COUN 512: Life-Span Development SPRING 2016 Course Instructor: Jody Giles, Ph.D. Office Hours: Wednesday 2:00-3:00 Course Description: Investigates physical, intellectual and social development throughout the life span. This course provides information regarding learner characteristics and transitions. Focus is on applications for education, counseling and related services. Students will develop competency in application of human development theory and current research to clients and the counseling profession. Knowledge and Skill Outcomes: Students will learn the following material (knowledge) and be able to accurately apply (skill): (CACREP standard met) 1. theories of individual and family development and transitions across the life span; (CACREP II. 3.a.) 2. theories of learning and personality development, including current understandings about neurobiological behavior; (CACREP II. 3.b.) 3. theories and models of individual, cultural, and community resilience; (CACREP II. 3.d.) 4. a general framework for understanding exceptional abilities and strategies for differentiated interventions; (CACREP II. 3.e.) 5. human behavior, including an understanding of developmental crises, disability, psychopathology, and situational and environmental factors that affect both normal and abnormal behavior (CACREP II. 3.f.) 7. theories for facilitating optimal development and wellness over the life span (CACREP II. 3.h.) Methods of Instruction: Primary methods of instruction will include, but are not limited to, the following: lecture (with and without PowerPoint); instructor and student facilitated discussion of material; application of material via class activities, case scenarios; weekly quizzes and a comprehensive exam may be included. Analysis and Synthesis of material will be assessed with the Grow your Own Human assignment. Student presentations will also be used to assess student comprehension and application of developmental stages to counseling practice, and to facilitate peer learning via analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of material.
Required Text: Newman, B. M., & Newman, P. R. (2014).* Development through life: A psychosocial approach. (12 th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. ISBN-10: 1285459962 ISBN-13: 978-1285459967 Available to rent or purchase in new & used hardcover or digital editions from online sellers, including the SIUC Bookstore and the publisher s webpage. Follow link below & enter the ISBN number in the Search box. http://www.cengagebrain.com/shop NOTE: *The 12 th edition is the most recent and is considered the text of record for this course. Students may choose to use an earlier edition, but are responsible for chapter/reading assignment alignment and content for any tests, quizzes or presentations. Additional Readings: Will be required as assigned. Please note that while some journal articles will be available on the class D2L platform, students will also be required to search for relevant articles. Student Performance Evaluation Criteria and Procedures: Attendance & Participation: 50 points Chapter Quizzes: (4 x 30 pts each) 120 points Life Stage Learning Units/Presentations: 100 points Grow Your Own Human project: 230 points Total Possible Points = 500 pts. 1. Attendance & Participation: Students are expected be on time and prepared for class. Preparation includes reading in advance of class and completing all homework assignments. A passing grade in this course requires completion of all assignments. Students may not miss more than two classes for any reason. Missing more than two classes for any reason may result in a reduction of your final grade. 2. Chapter Quizzes: Students will take 4 quizzes via SIU Online aka Desire2Learn (online.siu.edu) on assigned chapters in the Newman & Newman text (12 th edition), as well as homework, readings, class lectures and discussions. Each quiz will cover that week s readings (usually 3 chapters) and are worth 30 points. You will have one hour to take a quiz. Quizzes open on Fridays at 7am and close on Sundays at 11pm. Missed quizzes cannot be made up and will result in a score of zero, no exceptions.
3. Life Stage Learning Units/Presentations: Students will work in teams of two or more to present an interactive learning unit in class, the subject of which will be a specific developmental stage. The purpose of these learning units is to demonstrate comprehension through accurate application of developmental theory and research to professional practice. ( Professional practice may differ among students in this class, depending on a student s chosen area of study, i.e. counseling, teaching, rehab counseling, etc). The goal of the presentation to expand our understanding of your chosen developmental topic in some way, either through critical thinking, reflecting, or approaching content in a different or creative manner. Presentation Tip: While a brief overview of a chapter s content may be a necessary and focusing- component of a presentation, a learning unit should not be a lecture covering the text content. Teams will probably have to make decisions about what content to cover and how to best engage the class in learning more about the chosen topics. Presenters must prepare for and facilitate discussion related to the topic and the learning unit. To engage the audience in the learning unit, presenters may consider using role play, video, counseling demonstration, case studies, etc to illustrate theory in action. Teams will have between 45 minutes and 1 hour for the learning units, including discussion, and are responsible for directing and timing the entire unit. All team members are expected to have an active role in the development and presentation of the learning unit. Teams must submit an outline of the learning unit components, indicating the member roles and responsibilities for every component. All team members must sign the outline prior to the presentation and submit it at the time of the presentation. How to do an Awesome Lifestage Presentation: An Annotated Case Study Grad students Shane and Tilly are conducting a learning unit on preschool age children. They decide to focus their presentation on the cognitive development of 3 and 4 year olds. However, as a school counselor and clinical mental health counselor, they know they are not likely to work directly with this age group (without specific, additional training), so they develop a presentation and interactive exercise for parents of young children. As part of their Learning Unit presentation to the 512 class, Shane and Tilly ask 6 peers to volunteer to role-play as parents attending a parent-support group at a local community center,
and ask the remaining peers to observe and make notes on the presentation, guided by two questions they provide. [Sample question: In what ways was the presentation effective (and not effective) in conveying the necessary information to the audience?] In the role play, Shane- in the role of the experienced school counselor facilitating an discussion group for parents- briefly reviews 6 characteristics of preschoolers developing cognitive ability and asks parents for examples they have observed in their own children. When one parent reports that her child is reading chapter books, Shane and Tilly demonstrate their comprehension of the developmental stage- as well as advanced counseling skills- in their appropriate response. (For instance, they affirm the parent of the rarity of such advanced reading and reassure all parents present in the group of the normal variation among children within a developmental stage.) They then give each parent a tip sheet with stage descriptions, additional resources and 5 creative ideas for encouraging and supporting young children s cognitive development. After a brief attempt at parent group discussion about the tip sheet, Shane and Tilly close down the role play after about 15 minutes, and begin processing the exercise. They ask peers who acted as parents and the peer observers to comment on the role play, including their demonstrated counseling skills. Shane and Tilly add in their own observations and reactions, noting places where they wanted to make a point, for instance, but were not able to do so. With 15 minutes left, Shane and Tilly pass handouts to their peers and ask the class to respond to 3 discussion questions about the developmental stage and future professional practice. Inspired by the previous discussion, however, Tilly says she wants to replace one of the pre-established questions with a new one. Following up on an observer s comment that most parent examples in the role play concerned children s behavior instead of cognitions, Tilly asks the class to consider if this might also be the case with parents who attend more to their young children s behavior than to their thinking processes, and what the implications are for counseling professionals. A lively discussion ensues on the interaction between the social, cognitive and behavioral domains, as well as cultural differences in parenting expectations. Learning units are worth 100 points and will be graded by instructors and peers on planning/organization, demonstrated comprehension of life stage development theory/research, accurate and useful application to counseling practice, and creativity/interactive engagement with audience. The team will be graded as a whole, therefore it is in your best interest to work together to increase member performance. 4. Grow Your Own Human (GYOH) Paper: (Assignment adapted from Dr. Crothers, SIU-C, EPSY 512 syllabus). This assignment requires you to apply lifespan theory and research to create a detailed description of the life story of a fictional human being. This is a big project, and requires a
considerable amount of writing (and thinking) time. You are strongly urged to begin writing the life story of your human being right away, and keep pace with your writing throughout the class, following the material. Furthermore, you may be asked to comment on your human being in class throughout the semester. The purpose of this assignment is to demonstrate your understanding of development across the lifespan through your thoughtful application of theory and research to a case study of your own creation. A. GYOH Assignment guidelines: 1. Begin by introducing your human. a. Provide demographic characteristics of your human including: gender, socio-economic status background, ethnicity, cultural background, family composition, parental characteristics, physical and psychological health of family members. b. Remember that these demographics characteristics will impact your developing human at each stage! For example, in the pregnancy and prenatal development, discussion will include, but is not limited to: development through the trimesters; involvement of the father (however applicable); mother s emotional state; fetal development; impact of culture on pregnancy; mother s health and nutrition; reactions to birth, etc. c. The same application of the material to your growing human will take place for each chapter up until the death of your human. 2. Apply the psychosocial stage from each chapter to your developing human. a. Application includes a (brief) accurate description of the relevant crisis and the experiences of your human that impact the resolution (positive or negative or somewhere in between) of that crisis. b. Be sure to carry through the results of a stage s resolution in a logical manner to later stages, and explicitly describe the consequences in those later stage sections. 3. Apply other relevant theories and research to your human within each stage. a. For instance, if you are describing a toddler s gender identity development, accurately reference relevant theory or research (as
discussed in our class text, for instance) when you describe the child s experiences and parental reactions. b. Do not be limited to information provided in your text. Consulting the literature can only strengthen your final project. Include all references. 4. Research and apply the concept of resiliency in at least two of your stages of development. a. Apply the concept of resiliency in a childhood stage (< 18 years old). b. And again in adulthood (>18 years old). c. Apply research-based information gleaned from at least 2 professional journal articles to support your work. Include your articles as an attachment to your final project submission. 5. Practice parsimony in your writing. a. You may find that it is very easy to write a lot of material for this project. (See #7). b. A good rule of thumb is to write no more than two pages per stage. 6. Keep a journal. a. Many students have found this assignment to be an emotional process, so keep a record/journal of how this experience has impacted you. b. This can be hand written, but please include this journal in your final submission. 7. Use APA 6 th edition style standards. a. Seriously. Use headers and sub-headers to organize your work. 8. Edit your work. a. Re-read. Ask yourself: Does this sentence make sense? Am I clearly conveying one important idea? Is it a grammatically correct sentence? b. Re-vise. Have I written a coherent paragraph? Does this paragraph continue the logical flow of ideas? Do these 5 or 6 paragraphs, taken together, convey important information about a few key ideas? c. Re-write. More question to ask yourself: Can I improve this paper? Should I get outside feedback? Would I be willing to stand in front of the class and read my paper out loud?
9. Caution: While the assignment does allow you to be creative, be careful not to get so caught up in literary creativity that you lose sight of the academic nature of the paper. a. See #5. 10. Suggestion: If you are struggling with the application of the material, it may help to interview or talk with someone who is in this stage or who has a child in the particular stage you are struggling with. If you do this, please be clear with the person you talk to that this is for an assignment and that you are not using their experience, but trying to get a clear understanding of the stage of life. Feel free to share with the person the materials from class to let them know what we are discussing. This part is not to be formally written up for your paper, but do include your thoughts in your journal. The final project is due on the final day of class. You must submit an electronic copy of your original work before class starts. Late assignments will be penalized 10% for each late day. Emergency Procedure Southern Illinois University Carbondale is committed to providing a safe and healthy environment for study and work. Because some health and safety circumstances are beyond our control, we ask that you become familiar with the SIUC Emergency Response Plan and Building Emergency Response Team (BERT) program. Emergency response information is available on posters in buildings on campus, available on BERT s website at www.bert.siu.edu, Department of Safety s website www.dps.siu.edu (disaster drop down) and in Emergency Response Guideline pamphlet. Know how to respond to each type of emergency. Instructors will provide guidance and direction to students in the classroom in the event of an emergency affecting your location. It is important that you follow these instructions and stay with your instructor during an evacuation or sheltering emergency. The Building Emergency Response Team will provide assistance to your instructor in evacuating the building or sheltering within the facility. Disability Statement If you have any type of special need(s) or disability for which you require accommodations to promote your learning in this class, please contact me as soon as possible. The office of Disability Support Services (DDS) offers various support services and can help you with special accommodations. You may wish to contact DDS at 453-5738 or go to Room 150 at Woody Hall
to verify your eligibility and options for accommodations related to your special need(s) or disability. Plagiarism Statement Submitting the work of others as your own, submitting prior work for present assignments without written permission of the instructor, plagiarism in any form, intentionally using unauthorized materials in an academic exercise, or intentionally helping another to commit an act of academic dishonesty will result in penalties ranging from a failing grade on an assignment to expulsion from the university depending on the severity of the offense. Refer to SIU Student Handbook for further clarification.