COURSE SCHEDULE AVAILABLE HERE

Dr. Susan Carol Losh 3204 Stone Building (EPLS Suite) 850-644-8778 850-644-4592 (EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY &  LEARNING SYSTEMS) slosh@fsu.edu email is the best way to reach me

OFFICE HOURS: Spring 2014 Tuesday 2:00-4:00 P.M. Wednesday 3:00-5:00 P.M.   and by appointment

PLEASE LET ME KNOW IMMEDIATELY IF YOU REQUIRE ANY ASSISTANCE WITH DISABILITIES.
 
 

  Did you think human development stopped at age 3? At age 15 when you "got your identity"?
Perhaps (whenever) with your "midlife crisis"?

And "old age"? Nothin' left for it but dementia? 

Did you know?

• Babies really can grow over an inch in just one day.
• Brain "plasticity" means that nurture can affect nature: experiences and habits can change brain function to some degree.
• Most American divorced people remarry--but far fewer now marry in the first place.
• Although most people in the U.S. have two children--or less--a network of step-siblings and half-siblings creates new forms of family and socialization that can influence development.
• About 50% of American adults take some form of course--through an educational institution, a workshop, a work seminar--every single year. We keep on growing long after our formal school years end.
• We change careers too.
• Most older Americans don't live in institutional housing (e.g., assisted living) although most live near a close relative.
• In some cultures, we revere the elderly, in some we literally leave the elderly by the wayside, and in some we simply ignore the elderly.

This complex area incorporates physical, psychological, and social components. In our introduction to the field, we will focus most intensively on the psychological and social dimensions of lifespan development. However, although we aren't biologists, it's impossible to ignore the impact of physical development and aging so those issues will be touched upon. The research in this area is varied. Please be patient as you encounter six separate terms for the same concept such as social learning, or you puzzle out "chicken and egg problems" in "nature" and "nuture".
 
 

WHAT'S YOUR MAJOR?

Students enter the Lifespan Development course from diverse backgrounds. Many are School Psychology majors. If that's you, you may (at this point) picture yourself working in the elementary, secondary or community college school systems, perhaps administering tests, coordinating individual education plans (IEPs), or working with parents. Career counsellors can work with all age groups, as do mental health counsellors. Other students are Learning and Cogniton majors, who may believe that learning can be most influential among children and youth. We also have had Early Childhood, Psychology, Sports Psychology, Sociology (and other social sciences), Human Sciences and other.majors. This diversity presents unique opportunities to learn from one another. It also means that some areas of the course will be highly familar to you and others will be totally new.
 
 

Regardless of major, I hope you will discover how learning and development last a lifetime, and that at least some choices that adults make for the very young may impact youth during adolescence or early adulthood. Adults often retrain, so "school psychology" really extends to adults of all ages at community colleges, four year colleges, and universities, as well as on the job.

Aspects of the perspectives we will study this semester "fade in" and "fade out". Forming and maintaining an identity, for example, is critical during times of rapid or dramatic physical change--but also at role disjunctures, such as entering college, forming a family, or undergoing divorce or widowhood. We can pinpoint approximate lifestages for some of these transitions, recognizing that lifestages can change over time (age at first marriage in the United States, for example, rose by over five years for men and women during the past 40 years and many now no longer formally marry at all) and by culture; Irish and Philippino adults, for example, once married far later than mainland Americans although this is no longer the case. Modeling approaches to social learning can evolve over an entire lifetime

My roles as Instructor are to facilitate and to coordinate the "big picture." For each major course section, I will discuss basic perspectives, postulated major processes, and particularly noteworthy empirical findings. After that, it's up to all of us, our discussions and short assignments, to make the material come alive.
 

To become familiar with major and sometimes conflicting conceptual perspectives  in dimensions of human lifespan development, including:

• Basic physical development and change at each stage of the lifespan
• Theories of psychological and social development and identity, and how these vary across the lifespan
• Basic learning theories
• Perspectives on role learning and internalization

This means developing a professional vocabulary so that you can knowledgeably converse with other professionals.

To be able to apply course material to diverse  written and presented projects: in-class quizzes and problem solving, video analysis, and reflective paper, and to present the essential ideas of a chosen individual project.
 
 

WE’RE ONLINE!

Our course is WEB assisted through the Blackboard and mailer  systems at FSU. You must be registered for EDP5068-01 to access our Blackboard site. To access our course on Blackboard, go online to:

Enter your FSU ID username and password to log in. For example, I would enter "slosh" ONLY. Then click on “Life-Span Dev” to enter our site. (You're probably already familiar with the Blackboard system.)

The mailer entry portal of our site is:

I will use WEB-assist for several course features:

• All Guides will be available in Blackboard and linked with course topics. Objectives will be posted for each section of the course as the semester progresses.
• Please be aware that I am updating the online lecture Guides. DO NOT use sites with a construction sign at the top.
• The Blackboard site will include links to resources.
• Class presentations will be posted to our Blackboard site. Presentations from prior classes are already posted.
• Web sites that you have found pertinent to YOUR discipline will be posted in Blackboard.
• Announcements on the Blackboard main page will alert you to any changes in the syllabus, course deadlines, or class meetings. I will also email announcements to you.
• More detail will be posted on each course assignment. Information will be updated throughout the semester.
• Many assignments will be run through SafeAssign or TurnItIn, available in Blackboard.

SPRING 2014: Here's how I can be reached:
 

3204 Stone Building 850-644-8778 Voice mail available 850-644-4592 Educational Psychology & Learning Systems   slosh@fsu.edu

Back FSU Stone Building Across from the Medical School on West Call and Murphree Street Office Hours: Tuesday 2:00-4:00 P.M. Wednesday 3:00-5:00 P.M. Please see me about other times. NOTE: If I have a conflict, I will announce that in class and on our Blackboard website.

I feel a personal commitment to this material. The more aware we become about how aging and development affect us, and how the accident of our birth generation affects our thinking and behavior, the more we can influence the directions that our lives take and the more readily we can understand others. All of us will age, many of us have or will have children and grandchildren.

One of my major research interests is disentangling the effects of aging from those of birth cohort on public understanding and use of science and technology among American adults. If you are interested to see more about this area, please see my resume.
 

We have several assignments spread throughout the semester. For about half of the assignments we will participate in Larry Michaelsen's Team Based Learning (TBL), a mix of individual and team contributions. As part of these assignments, teams will evaluate the contributions of each member at the end of the semester. (See the syllabus and course projects pages for more detail about TBL.) For the other 45% of your grade, you will write a reflective paper and do a class (typically Power Point) presentation.

Some students are concerned about freeloaders on the team or that their grades will suffer in teamwork. I want to reassure you that in using this approach over a five year period, there weres only TWO cases where a student's individual and team average quiz scores were tied. In NO CASE was a student's individual average quiz score higher than their team's average score. Because team members bring diverse points of view to the same topic everyone benefits. Furthermore, since all TBL occurs during class, there is much  less opportunity for social loafing.
 

ASSIGNMENT	DATE(S)	COURSE WEIGHT
3 QUIZZES: Each individual and team based scored ONLY the TOP TWO QUIZZES in each case will count toward your grade.	January 28 February 20 March 20	Quizzes are usually held at the beginning of a unit so readings should be completed prior to the quiz. A set of terms to know will be provided before each quiz. Total = 25 percent
3 TEAM BASED SHORT COURSE PROJECTS ONLY the TOP TWO SHORT PROJECTS will count toward your grade Analysis of interaction video	February 13	Total = 25 percent
Learning theories application	March 27
Housing decision for elderly person	April 17
Team Assessment of Student Contributions Fall Semester		5 percent
Applying developmental stages to your area;  reflective paper	April 30 BY NOON	20 percent
PRESENTATION	Topic description due February 27. You'll also tell me whether you will do an individual or group presentation. ONE completed during the April 10-24 period (approximately)	25 percent

See the links for more information to be posted. The project and presentation links will be updated during the semester to provide more detail and format specifications.
 

VERY IMPORTANT NOTE The reflective paper MUST be hard copy placed in my department mailbox. Papers under my office door may or may not be placed on my desk--where I may not be able to find them! (No one who has seen my desk would ever do such a thing.) I DO NOT OPEN OR ACCEPT EMAIL ATTACHMENTS (e.g., WORD documents) so please do not send them. PLEASE DO NOT SLIDE PAPERS UNDER MY DOOR OR THE EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY & LEARNING SYSTEMS SUITE DOOR! There is a good chance I will never see them.

During the semester, I may ask for a digital copy of your work. For example, I upload all presentations into Blackboard .
.

The topic choice for your presentation is up to you as long as it is related to course materials in Lifespan Development. Here are some examples from prior classes:

• Pets and the aging process.
• Gender and career development.
• Gender and interest in science in the elementary grades.
• Applying cognitive theory to high school science education.
• Post-partum depression.
• Teenage pregnancy.
• Learned helplessness among senior citizens
• Literacy skills among hearing impaired children.
• Eating disorders among adolescents.
• Timing of treating children with autism.
• The implications of Alzheimer's disease.
• Bullying

MORE PRELIMINARY INFORMATION HERE ABOUT THE PRESENTATION.
 
 

I use plus and minus grading, throughout and for final grades.

Participation in class discussion and class attendance are a definite consideration, especially when a student is "between grades."

In addition, your participation in team projects is totally done in class, thus class attendence is critical for your grade. I count the top 2 out of 3 quiz scores and small assignment grades; if you miss a quiz or assignment, that option is not available.

Adherence to principles of essay organization, and the conventions of spelling and grammar is expected and understood on all written assignments. The course presentation MUST relate to the Lifespan in some way.

For more information about how I calculate final grades, please access the final grade website.

Please see the Course Syllabus for more information and due dates for quizzes and assignments.

REMEMBER: Please DO NOT USE websites with a construction sign at the top. They are under revision. Thanks!
 

APPROXIMATE DATE	TOPIC	OBJECTIVES
January 7-14	Basic Orientation: General Controversies and Issues, Methods Introduction	WEB site navigation and course outline What are some major orientations in lifespan development? What are some of the juxtaposed controversies? Which methods are most commonly used?
January 16-23	Infancy	First overall exposure to developmental and basic learning theories What are key physical, psychological, and social developments in the early years? What role does language play?
January 28-February 6	Early Childhood
February 11-18	Middle Childhood	Setting the stage
February 20-March 4	Adolescence	Earlier Maturation and its possible consequences Physical and cognitive clashes
MARCH 10-14	SPRING BREAK	NO CLASS
March 18-27	Early Adulthood
March 27-April 8	Revisiting the Controversies: Midlife	Love and work: did Freud say it all? Is there really a midlife crisis? What are major physical, cognitive and social components for the middle years?
April 10-24	Late Adulthood	Integrity versus Despair, and a little help from Social Security What are major physical, cognitive, and social issues for the elderly?
APRIL 24	Our last day of class
APRIL 30 BY NOON!	Applying developmental stages to your area;  individual reflective paper	LATE PAPERS ARE NOT ACCEPTED

 

BB: Denise Boyd and Helen Bee (2012). Lifespan Development, SIXTH EDITION. Boston: Pearson. PAPER (but expensive). ISBN = 0-205-540870375-6.

When books go to a new edition, they often offer new topics and discard or rearrange the prior topics. Even when the chapter descriptive titles remain the same, new research is added. Please explore the outlets of your choice to obtain the CURRENT edition. Another possibility is for two students to share one text.
 
 

COURSE SCHEDULE AVAILABLE HERE

 

Under construction as the semester progresses.