1
Shannon Wanless
5937 WWPH swanless@pitt.edu
Tanner Wallace
5946 WWPH twallace@pitt.edu
COURSE OVERVIEW
This online course focuses on developmental pathways from middle childhood through adolescence within the contexts of family, peers, community, school, and culture. Key developmental tasks during these periods are highlighted, and specific challenges experienced by children and youth are examined. Developmental pathways are considered with regard to transactions between individuals and social life conditions, with particular attention paid to patterns of change in participation in social-cultural practices. In addition to reading current literature, students will apply research to policy and practice.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
By the end of this course sequence, students should:
1.
Understand the importance of supportive adult relationships during adolescence.
2.
Know and understand characteristics of adolescent development across developmental domains (e.g. cognitive, physical, identity, social, psychological, etc.)
3.
Describe and apply major theories of adolescent development across multiple contexts, especially school, family, and peer/social contexts.
4.
Understand of how individual characteristics such as gender, socioeconomic status, and racial or ethnic background, as well as social contexts such as the family, peer group, school, neighborhood, and work environment interact to influence adolescent development.
5.
Discuss the role of identity development in relationship to the task of constructing or authoring one’s life story.
COURSE FORMAT
The entire class will occur online. Course content is organized into weekly sessions that are grouped into 3-week sections. The focus this term will be on applying the knowledge you gained in Adolescent Development 1 to address issues that face adults supporting adolescents in schools. The 3-week sections will be structured in the following way and will focus on one main topic each:
Week 1: Read scholarly information related to the main topic.
Week 2: Read a popular press article about the main topic and post 3 comments about it on the discussion board. These comments should be informed by the scholarly information you read in week 1. You will be graded based on the substantiveness of your comment, its accuracy, and its integration of information learned in PSYED 2261 and in the previous readings.
Week 3: Observe in your placement about an aspect of the main topic and submit a one-page summary of what you observed. These summaries should be informed by the scholarly information you read in week 1 and the discussion board information in week 2. A template for this observation will be available to guide your assignment.
Since this course is for one credit, online course work will be about 50 minutes per week.
COURSE ASSIGNMENTS: Course total = 100 points
*Posting 3 comments on the discussion board four times in the term (see assigned weeks below).
Comments are worth 3 points per comment.
*Submit a one-page summary of observation four times in the term (see assigned weeks below).
Each summary is worth 16 points.

2
COURSE EVALUATION
Final Grades:
Based on the 100 possible points, grades will be assigned as follows*:
A+: 97-100 points
A: 93-96 points
A-: 90-92 points
B+: 87-89 points
C:
C-:
D+:
D:
73-76 points
70-72 points
67-69 points
63-66 points
B: 83-86 points
B-: 80-82 points
D-: 60-62 points
F: <60 points
C+: 77-79 points
*Note: Total points are rounded to nearest whole. So, 0.000 to 0.500 is rounded down & 0.501 to 0.999 is rounded up. Instructor reserves the right to round in your favor.
A NOTE FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES
If you have a disability for which you are or may be requesting an accommodation, you are encouraged to contact both your instructor and Disability Resources and Services (DRS), 140 William Pitt Union, (412) 648-7890, drsrecep@pitt.edu,
(412) 228-5347 for P3 ASL users, as early as possible in the term. DRS will verify your disability and determine reasonable accommodations for the course.
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
Students have the responsibility to be honest and to conduct themselves in an ethical manner while pursuing academic studies. Students have the right to be treated by faculty in a fair and conscientious manner in accordance with the ethical standards generally recognized within the academic community (as well as those recognized within the profession). Should a student be accused of a breach of academic integrity or have questions regarding faculty responsibilities, procedural safeguards including provisions of due process have been designed to protect student rights.
These may be found in Guidelines on Academic Integrity: Student and Faculty Obligations and Hearing Procedures at www.provost
.pitt.edu/info/ai1.html
GRIEVANCE PROCEDURE
Any member of the University community having evidence may bring to the attention of the department chair and/or dean a complaint that a faculty member has failed, in one or more respects, to meet faithfully the obligations set forth in
University policy. The chair or dean, at his or her discretion, will take such action by way of investigation, counseling, or action–in accordance with applicable University procedures–as may appear to be proper under the circumstances. The faculty member’s and student’s interest in confidentiality, academic freedom, and professional integrity in such matters will be respected.
ADDITIONAL STUDENT RESOURCES

Technology/Computer Help Desk: 412-624-HELP [4357]

Student Health Services: 412-383-1800 ( http://www .studhlth.pitt.edu)

Counseling Center: 412-648-7930 ( http://www .counseling.pitt.edu)

The Writing Center: 412-624-6556 ( www.english
.pitt.edu/writingcenter)

Disability Resources and Services: 412-648-7890 ( http://www .drs.pitt.edu/)

Office of International Services: 412-624-7120 ( http://www .ois.pitt.edu/)

Information Technology (Computing Services & Systems Development): http://technology .pitt.edu/

Office of the Registrar (academic calendar, transcripts, course registration/enrollment): http://www .registrar.pitt.edu/

Software Download Service (students can get many software programs, including Microsoft Office, at low or NO cost, either online or by picking up CDs at campus computer labs): http://www.software.pitt.edu

3
Date
(week)
Read/Do for this Session
1/12 There is no assignment or reading for this week.
1/19
1/26
TOPIC 1: Engagement in School
Week 1: Read scholarly information.
Hafen, C. A., Allen, J. P., Mikami, A. Y., Gregory, A., Hamre, B., & Pianta, R. C. (2012). The pivotal role of adolescent autonomy in secondary school classrooms. Journal of youth and adolescence , 41 (3), 245-255.
Week 2: Read the Popular Press Article and post 3 comments on the discussion board. http://www.slate.com/articles/life/education/2014/02/high_school_in_amer ica_a_complete_disaster.html
2/2 Week 3: Submit one-page summary of observation.
TOPIC 2: Social Networks in the Classroom
2/9
Week 1: Read scholarly information.
Hamm, J. V., Farmer, T. W., Lambert, K., & Gravelle, M. (2014). Enhancing peer cultures of academic effort and achievement in early adolescence: Promotive effects of the SEALS intervention. Developmental psychology , 50 (1), 216.
2/16
Week 2: Read the Popular Press Article and post 3 comments on the discussion board. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anna-koppelman/teenpopularity_b_5731312.html
2/23
Week 3: Submit one-page summary of observation.
TOPIC 3: Bullying in Schools
3/2
Week 1: Read scholarly information.
Wang, J., Iannotti, R. J., & Luk, J. W. (2012). Patterns of adolescent bullying behaviors: Physical, verbal, exclusion, rumor, and cyber. Journal of school psychology , 50 (4), 521-534.

4
3/9
Week 2: Read the Popular Press Article and post 3 comments on the discussion board. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/14/web-of-popularity-weaved-bybullying/?_r=0
3/16 Week 3: Submit one-page summary of observation.
TOPIC 4: Social Media & Identity
3/23
Week 1: Read scholarly information.
Dabbagh, N., & Kitsantas, A. (2012). Personal Learning Environments, social media, and selfregulated learning: A natural formula for connecting formal and informal learning. The Internet and higher education , 15 (1), 3-8.
3/30
Week 2: Read the Popular Press Article and post 3 comments on the discussion board. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/social-media-valuable-tool-teachers/
4/6 Week 3: Submit one-page summary of observation.
4/13 Bringing it all Together: TBD