Lesson #1: Intro to the class.
Well, you are on this website already, so you are moving in the right direction for learning about the class.
Familiarize yourself with the class requirements and website. See the OLMS link to your left.
Make sure that you have the book that will be used for the course. I have posted Chapter 1 of the textbook on OLMS,
in case you have not gotten it yet and want to get started right away.
Audio files: Make sure that you are able to download and listen to the audio-files (they are on the OLMS website under the link Experiential lessons). The files are in mp3 format, so you should be able to play them on a variety of free players - iTunes, RealPlayer etc. You can also burn them to a CD and play them on a regular CD player. If you cannot download the files, you will need to check out the CD from the Marriott Library reserve counter or purchase a copy from the AOCE office.
Experiential lessons: Experience First! In this course, you will be asked to do developmental, sensory-motor lessons. You will often do these lessons before you have read about the lesson or even told what the purpose of a particular lesson is. In other words, rather than tell you what we are going to do and then doing it, we are often just going to do it first. I invite you to consider why the course is set up this way...
For the experiential lessons you will usually need a mat or blanket to lie on, although several will be done sitting. You will write field notes about your experience after the lessons (in class) and then you will type your note and email them to me (see the section on Field Notes below).
Study Questions: You will notice that each lesson has 2-5 study questions that are associated with the chapter for that week. You are required to write a short paper on one of the questions for each lesson. You pick one question that interests you and you a write a 1 - 1.5 page paper on the question. You are not required to formally answer the other questions for that lesson but you should familiarize yourself with them as the information will help you with the midterm and final and may also help you with answering the questions from other weeks.
Lesson #2, Chapter 1: Basic Concepts of Infant Behavior and Development
Ready to begin? Great! This lesson is the first one that has assignments to hand in.
You will be reading Chapter 1 of the Infancy book, answering a study question about the reading, doing your first experiential lesson and writing "field notes" about your experience. Got it?
This first chapter of the book is a fairly complex one and it has some important background assumptions and ideas. As you read the study questions below and think about which one you will answer, I invite to consider how your completion of this class might be viewed from a member of another culture.
For instance, I have a friend who was in the Peace Corps about 30 years ago in a small island nation. He would occasionally find time to read on the patio of the little hut that he lived in. The villagers would come by and call him by a name that meant "scholar." The idea of reading for pleasure did not exist in their culture at that time. In some cultures, child-rearing information comes mainly from the extended family and the idea of reading about children would be foreign. What cultural assumptions can you identify as you read the chapter?
Study Question #1: Write a 1-page answer to the question of your choice below.
Experiential Lesson #1: Paradoxical Breathing. Remember, you will need a mat or blanket to lie on. After doing the lesson you will write field notes.
For all lessons, please send your study question answers and field notes in ONE email.
History and Research Methods (Chapter 1)
| 1. The concept of the individual arose during the Enlightenment. Explain how people thought about themselves before there was a concept of an individual. How did people think of themselves after there was a concept of an individual? Use evidence from the readings to support your answer. |
| 2. The Enlightenment brought about a return to classical (Greek and Roman) ideas about the importance of the body in development, and the importance of the body is again being emphasized in the past 20 years. How do cultural conceptions about the body affect how we think about infants and the practices of infant care in ancient and modern times? |
| 3. Explain how quantitative research methods in the behavioral sciences arose during the Enlightenment in relation to ideas about the individual and the rise of the scientific method. Why do you think quantitative research methods for the study of behavior did not exist before the Enlightenment? |
| 4.What are the two basic characteristics of qualitative research? What makes qualitative research scientific? |
Lesson #3, Chapter 2: Theories of Infant Development
Like many college textbooks in psychology this book has a chapter that covers the various theories about the subject - learning, cognitive, systems - just to name a few. How is it possible that there are so many "lenses" through which one can view infancy? Can you tell by reading this chapter (and the questions below) what particular interest that myself and the author have on the topic of child development? Does it match your own or are you interested in something different?
You may want to pay special attention to the short section on "somatic awareness approaches" as you are using one such method in your completion of this course
Study Question #2: Write a 1-page answer to the question of your choice below.
Experiential Lesson #1: Making Contact. Remember, you will need a mat or blanket to lie on. After doing the lesson you will write field notes.
For all lessons, please send your study question answers and field notes in ONE email.
Theories of Infant Development (Chapter 2)
| 1. What does it mean to say that the action of the genotype is not deterministic? What are some implications of genetic non-determinism for infant rearing and development? |
| 2. What is the difference between the clinical infant and the observed infant? Why are theories of the clinical infant not typically accepted as scientific? Do you agree with this or disagree, and why? |
| 3. How does dynamic systems theory help to explain the emergence of novelty in human development? How does this theory apply to the understanding of individual differences in emotional development in parent-infant communication? |