<Southeastern University Faculty | Dr. Karen Nicholas>

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Dr. Karen Nicholas
Assistant Professor of Elementary Education
E-mail Professor Nicholas

BS in rehabilitation services, Florida State University
MS in special education and diagnostic teaching, Florida International University
PhD in special education, Florida State University

Biography
Dr. Karen Nicholas came to Southeastern from Tallahassee, Florida, where she taught as an assistant professor in the School of Teacher Education at Florida State University.  During her educational career, she has held such titles as teaching assistant director, early childhood education teacher, and secondary education job placement counselor.  Dr. Nicholas is currently a member of the Phi Delta Kappa Education Honor Fraternity, Pi Lambda Theta, and the Council for Exceptional Children.

Dr. Nicholas’ dissertation is titled The Effects of Structured Writing Strategy Training on Expository Compositions Produced by African-American Postsecondary Students with Learning Disabilities. In brief, it found that structured training in written organization for college students with learning disabilities can significantly impact the quality of writing and use of supporting details in their expository works. This finding is important because it encourages teachers to include structured templates and learning strategies in the planning phase of the writing process to assist at-risk students with improving the quality of their writing. Dr. Nicholas has contributed research to or published in Reading Horizons, The Elementary School Journal, and Academic Exchange Quarterly, among others.  She has also written a book chapter, “Special Education,” for the educational book I'm a People Person: A Guide to Human Service Professions.

Dr. Nicholas is excited to teach at Southeastern because the job allows her to focus on the individual needs of her students as future teachers. Her goals for her students here are to teach them to embrace diversity and uniqueness in themselves as well as in the classrooms they will build in their careers. Dr. Nicholas hopes to impact the field of education by creating a community of educators who are creative and fun in their teaching while also sensitive to the needs of all children.

The courses Dr. Nicholas teaches at Southeastern include Educational Research, Teaching Principles and Practices, and Child Development.  Her research interests include reading and writing strategies for at-risk learners, teacher preparation program development, and study skills training.