will introduce the need for closure and why this need for closure may be even greater for students who have significant support needs and who may not have as many opportunities to experience closure throughout their lives. Lack of opportunities to satisfactorily experience closure may lead to increased stress, much of which can be avoided or at least minimized. This session will cover what the need for closure is, why closure is important, and the ways in which this need is reflected in the everyday lives of students with significant support needs.

Session 2: Ambiguity and Its Impact on Well-Being: What It Is, What It Does, and Why It Matters

The second session in this series will focus on ambiguity as a key component in understanding the basic human need for closure. Ambiguity makes achieving closure difficult and it also plays a significant role in our ability to make choices, predict the future, and plan accordingly. The session will cover current brain science specific to ambiguity and how might it inform us as we teach and/or raise children and young adults who have significant support needs. This session will also address the ways in which ambiguity contributes to stress and anxiety, and the links between ambiguity and negativity bias. 

Session 3: Everyday Strategies to Address Closure and Ambiguity in Order to Increase the Active Engagement
of Students with Significant Support Needs

The third and final session in the series will focus on evidence-based and emerging practices to support students’ need for closure and reduce the impacts of ambiguity through instructional planning, development of predictable routines and environments, and communication strategies that support active engagement. The session will also introduce the Familiar Five rule as a strategy for reducing anxiety and stress and promoting active engagement.

Instructor Information

Janice Carson

Phone - (208)-885-6104
Email - janicec@uidaho.edu

Course Objectives:

Participants will gain knowledge and skills to:

1. Understand the concept of need for closure and how this basic human need is reflected in a wide range of human preferences and behavior.
2. Recognize the markers and milestones of closure in general education settings and differentiate between these programs and special education programs that may not incorporate similar markers.
3. Understand the role of ambiguity and uncertainty in the decision-making process.
4. Identify ways in which ambiguity contributes to anxiety and stress.
5. Identify markers of closure that can be incorporated into classrooms or programs serving students with significant support needs in order to reduce stress among students and encourage more active engagement.