Additionally, the course will acquaint students with a range of learning resources and promote awareness of their role as learners in the academic community. The course structure will involve active learning and collaborative group activities. Ideas and challenges will be presented to encourage critical thinking and to develop the problem solving and decision making skills necessary to success in the demanding University environment. This First-Year Seminar will include a review of basic issues involved in the study of individuals and families from childhood through the older years. Discussions will be focused around such concepts as biological development, parent-child interaction, socialization by families and by peer groups, and the impact of cultural change on human development.
Human development involves an understanding of both continuities and changes across the lifespan.
Students will be involved in discussing how continuities and changes in their own lives have affected their own course of development. Moreover, they will be led to discover how conceptual frameworks about development influence the nature and kinds of questions posed in human development research. Moving from theory and research to current topics in human development and family studies, students will participate in analyzing various issues, especially those related to challenges faced during life transitions and during changes in the lives of families. Special emphasis will be placed on helping students to appreciate how an understanding of human development and family processes can be helpful to them in attaining self-understanding. In addition, they will be encouraged to develop a more profound understanding and appreciation of the fact that in the course of human development, family and social influences are significant forces in the shaping of one's personal identity.