PSY404 07: SERVICE LEARNING

Course Professor: Dr. Adolph Brown

Text:

Learn & Serve America. (2000). Service Leaming & Mentoring High Risk Populations.
Selected Readings available on reserve at the Hampton University Library.

Course Objectives:

A. Apply concepts of the subfields of child, family, and community psychology while working with community organizations and agencies under the supervision of “helping” professionals.

B. Apply skill-based training to issues of multistressed (affected by one or more sources of significant stress, for example homelessness, substance abuse, or lack of basic necessities) children, families, and communities.

C. Correct misperceptions that you held about multistressed children, families, and communities before taking this course with regards to stressors that are routine, unrelenting, and woven into the daily life and are a result of societal conditions and pressures that are beyond the control of individuals.

D. Apply practical strategies for working with children and families who live in multistressed environments through participant observation & intervention and service learning.

E. Have a basic knowledge of child growth and development.

F. Understand and implement developmentally appropriate practice.

G. Working knowledge of multicultural principles.

H. Use the information learned and experienced in this course to improve your understanding of multistressed children, families, and communities and to be more effective in your interactions with others and your physical environment.

I. Find the psychological resources and assistance that you need throughout the rest of your life for maximum happiness and success as well as exploring resource allocation and utilization of others.

J. Evaluate the ability of science to detect the causes and determinants of behavior,

K. Choose to systematically observe and study your behavior and the behavior of others throughout your life.

L. Participate in Service Learning (involvement in community activities that complement your classroom studies in an effort to increase your academic skills through applying what you learned in the classroom to the real world) by seeing the applications of your school based learning to real life situations, including the world of work.

M. Participate in Service Learning by learning how to as well as the importance of forging school and community partnerships that will affect the quality of life in your community.

N. Generate some product or documentation that illustrates what meaning you have gained from the experience as connected to course content.

Evaluation

You will receive written and verbal feedback from the professor. In-text feedback will be given to help you learn to separate observation from inference and to help you critique your recorded experiences in light of the psychological concepts under discussion. Several meeting discussions will be devoted to brainstorming ways to best showcase the difference you felt you made in the community. We have audio and video equipment (if all permissions are obtained) which we can use to produce documents, videos, forums, and programs. I also have several media contacts. Thus our resources for exchange are numerous. The HU Grading Scale will be used to assign grades based on the percentage of total points earned using the following formula (4 Assignments weighted at 25% each):

(1) Reflective Journal Assignment
(2) 20-Page Model Application & Position Paper
(3) Attendance
(4) Attitude