Human Development in Childhood

Purpose: to help other instructors teaching the same course

Common Course ID: HD 302
CSU Instructor Open Textbook Adoption Portrait

Abstract: This open textbook is being utilized in a Human Development course for undergraduate or graduate students by Dr. Kathy Fuller at CSUSM. The open textbook provides articles, webpages, videos and TED Talks. The main motivation to adopt an open textbook was to decrease the cost of education for the students and to address current challenges in supporting children and youth most effectively. Most students access the open textbook directly from the associated weekly modules in the CANVAS course shell.

Human Development in Childhood – HD 302
Brief Description of course highlights: Explores child development from lifespan, interdisciplinary, and multicultural perspectives useful for working with children. A special focus is on practicing the skills to conduct a community needs assessment for healthy child development based on the Precede-Proceed Model. This course provides an opportunity for students to gain knowledge about child development from interdisciplinary and multicultural perspectives and to apply it in the development of needs assessments to determine need for services and for the development of needed programs for children, families and communities in contemporary society. Specifically, based on the knowledge of child development from lifespan, interdisciplinary, and multicultural perspectives, students will learn and practice skills to conduct a systematic planning of a community intervention program for promoting healthy child development. The course focuses on practicing the skills to conduct a community needs assessment and for developing proposals that can be used to promote the development of community intervention programs for healthy child development based on the Precede-Proceed Model as used in human development.

Student population: This course is designed to prepare students who are completing a BA Degree in Human Development to follow a career path in the area of social services.

Learning or student outcomes: The Department of Human Development has five “Program Student Learning Outcomes” which are supported by the required courses. Please find these outcomes below. HD 380 focuses on the numbers 1, 2, 3 & 5 outcomes:

1. Demonstrate understanding of developmental theories and how biological, psychological, social, historical and cultural dynamics influence developmental processes, and use theory as a framework to address real-world problems related to lifespan development in applied settings such as counseling, health care, and education.
2. Demonstrate understanding of how social categories such as gender, race, ethnicity, class, age, ability, sexuality, and religion – and the intersections of these identities – relate to diverse experiences across the lifespan.
3. Apply skills, knowledge and goal setting toward employment in health and human services, including documenting field experiences in health and human services settings.
4. Demonstrate understanding of research methods that are commonly used in human development scholarship and how to design, conduct and present an original research project.
5. Summarize the delivery of social services, including funding, staffing, assessments, program development and evaluation.                         

Course Student Learning Outcomes (CSLOs)  By the end of the course, students will be able to:
1. Recognize and use developmental theories to understand child development from conception to late childhood (to age around 11). This gives students a foundation and framework of childhood development for next level courses and future careers working with children.
2. Diagnose individuals', environmental, and community status quo which influence the health and well-being of children in a community utilizing interdisciplinary developmental theories with a particular focus on behavioral and environmental contexts.
3. Learn to develop a systematic plan for diagnosis of organizational and community status quo and propose a community health, well-being, or educational intervention program for healthy child development. This supports students when designing programs and is important for future careers implementing intervention programs.

Key challenges faced and how resolved:  The biggest challenge during this course is supporting the students in being able to understand and apply the Precede-Proceed Model framework in planning and evaluating health promotion in a conceptual situation. I provided a variety of visuals weekly to remind students of the steps of this framework for their project

Textbook or OER/Low cost Title: Various free resources from the internet provided

Brief Description: I selected a variety of readings, videos, TED talks and activities to support the concepts discussed in class that were available for no cost on the internet.

Please provide a link to the resource - HD302 Resource list with links.docx

• Ainsworth, M. (n.d.). Mary Ainsworth: Strange situation experiment [Video]. YouTube.
• American Psychological Association. (n.d.). Attachment theory in psychology. Simply Psychology.
• Best Start Resource Centre. (n.d.). Factors affecting child development.
• Cherry, K. (2023, March 10). Erikson’s stages of development: A closer look at the eight psychosocial stages. Verywell Mind.
• Cherry, K. (2023, April 4). Operant conditioning: What it is, how it works, and examples. Simply Psychology.
• Cherry, K. (n.d.). Piaget’s 4 stages of cognitive development explained: Background and key concepts of Piaget’s theory. Verywell Mind.
• Child Trends. (n.d.). Young children conditions and diseases. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (n.d.). Information about infants & toddlers (ages 0–3): Diseases and conditions.
• Cell-Ed. (2022, May 4). 7 steps to a successful social program.
• Ciis. (2016). Precede–Proceed model cheat sheet. Boston University.
• Education Encyclopedia. (n.d.). John B. Watson (1878–1958).
• Favorite Child Blog. (2010, October). Personality begins before birth. Psychology Today.
• FirstCry Parenting. (n.d.). Role of environment in early child development.
• HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. (n.d.). A partial listing of problems facing American children, youth and families.
• Khan Academy. (n.d.). How your childhood defines your attachment as an adult [Video]. YouTube.
• Kozhimannil, K. B. (n.d.). What is epidemiology? [Video]. YouTube.
• Mindwell. (n.d.). Social development.
• Precede-Proceed Model. (n.d.). Ecological assessment [Video]. YouTube.
• Rural Health Information Hub. (n.d.). Precede–Proceed model.
• Simply Psychology. (n.d.). Albert Bandura’s social learning theory.
• Simply Psychology. (n.d.). Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development.
• TED. (n.d.). Social and emotional learning [Video]. YouTube.
• TEDx Talks. (n.d.). What is the most important influence on child development? [Video]. YouTube.
• University of Minnesota. (n.d.). What is outcome-based program evaluation—What is outcome indicators in this case? [Video]. YouTube.
• Verywell Mind. (n.d.). Erikson’s 8 stages of development theory [Video].
• YouTube. (n.d.). Childhood behavioral disorders [Video].
• YouTube. (n.d.). Precede–Proceed model [Video].
• YouTube. (n.d.). Social-emotional learning: What is SEL and why does SEL matter? [Video].
• Psychology Today. (n.d.). Relationship attachment test.

 Authors: Authors provided for each resource

Student access:  Students access the resources directly from each weekly module in the course shell created in CANVAS.

Provide the cost savings from that of a traditional textbook.  This class would require at least two textbooks at $100 each, resulting in a cost of approximately $200.

License: Materials are copyrighted but can be accessed for free online from miscellaneous websites, such as TED and YouTube, listed above.

OER/Low Cost Adoption Process

Provide an explanation or what motivated you to use this textbook or OER/Low Cost option.  I selected free online resources to save students money, ensure up to date information, customize the learning experience for each student and improve learning experiences for all.

How did you find and select the open textbook for this course? Each resource was selected individually. I browsed OER sites; googled academic research; compared and evaluated various resources; shared resources with peers; and consulted students for their interests.

Sharing Best Practices: Definitely use the OER provided through Merlot. Also, I would run a check on the course weekly to maintain links function and check on the dates of publication to ensure the information is up to date and doesn’t require students to purchase a membership to access the resource.

Describe any key challenges you experienced, how they were resolved  and lessons learned. I learned that free resources can be deleted and that a weekly pre-check of resources will ensure that they are accessible to students.

Instructor Name - Dr. Kathy Fuller
I am a Human Development professor at California State University, San Marcos.   

Please describe the courses you teach
HD 102 - Preparatory Skills for Human Development Majors - Units: 3
Develops competencies that support long-term professional success and provides an early start on the process of career planning and development. Places particular emphasis on exploring career opportunities in health, human services and allied fields; building skills for success in the HD major and after graduation; and applying competencies to address long-term professional development needs. Includes values clarification, goal setting, problem solving, critical thinking, and decision making.
HD 302 - Human Development in Childhood - Units: 3 
Explores child development from lifespan, interdisciplinary, and multicultural perspectives useful for working with children. A special focus is on practicing the skills to conduct a community needs assessment for healthy child development based on the Precede-Proceed Model.
HD 380 - Child and Youth Development in Family and Community Contexts Considers the social cultural, cognitive, emotional, linguistic, and behavioral development of children and youth from interdisciplinary, multicultural, and applied perspectives. Students will apply major theories in the field of human development to their work in evidence-based services and programs for children and youth in a variety of family and community contexts with special attention to identifying multicultural and sociocultural influences on development.
HD 490 - Human Development in Perspective - Units: 3 Seminar intended for students in the final year of undergrad study. Drawing from theories and knowledge gained from previous courses, this capstone course helps to experience the application of such knowledge within allied health and human services fields.
HD 495 - Field Experience in Human Development - Units: 3
Supervised experience providing service in health and human services setting. Students will spend approximately eight (8) hours per week, for a minimum of 90 hours during the semester, in a child, adolescent and/or adult human services organization. Students will participate in service delivery, conduct observations, read related material and prepare written reports.
HD 497  - Applied Research in Human Development  -  Units: 4 
Reviews the importance of theory, research objectives and various quantitative and qualitative methods. Students will be expected to participate in the development and implementation of an applied research study that they either initiate or is part of an ongoing research study. Students will be involved in data collection, data coding, data analysis and manuscript preparation. Three hours of lecture. Two hours of laboratory.

Describe your teaching philosophy and any research interests related to your discipline or teaching.  As I consider my career of teaching a variety of ages, stages and content area, I realize how I have brought my experiential knowledge, educational exploration and practical applications together as many societal changes have required innovative flexibility and understanding. I have always felt that the foundational core of effectively teaching students is knowing who they are, their strengths and what they need to be successful. In order to address this concept adequately, the following questions need to be answered: Where do students come from and what experiences influence their basic beliefs? What are students’ educational and life goals? How can I create curriculum that will support students in utilizing course learning in real world applications? 

     To create a positive class environment whether online or in person, I feel it is important to establish a relationship of trust with your students. This takes time and can only be accomplished by showing students that you really care about them as individuals, as well as their learning experiences in the class by providing the most effective associated learning experiences possible through creating a learning community founded on respect for self and all other participants. In order to discover specific aspects of every student, a teacher needs to provide opportunities for students to share with both the teacher and the rest of the class. By encouraging participation through providing scaffolding and support, students are more open to sharing and learning. I’ve found that the secret to successful online teaching is to respond to every student quickly and in a positive manner. I find it important to start a response with a positive about a portion of the student’s post that is reflectively crafted and then incorporate possible ideas to make the post even better. 

     My teaching style focuses on building a learning community which engages individual students in each classroom. Student engagement is an important aspect of learning. If a student is engaged and actively participating in the learning process, they will benefit much more than being a passive participant. To support all students in feeling comfortable participating in class activities, it is important to establish an environment of understanding and acceptance. Above all, I try very hard to create a classroom in which everyone is respected and enjoys reading and sharing ideas focused on provided topics. 

     I always respond to every student for each required assignment and/or online post. These comments provide a teacher “presence” in the online classroom, as well as provides individual support for each student. Through interacting individually with students, I learn more about them and how best to support their growth and development toward their eventual career. Writing is an issue for many students, so I try to model how specific thoughts on topics can be portrayed in a professional written format. 

     Another important aspect of engaging students in any class, is for the instructor to incorporate learning styles (sensory preferences) and preferred intelligence areas when creating learning experiences. An online course works well for many students, as we teach students to become visual learners. However, for those students who prefer to learn through other styles or intelligence areas, accommodations need to be met. 

     Finally, student feedback on their experiences in the classroom is an important aspect for keeping courses on track to meet student needs. I reflect on comments students provide and make the necessary accommodations in my courses as needed.