Learning Developmental Psychology through Films, Friends and Family

by Peggy Williams Petersen

from Inquiry, Volume 2, Number 1, Spring 1998, 57-61

Abstract

A user-friendly manual designed to guide a student through Developmental Psychology as an independent study course was created as the result of a Professional Development grant. This article outlines in a step-by-step manner the process followed by the author to create the course and the manual. The article discusses all components of the course: the test, the films, and numerous examples of student-initiated activities. Finally, student evaluation of the course is mentioned, as are thoughts and potential revisions.

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For this activity I interviewed my younger son who had heard me interviewing my teenage son earlier; so the thought it would be cool to do the same thing. We talked about friendship. He said, "Friends are nice to you, they like to do stuff with you, they go places with you, and they invite you to their birthday parties."

For this activity I interviewed my younger son who had heard me interviewing my teenage son earlier, so he thought it would be cool to do the same thing. We talked about friendship. He said, "Friends are nice to you, they like to do stuff with you, they go places with you, and they invite you to their birthday parties."

Pam, the author of this paragraph, is the ideal student for Developmental Psychology as an independent study course. She is a single parent, the mother of three children aged 5, 7, and 14. She is fitting the class work into her schedule and is involving her family in her learning process. She is typical of many of our non-traditional community college students. Work, parenthood, and being a student are often intermingled roles. For these students, distance learning is the answer to a prayer.

To meet the needs of students such as Pam, last spring I applied for and received a summer stipend through the Professional Development Grant program to transform my Developmental Psychology class into a telecourse/independent study course. Three major tasks confronted me: first, I would need to select a textbook that would suit an independent study format and would be easy to understand; next, I would need to assemble a series of films to accompany the course; and finally, I wanted to make the class as interactive as possible without having to convene meetings, so I had to find or create appropriate activities.

There are many excellent life span development texts. Although any number of texts would have serviced the course well, I chose J. W. Vander Zanden’s sixth edition of Human Development published by McGraw-Hill in 1997. It is divided into ten parts, contains nineteen chapters, and is a full and challenging book for a one-semester course. This textbook is readable and understandable.

The second task, selecting films, was straightforward. Two developmental film series I was familiar with were the Childhood Series and the Seasons of Life series. I decided both of these would do in part, but together they still needed to be supplemented to compensate for in-class discussions. (From the former series, I am using Great Expectations, Love’s Labors, In the Land of the Giants, Life’s Lessons, and The House of Tomorrow; and from the latter series I am using only the three films on adulthood.) Neither series focuses on theory, so I felt it my duty to introduce my students to at least some of our theoretical giants. I chose Piaget (Piaget’s Developmental Theory: An Overview) and Erikson (Erik H. Erikson: A Life’s Work). Other films I have chosen include Discovering Psychology: Understanding Research, Miracle of Life, Baby Talk, and Life’s First Feelings. For the final film, Chillysmith Farm, I advise the students to have tissues on hand. Although it was copyrighted in the early 1980's, Chillysmith Farm is a film festival blue ribbon winner worth seeing again and again. Two film makers look at four generations of their own family in a documentary that covers the deaths of the two grandparents, one in dignity and one in senility, and ends with the birth of a new generation.

Altogether the students in this course watch fifteen films in the fifteen-week semester. The films provide students with an opportunity to actually witness the complete life span from conception to death. For some, this is a revisiting of familiar turf, but for others, new territory is covered. Student comments regarding the films have generally been positive. When asked to comment on the films, one student mused, "Very interesting - brought the readings to life." Another said, "Loved them - very informative - you learn to love these families and enjoy watching their development." And an often-repeated comment was, "I think the films should be viewed by all prospective parents. I wish I had seen them 28 years ago."

I decided to break the final task, student interaction, into sections based on the textbook’s ten divisions. For each part of the text I begged, borrowed or created approximately four activities that would invite the student to be an active participant in the learning experience. Because situations vary, the student was required only to choose one activity from each section. A sample of activities follows:

To learn about infancy, the student is asked if she has or knows anyone with a newborn to three-month old. It is suggested that if she does, she could, with the parent’s consent and assistance, attempt to elicit the rooting reflex, the Babinski, the palmer grasp, the plantar grasp, and the stepping reflex. One new grandmother was thrilled with the opportunity this afforded her to interact with her daughter and new grandson.
Another activity designed to study infancy is entitled, "Does Rover have object permanence?" Persons with young pets are encouraged to test their animal to see if they can find a hidden toy. Although students are given a wide variety of choices, many students have chosen this activity. One student even checked her guinea pig for object permanence. He was a yearling and he had object permanence. Three-month old kittens and puppies did not have it. This activity was adapted from Gross, 1997.
The two most widely chosen preschool activities have been to visit a toy store and to observe children at a play area in a fast food restaurant. One mother went alone to a toy store and carefully examined the toys marked for ages 3-5. She used her newly acquired knowledge of preschoolers’ cognitive, social, and physical development and made a number of excellent choices for her daughter’s upcoming fourth birthday. She said previously she had relied on what had been advertised on TV and was generally dissatisfied. She now felt she could be a skilled consumer. Another student who had no children of her own accompanied a friend with her two-year old to McDonald’s for lunch. The student targeted another child for her observation, a three-year old girl. She remarked over and over again how much difference there was between the two children, differences she had not been aware of before she intentionally tried to learn about this age.
To learn about school- age children, the favorite activity has been to perform conservation tasks with the children. One woman tried this on her own children (ages six and seven) and found that neither could conserve mass, so she called her next door neighbor and involved her two children. They were older (nine and ten), and they showed her that they could conserve mass.
One possible activity with an adolescent has been to do an in-depth interview. Several students have chosen this topic. They seemed surprised by the honest responses they have received. One mother commented that upon interviewing her own son, she had much more insight into "what he was into and who his friends were." She said she was delighted with having an avenue to follow to get to know him better.
To learn about middle adulthood, students are asked to thumb through magazines or newspapers in their homes and see how middle aged persons are represented. Is mid-life referred to as a crisis? Are middle agers portrayed as sexy? They are to read the text to see what is really happening at this age and then compare that to the media treatment of this age group.
A final example is an activity which the author did with her own mother ten years ago and has had students duplicate ever since. The student has a structured interview to perform with a person in late adulthood. Some difficult issues are approached, such as death. The last few minutes of the interview are dedicated to completing the time line, which indicates high points and low points in the interviewee’s life. The author discovered that the divorce from her first husband was the high point of a decade of her mother’s life. Many students have remarked of similar family discoveries that have come from this interview.

The students are assigned to choose ten activities from a list of forty. When asked to comment about the activities, one student said, "I’ve enjoyed the activities - lots of variation and great choices. Sometimes the choice between activities was difficult." Another responded, "They help reinforce what the book teaches." Others said the activities were "enlightening," "useful," "fun," and "relevant."

The final product of this grant is a user-friendly spiral bound booklet listing all of the films, activities, and textbook readings. This manual is divided into ten parts, one for each part of the text. The first is titled, The Study of Human Development; Part II is called Beginnings; the third part is Infancy: The First Two Years; and so forth as the textbook delineates. Within each part the appropriate readings are noted. For example, in "Chapter 1, Introduction," the corresponding films are listed and the activities are written out in detail. All requirements are clearly spelled out so that the student should have no doubt about what is required of him/her. After this section, a list of Internet web sites is presented for those who are interested in surfing the web. At the end of the manual there is a study guide which has been adapted from the textbook study guide (Gross, 1997). The manuals are sold in the bookstore alongside the Zanden textbook. The films are available for checkout at the Academic Computing Center. The only item that the student is then without is a syllabus, which sets deadlines, and this is available for the asking on the first and only day of class.

This course was offered during the Fall ‘97 semester and is presently being offered again. Twenty-five students (all women) took the course in the fall and twenty-seven (including two men) are now enrolled. Only three students failed to complete the course in the fall; each withdrew because of personal reasons.

Mid-semester I asked the Fall ‘97 students to rate in Likert fashion (1=poor to 5=excellent) several aspects of the course. Twenty-two students evaluated the course manual and rated its usefulness as 4.2, its relevancy as 4.5, and its overall user-friendliness as 4.1. Although these results indicate the ratings of only one class, this author is encouraged by the many favorable comments such as "eye-opening activities, which cause one to look at things in a different way."

This course was also evaluated through the formal system administered by the college. The outcomes revealed that out of 17 students responding to the request for evaluation, 95% of them agreed or strongly agreed that the course was challenging; 94% agreed or strongly agreed that critical thinking was encouraged; 100% agreed or strongly agreed that the assignments were beneficial; and 93% agreed or strongly agreed that the course presentation was clear. These results are also very encouraging.

One change that was immediately made in the course was to make all the tests open book tests. The tests are extensive (75-100 questions each) and are time-limited (75 minutes), but because the reading load is so heavy (1-2 chapters per week), the students requested this modification. It seemed reasonable, so I complied. After the completion of this second semester, other changes may include offering the students their choice of 10 of 15 films and an optional class meeting once a month for informal discussion.

In conclusion, I am convinced that having time afforded to me by a VCCS Professional Development Grant allowed me to create an independent study course, that is thorough, interactive, and fun. I’m proud of the course and its ability to conveniently and effectively serve Pam and the many other non-traditional students who have taken and will take this course.

References

Gross, D.L. (1997), Instructor’s manual and test bank to accompany Vander Zanden: Human Development, New York: McGraw-Hill.

Vander Zanden, J. W. (1997). Human Development (6th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Dr. Peggy Williams-Petersen is an assistant professor in Psychology at Germanna Community College. She received her degree in Developmental Psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1991.