Debate TopicsSan Jose State UniversityCD 195: Senior Seminar in Child Development.Spring 2000: Tuesdays/Thursdays 12:00-1:15 SH 448Instructor: Maureen SmithOffice: Sweeney Hall: Room 321Office Phone: 408-924-3774e-mail: [email protected] Hours: Tuesday/Thursday: 3:00-4:15; Wednesday: 10:30-12:00 & by appointmentRequired Reading: DeLoache, J. S., Mangelsdorf, S., C., & Pomerantz, E. (Eds.). (1998).Current readings in child development (3rd Ed). Boston: Allyn & Bacon Masten, A. S. (Ed.) (1999). Cultural processes in child development. The Minnesota Symposium on Child Psychology (Vol. 29.). Mahwah, NJ:Lawrence Erlbaum. There are several additional required reading assignments. Specifically, articles from peer-reviewed journals available in the university library.Prerequisite: 12 units in Child Development and senior standing.Course Objectives:This course is designed for seniors to promote an integrated understanding of the discipline and to examine the significance of research in child development. The emphasis is on assisting the student in developing the ability to evaluate critically the methods, problems, and finds of research in the field. Students completing the course should:1. appreciate the significance of research in the area of child development and understand the implications of research on policy issues in child development; 2. increase their ability to evaluate critically methods, problems, and findings of research; 3. possess an integrated understanding of the discipline;4. have the ability to examine the influence of contextual variables (e.g., home, school) on research findings in child development. This course operates on the honor system. However, in the unfortunate event that cheating on a test or plagiarism on the paper(s) is observed the consequences (in accordance with university and departmental policy) will be strictly enforced. Please see the last page of this handout for details; further information also may be obtained in your student handbook. Late policy/Make-up exams:1Make-up exams will be given only under truly extraordinary circumstances. Advanced notice regarding these extraordinary circumstances will permit me to be more flexible. If you aretoo ill to take an exam on the scheduled day, please leave me a message (or have someone phone for you) regarding your illness on voice mail prior to class time.Papers are due in class on their scheduled due dates. Late papers are subject to penalty (half a grade for each day the paper is late). Please note that assignments left with the department secretary, slipped under my office door, faxed, or e-mailed may not be received before class and may be subject to a late penalty. Class presentations must be made on the date assigned. Class Participation:This course is a discussion class: Students are expected to read the assignments prior to class and to be prepared to discuss the reading assignments in class. Students should also ask questions regarding the assigned material. 2Course Requirements: 1. Each student should come prepared to discuss the assigned readings in one of the following ways: (a) come up with an alternative explanation for the results; (b) devise a follow-up study or hypothesis that builds on the work done in the study; or (c) apply the work to education or social policy. Over the course of the semester each student will be called on to contribute the above information at least once, so be prepared each class to present this information. Participation is worth 3% of your grade. 2. The course has two exams; one midterm and one final. These in-class exams will be comprised of multiple choice, short answer, and essay questions. Questions are based on lecture and assigned readings. Each exam is worth 20% of your grade. 3. Four 1-2 page typed critiques of peer-reviewed journal research articles. These articles must use samples that are non-Caucasian (e.g., African-American, Brazilian, Russian, Korean) and have been published between 1990 and 1999. Additionally, you must have one article on infancy/early childhood (toddlers), one on preschoolers, one on middle childhood, and one on adolescence. In your critique you will briefly describe the subjects, the major questions addressed in the study, the important results, the relative strengths and weaknesses of the research study, and then you will come up with a hypothesis (future research question) that stems from findings or non-findings in the research study. These assignments are worth 12% of your grade. 3. The course requires a 10-15 page term paper, worth 20% of your grade. This paper must be in the form of a research proposal. You will need to come up with a question relating to child development that is testable in an empirical study (for example, "in which setting do preschool children learn better: play versus structured activities", "do older siblings influence young children's language acquisition?). (You will not have to actually test the question). You will thenreview current literature (peer-reviewed research articles), select/describe an appropriate sample, and design/describe your procedure and methods of testing your research question. 4. To help you write the paper, you will submit a brief typed description (not more than one page) of your hypothesis, a brief rationale for conducting the study, your potential subjects, and at least 10 references in APA style. This assignment is worth 5% of your grade.5. Each student will find 5 web-pages that are relevant to child development. The pages maybe about education, social policy, child-care, health, - subject is open as long as it is relevant to issues dealing with child development. Each student will briefly present their search results to the3class and turn in a written description/review of the web-pages (and the URL). This is worth 10%of your grade6. Each person will participate in a group project/presentation. Specifically, each group willselect one of the following topics to evaluate and then present this information to the class in theform of a pseudo debate (half the group will present the pros (research showing positive outcomes) and the other half will present the cons (research suggesting negative outcomes) and then the group will present policy implications and recommendations based on this discussion. The group assignment is worth 10% of your grade.Debate TopicsBilingual educationDaycareMaternal employment/father involvement