Human Development & Fam Sci: College Student Development

Lectures, laboratories, readings, or projects relating to contemporary areas of study. Enrollment may be more than once, accumulation up to twelve hours.

Prereqs: (HDF 2610 or HDF 161 or HDFS 161) and (HDF 2890 or HDF 189 or HDFS 189) and (PSYS 2002 OR PSYS 053 OR PSYC 109 OR EDFS 3090 OR EDFS 209 OR SOC 2500 OR SOC 100 OR POLS 2800 OR POLS 181 OR SWSS 3670 OR SWSS 194 OR SWSS 164); Minimum Junior standing; By instructor permission Special Topics sections cannot have CC designations. PACE students by permission and override

This upper level HDFS seminar course is designed to introduce students to several foundational and select current theories about college student development and to the existing knowledge base regarding how college students change and grow as a result of typical college experiences from the first year of college through the last year of college. We will also examine how theories about and knowledge of college student development inform college practices. Special attention will be paid to college students' psychosocial development (including identity development) and cognitive/intellectual development through the college years, and to the design of the curriculum and co-curriculum to foster these aspects of college student development. Special attention will also be paid to examining select different groups of college students and how different incoming identities and prior contexts for development and education shape the college student experience.

This is a new course, being taught for the second time. Expected assignments for this seminar course, like almost all if not all of our seminar courses include: students are expected to complete all required readings prior to class and complete, as assigned, reading-related reflections and any other assigned activities in preparation for class. Reading-related papers will likely be required that prepare students for informed class discussions while also demonstrating this preparation to the instructor. Students are also expected to attend class sessions and participate actively in class sessions through, for example, engaging in small and large class discussions, completing assigned in class activities, and raising questions for clarification and offering general as well as critical reflection questions for discussion. It is also expected that students will engage in critical self reflection regarding their own development as college students, reflecting back on how they arrived to college and ways they have developed through college. Students will likely be required to interview another student and participate in an interview by another student as a way to create material to be used for self-reflection and analysis. Select case studies of college students may also be used. As an individual or in pairs (or trios, to be determined depending on class size), each student is expected to be responsible for facilitating half of a class session, in consultation with the instructor.

Students are expected to be evaluated primarily based upon the quality and quantity of out of class written work and other forms of out of class work completed as assigned; and the quality and quantity of in class participation, including their assigned class facilitation. While there are no exams in this class, reading-related writing assignments will likely be required as a way to prepare students for as well as assess student preparation for class discussions and activities. At times, in-class reading quizzes and other in class assessments of learning and understanding of class materials (e.g., readings; and student and instructor presentations) may be employed as a way to both motivate and assess student engagement and learning.