HD 382 Section 901: Parent And Family Devt
Summer 2011
3 Credit Hours
Primary Instructor: Dr. Mary Curtner-Smith
This course explores the changing nature and dynamics of parent-child relationships. Implications for parenting strategies and parent education are discussed.
At the conclusion of this course, students will be able to:
a) Explore the process of interaction by which parents and children affect each other as individuals and as a family.
b) Examine and analyze the changing nature of parent-child relations throughout the child’s years of infancy, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Practices that promote health and safety of children will be explored.
c) Examine and analyze the ways in which culture, family structure, and current lifestyle variations affect the process of parenting and parent-child relationships.
d) Gain knowledge of parenting techniques that foster effective relationships between parents and their children.
e) Analyze the implications that developmental interactions between parents and their children have for parent education programs.
1. Be prepared. Before class, complete the assigned readings. Take notes on your reading materials. Participate in class activities. Post questions or comments that benefit all students on the elearning discussion board. Post questions that pertain only to you through elearning email.
2. Pace yourself. Keep up with the course material, reading assignments, exams, and written assignments.
3. Complete the 3 exams. Each exam is worth 25% of the final course average. Together, the three exams are worth 75% of the final course average.
No make-up exam will be given unless the reason for why the student missed the exam is excused by the instructor. When possible, students are encouraged to contact the instructor, IN ADVANCE of the exam date if an exam cannot be taken. Be prepared to document an illness, accident, or death of a family member by providing the proper written documentation which I may keep on file.
Exam dates are posted on the course outline.
Exams will be multiple choice format and computer graded. Exam questions pertain to all materials covered during class including, but not limited to, lectures, readings, films, and presentations by guest speakers. Exam questions will also pertain to information from the required text not presented in the power point slides. The student is responsible for completing the required readings designated on this syllabus or assigned during a class period prior to the exam.
Exam 3, also called the Final Exam, is NOT comprehensive.
Exams are NOT time limited so take as long as you need to complete them.
Your grade for each exam will be posted in elearning.
4. Complete one of the following projects:
a. Mentoring Experience
OR
b. 12 Critical Thinking Chapter Activities
Explanation of the Mentoring Experience:
You may mentor for 22 hours in an after-school program administered by Tuscaloosa One Place (TOP). This is VOLUNTEER experience, not paid work experience.
To mentor, you need a cheerful attitude, a love for kids, a willingness to be helpful, and the ability to part with your cell phone for 2 hours per week.
Tuscaloosa One Place will give an orientation to the class during the first week of the semester. You will sign up to mentor on this day.
Before you can mentor, you must:
1) Apply for a criminal history background check with Risk Mitigation Services, Inc. The cost of the criminal history background check is $23.00.
If you have the results of an ABI-FBI criminal history background check that was completed for a different program of study at The University of Alabama (i.e.,
All HDFS majors are required to complete a criminal history background check with Risk Mitigation Services, Inc. You will complete this once during your undergraduate program of studies as long as you remain continuously enrolled at The University of Alabama (not including breaks for summer). If you are not enrolled for either a fall or spring semester and you return to school, you will be required to have another criminal history background check completed before you can participate in HDFS course practica/service learning experiences, internship experiences, and research laboratory experiences. It is your, the student’s, responsibility to keep an electronic copy of the results so that each time you take a course that requires documentation of the criminal history background check, you can print the report of the results and turn it into the course instructor.
When you apply for the criminal history background check, you must agree to the statement, “I agree to report any criminal activity that results in a conviction to the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at The University of Alabama within 24 hours of the conviction.”
To apply for the criminal history background check, go to: www.riskmitigation.us/uastudents It may take you about 30 minutes to complete the application.
Once you have completed the application, it will take about 24-78 hours to receive the results. The results will be emailed to you. Save the results and bring a copy to me and a copy to the After-school Director.
Make sure you save a copy of the results because in future semesters, other HDFS faculty will ask you for a copy of the results.
If you lose your copy of the results, you will need to get another copy from Risk Mitigation Services, Inc.
2) Download the Statement of Confidentiality, sign and turn in to me.
3) Download the Service-Learning Journal from this elearning website and complete it once for every two hours of mentoring (that is, make 11 entries into your journal). Turn in the completed Service-Learning Journal to the Director of the after-school program where you mentor. You will turn in your journal twice: once at midterm, and once at the end of the semester. Instructions for how to complete the service-learning journal are in the folder entitled, “Mentoring Experience” in the course content section of the elearning website.
Your grade for the Mentoring Experience is determined by the After-school Director’s rating of you on the TOP Mentoring Rating Form (it is posted in the Mentoring folder on your elearning website), your grade on the Service-Learning Journal, and by me, Dr. Curtner-Smith. Although the directors of the after-school programs consult with me regarding students’ grades; ultimately, I am the person responsible for assigning grades to students.
Explanation of the 13 Critical Thinking Chapter Activities:
Complete 13 Critical Thinking Chapter Activities (Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5a, 5b, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12). After you read each chapter, you will complete a Critical Thinking Chapter Activity and submit it to the appropriate Critcal Thinking Chapter Activity assignment drop box in elearning. The activities are posted in the Assignments section of the elearning website. Each activity should take approximately 2 hours to complete and will result in a 2-4 page typewritten paper that you paste into the assignment dropbox. You MUST copy and paste your answers into the assignment box. Do NOT attach a word document and do NOT email your document to me.
Each paper should be well written with no grammatical mistakes. Each activity is worth either 7 to 9 points. The points for the 13 Critical Thinking Chapter Activities will be summed. The total possible points for all 13 activities is 100. The sum of the Critical Thinking Chapter Activities will count as 25% of your final course average. Due dates for each of the Critical Thinking Chapter Activities are posted in the course outline.
Students are encouraged to communicate with the instructor if they have difficulty with the class. Students are reminded, however, that instructors do not give grades, students earn them. Therefore, any act of begging for a change of grade will not be viewed favorably. Each exam counts as 25% of the final course average. The Sum of the Critical Thinking Activity Points or the Mentoring Experience count as 25% of the final course grade.
To compute the final course average, do the following:
(Exam 1 + Exam 2 + Exam 3 + [Sum of Critical Thinking Activity Points or Mentoring Experience] + Extra credit) / 4
97-100 A+
94-96.99 A
90-93.99 A-
87-89.99 B+
84-86.99 B
80-83.99 B-
77-79.99 C+
74-76.99 C
70-73.99 C-
67-69.99 D+
64-66.99 D
60-63.99 D-
Below 60 F
Students are given the opportunity to hand in assignments and to make up missed exams that are missed or late due to legitimate circumstances. However, no make-up exams are given nor is late work accepted unless excused by me, the instructor, preferably in advance of the exam date or assignment due date. Be prepared to provide written documentation by a physician, or in the event of a death in the family, provide a copy of the obituary and funeral program. No make-up exams are given or late written work is accepted from students who choose to leave early for Thanksgiving or the Winter holidays, or for Spring Break and the Summer holidays.
Students in the on-campus class will be assigned a seat, and attendance will be taken by using a seating chart. Students who miss class for a legitimate reason (ill, university sponsored field trip or business, job interview, death in the family) must produce a written documentation for the absence that the instructor can keep on file. Students who have 3 or fewer excused absences AND who have a borderline course average will receive participation points so that they earn the next higher grade on the grading scale. In this way, attendance is used to help students, not penalize them. Students who have more than 3 unexcused absences and students who are not a borderline grade, receive the grade they earn.
Typically extra credit is not given because it undermines the value of doing well on exams and class papers. Occasionally, however, an activity or research project presents itself as an invaluable learning activity. In those situations, extra credit in the form of 5 points will be added to the sum of weighted points. I will inform the class verbally and in writing on the class website if such an opportunity becomes available during the semester.
All students in attendance at the University of Alabama are expected to be honorable and to observe standards of conduct appropriate to a community of scholars. The University expects from its students a higher standard of conduct than the minimum required to avoid discipline. Academic misconduct includes all acts of dishonesty in any academically related matter and any knowing or intentional help or attempt to help, or conspiracy to help, another student.
The Academic Misconduct Disciplinary Policy will be followed in the event of academic misconduct.
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UA is a residential campus with many students living on or near campus. In general classes will remain in session until the National Weather Service issues safety warnings for the city of Tuscaloosa. Clearly, some students and faculty commute from adjacent counties. These counties may experience weather related problems not encountered in Tuscaloosa. Individuals should follow the advice of the National Weather Service for that area taking the necessary precautions to ensure personal safety. Whenever the National Weather Service and the Emergency Management Agency issue a warning, people in the path of the storm (tornado or severe thunderstorm) should take immediate life saving actions.
When West Alabama is under a severe weather advisory, conditions can change rapidly. It is imperative to get to where you can receive information from the National Weather Service and to follow the instructions provided. Personal safety should dictate the actions that faculty, staff and students take. The Office of Public Relations will disseminate the latest information regarding conditions on campus in the following ways: