|
|
Course Schedule and Description
Each
course is listed corresponding to the initial offering of the class.
The graduate program consists of 36 credit hours, including 9 required
courses equaling 28 credit hours and a master's report totaling 8
hours. The courses will be offered on a rotating basis, with all courses
offered at least once every other year (i.e., Fall, Spring, and Summer).
Academic Year |
Fall |
Spring |
Summer |
|
Fall 8/29 - 12/1
Spring 1/17 - 5/5
Summer - TBA |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Course Descriptions
and Teaching University
Foundations
of Youth Development, 1 cr. (FSHS 711)
Colorado State University, Kansas State University, Michigan State University, University of Nebraska
This course will examine the fundamentals of youth development and
the youth development profession. Through this introduction to the
field, students will explore the ethical, professional, and historical
elements of youth development as it has evolved toward professionalization.
Upon completion of the course, students will:
1.
Understand the history of the youth development field and profession;
2. Understand ethical issues of working with youth and youth development
organizations;
3. Understand, apply, and advocate ethical standards for the profession;
4. Understand the role of the professional in the youth development
field including professional organizations, advocacy for the field,
and continuing education; and
5. Be able to facilitate a network of youth professionals through
which promising practices can be developed, disseminated, and critiqued.
Return
to the top
Community
Youth Development, 3 cr.
Michigan State University
This
course focuses on the national emphasis of a strength-based or asset
approach to community youth development, encompassing individual development
(i.e., positive youth development) and adolescent interrelationships
with environments. Emphasis is placed upon research, theory, and practice
applied in communities. Students will explore existing models, read
theoretical and applied literature, and examine current community
efforts as a basis for understanding community youth development.
Upon completion of the course, students will:
1.
Understand current theories of community youth development;
2. Understand individual development of adolescents from positive
youth development frameworks;
3. Be able to analyze the interrelationships of community sectors
with positive youth development outcomes (family, schools, peers,
faith-based institutions, youth-serving organizations, etc.);
4. Be able to analyze and evaluate existing models, theoretical and
applied literature, and current community efforts related to community
youth development; and
5. Demonstrate ability to identify and apply community youth development
concepts taught in the course.
Return to the top
Adolescents
and Their Families, 3 cr.
Kansas State University
This
course will cover adolescent development as it is related to and intertwined
with family development; reciprocal influences between adolescents
and their families are examined. Working with youth vis à vis
the family system will be highlighted. Upon completion of the course,
students will:
1.
Have the ability to conceptualize youth development from a systemic
perspective;
2. Be aware of various family dynamics that influence youth development;
3. Understand adolescent and family development issues;
4. Be able to assess family functioning;
5. Approach families from a strength-based perspective;
6. Be able to develop and implement strategies for including families
in their work with youth;
7. Be aware of and have respect for diverse family structures; and
8. Recognize the influences of culture and ethnicity on family dynamics.
Return to the top
Program
Design, Evaluation, and Implementation, 3 cr.
Colorado State University
This
course will discuss the theoretical, methodological, and pragmatic
issues involved in conducting programs and scholarship. Included in
the course is an overview of the program development process and outcome
evaluation of community children and family programs. Modes of outcome
scholarship and their implications for community-based programs are
discussed. Students will develop knowledge through participating in
a community-based project involving the practical application of program
design and evaluation methods. Upon completion of the course, students
wi
1.
Understand the underlying theory and methods in program design and evaluation
of programs;
2. Have developed skills necessary for program development and applied
evaluation of community-based programs;
3. Have a cultural awareness and understanding of relevant issues in
program design, implementation and evaluation;
4. Have experiences in needs assessment, program critics, risk management
and ethical dimensions of program design and evaluation;
5. Be able to select and apply appropriate methods of data analysis
(qualitative and quantitative) for program reporting;
6. Be able to interpret evaluation findings to inform program design,
practice and overall worth of the program; and
7. Have created a project that demonstrates integration of principles
and methods of program design, implementation and program evaluation.
Return to the top
Youth
Issues/Life Skills, 3 cr
Colorado State University
This
course will present three strands: issues faced by youth today and
associated risk and resiliency factors; life skills for youth; and
helping skills necessary for youth professionals who work with young
people. Upon completion of the course, students will:
1.
Understand the many challenges faced by youth today through an ecological
view of youth issues;
2. Have explored and designed various life skills programs that help
youth address the both risk and resiliency factors;
3. Understand a comprehensive prevention and early intervention framework
that serves to guide life skills program development;
4. Be aware of the environmental, sociological, and cultural influences
of adolescent values and cultural norms;
5. Have acquired the interpersonal and group dynamics skills necessary
to work effectively with youth;
6. Understand various critical thinking, problem solving, and decision
making models that can be utilized in working with youth;
7. Be able to identify, intervene, and refer youth at high risk of mental
illness, suicide, abuse and neglect, or injury to self or others; and
8. Understand motivation and goals of adolescent behavior.
Contemporary
Youth Issues: Violence
This
course will provide students with an understanding of the causes and
consequences of youth violence; an overview of approaches to theory
and research on the development of violent behavior in youth; and
an assessment of prevention and intervention programs designed to
reduce youth violence in society.
OR:
Continuing
Youth Issues: Youth and Appearance
This
course will encourage students to analyze the interrelationships
between clothing and culture, and to examine the variety and diversity
of cultural influences on clothing and modes of adornment within
U.S. adolescent subgroups. Further, students will investigate the
manner in which clothing reflects human behavior and the functions
of clothing and adornment in interpersonal communication, interaction,
and self-identity development. Upon completion of the course, students
will:
1.
Understand the interrelationships between clothing and culture;
2. Understand the variety and diversity of cultural influences on
clothing and modes of adornment within the U.S. adolescence subgrouping;
3. Have investigated the manner in which clothing reflects human
behavior and the functions of clothing and adornment in interpersonal
communication, interaction, and self-identity development; and
4. Understand the cognitive processes involved in person perception.
Return
to the top
Youth
Policy, 3 cr.
Michigan State University
This
course examines various federal and state policies designed specifically
for youth. Students will examine how and why policies for youth are
constructed. A guiding question that will be used to evaluate existing
state and national policies is whether they contribute to, or act
as, barriers to desired developmental outcomes. Upon completion of
the course, students will:
1.
Understand how policies are developed at the local, regional, state,
federal, and global levels;
2. Understand how policies are advanced through local, regional, state,
federal, and global levels;
3. Be able to strengthen the capacity of youth professionals to critique
current and prospective policies with respect to their ability to
impede and/or bolster positive youth development outcomes;
4. Be able to draft policies in response to contemporary issues that
may impede or bolster positive youth development outcomes;
5. Be able to strengthen the capacity and skills of youth professionals
to engage youth in drafting and responding to policies that impact
their life chances; and
6. Be able to strengthen the capacity of youth professionals to advocate
for and against youth policies in collaboration with civic officials
and professional and not-for-profit advocacy/lobbying groups.
Return to the top
Youth
Professionals as Consumers of Research, 3 cr.
University of Nebraska
This
course will help youth development professionals understand and evaluate
research reports to reduce anxiety about applying research results
and theories to practice. Specific emphasis will be on research and
theory reports related to youth development. Upon completion of the
course, students will:
1.
Understand fundamental quantitative and qualitative research principles
that guide disciplined inquiry (e.g., design, sampling, analysis and
interpretation of results);
2. Be able to describe the elements of a well-designed research project;
3. Demonstrate an ability to understand all parts of a research report;
4. Demonstrate an ability to evaluate the quality of research based
on written reports or articles;
5. Demonstrate an ability to apply research findings to practice;
6. Be able to make research findings useful for community stakeholders;
and 6. Understand how theory is created and tested with research and
how theory may be useful in practice.
Return to the top
Administration
and Program Management, 3 cr.
Kansas State University
This
course will introduce students to the development, administration
and management of youth-serving organizations. Upon completion of
the course, students will:
1.
Understand and be able to apply techniques in recruiting, supporting,
and/or supervising committee and board members;
2. Be able to plan, conduct, and evaluate fund raising efforts;
3. Be able to develop grant proposals;
4. Be able to create services that effectively respond to diversity
in the community;
5. Demonstrate an ability to develop a program budget and read and
integrate financial statements;
6. Understand policies and procedures to follow in crisis incidents;
7. Be able to minimize personal and organizational liability and vulnerability;
and
8. Understand and apply the importance of maintaining management information
systems.
Return to the top
Youth in Cultural Contexts, 3
cr.
Michigan State University
This
course will examine the cultural context factors that affect youth
from a holistic perspective within and outside the family unit. The
course will provide an understanding of the cultural heritage of differing
family structures and types. Students will explore the social and
educational processes experienced by youth through in-depth reading,
writing, discussion, critical listening, viewing of contemporary videos,
and informal interviews with youth. Students will be encouraged to
think critically about society and culture, gain further knowledge
of how ethnic groups fit historically into society, and examine the
results of how history has shaped the current cultural climate of
the U.S. Upon completion of the course, students will:
1.
Be critical thinkers able to generate solutions to problems they may
face as future youth professionals from a theoretically, historically,
and ecologically sound base;
2. Participate in open discourse and dialogue with one another to
share experiences, dismantle stereotypes, and bridge gaps;
3. Have enhanced cultural sensitivity;
4. Understand how a group's history can influence its present and
future; and
5. Be able to appreciate some of the developmental expectations, challenges,
and practices adopted by different cultures for the socialization
of youth.
Return to the top
Youth
Development, 3 cr.
University of Nebraska
This
course will introduce students to the developmental period of adolescence.
The theory and research of positive youth development will be the
lens through which this developmental period is examined. The course
will emphasize how the developmental tasks of this life stage are
influenced by (and influence) family and home, school, peers, and
other contextual forces. The course will help students recognize and
become familiar with the major issues and transitions adolescents
face as they successfully navigate this developmental stage by critically
examining the theoretical and research literature. Upon completion
of the course, students will:
1.
Be able to conceptualize developmental tasks and issues common to
adolescence from a positive youth development perspective;
2. Be familiar with the different skills and issues involving adolescence
including: developing autonomy, acquiring interpersonal skills, becoming
physically and sexually mature, developing skills needed for adult
roles, resolving identity issues, and problems facing adolescents;
3. Know how development during adolescence is influenced by (and influences)
the many systems in which adolescents function including: home and
family, school, work, peer networks, and community;
4. Know the major issues of risk and resiliency at this stage of development;
and
5. Understand the research findings informing knowledge of this developmental
stage and the research issues that must be considered in the study
of positive youth development.
Return to the top
|
