Chris Francl will be presenting a lecture titled “Autism: Identifying Effective Practice” as part of a series designed to create solutions to issues in the field of education.
The lecture is scheduled to take place Tuesday, Feb. 3 from 4:15 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in the Teacher Education Center, room 1005.
“The presentation on autism is part of Issues in Contemporary Education,” said Dr. Kathleen Campbell, associate professor of educational leadership. “Issues in Contemporary Education is a series of professional development sessions for university faculty, sometimes students and for P-12 educators. Formerly called Conversations in Leadership, it has widened its approach from a focus on educational leadership to educational issues in general.”
According to the presenter biography provided to supplement the lecture, Francl currently works as a program facilitator with the Louisiana Autism Spectrum and Related Disabilities Project. Throughout her career, Francl has designed training programs for educational professionals to increase competency in teaching children with autism and other disabilities. Francl’s upcoming lecture is designed to show educators how to identify evidence based practices as well as provide access to current research on autism spectrum disorders.
“Educators should always be up to date on the latest strategies/technologies in their field in order to be an effective educator,” said Campbell. Campbell hopes the lecture will address “characteristics of autism, how a special ed teacher or even a parent can help students progress, latest developments in autism research [and] important information about autism advances, especially since an unprecedented number of kids is being diagnosed with autism.”
Though all are invited to attend, the lecture is primarily aimed toward graduate-level educational professionals.
The lecture will be hosted by the Department of Educational Leadership and Technology, home to Southeastern’s master’s and doctoral level education programs.
“Both Ed.D. and M.Ed. are refining, offering relevant courses for their students and evolving,” said Campbell. “The M.Ed. principal preparation distinguishes itself in that we bring our program to the school districts to provide access to quality principal training to many who would otherwise not have such access because of the distance involved. Word of mouth testifies to the success of our program because school districts now call us up and request that we begin a cohort in their school districts. The Ed.D. program is always self-analyzing and self-studying in order to deliver relevant and rigorous coursework.”
Refreshments will be served at 4:15 p.m. The presentation is expected to begin at 4:45 p.m. and end at 5:15 p.m. Following the presentation, a Q&A/Discussion will take place until 5:30 p.m. For more information or to RSVP, contact Campbell at [email protected].