SMC Core Curriculum Course Proposal Form
Fall 2014
Electronically submit this course form and attachments to the Chair of the CCC by
October 1. Please submit a separate proposal for each desired learning goal.
1. Name of Proposer: Elena Andrea Escalera
2. Email address: eescaler@stmarys-ca.edu
3. Department/Program of Proposer: Psychology
4. Name of Department/Program housing the course: Psychology
5. Name(s) of Program Director/Department Chair housing the course: Paul
Zarnoth
6. Course Acronym, Number and Title: Psych 115, Health Psychology
7. Proposal is for All Sections of the course: Yes_
Proposal is for instructor’s section(s) (Engaging the World only): Yes
8. Course Prerequisites (if any): Psych 001, Psych 002 or human biology
9. Unit Value of Course: 1
10. Mark with an X the Learning Goal for which the course is being proposed.
(Please submit a separate proposal for each desired goal.)
Pathways to Knowledge (at most one)
Artistic Understanding – Artistic Analysis only: ____
Artistic Understanding – Creative Practice only: ____
Artistic Understanding – Both Artistic Analysis and Creative Practice: ____
Mathematical Understanding: ____
Scientific Understanding: ____
Social, Historical, Cultural Understanding: ____
Christian Foundations: ____
Theological Explorations: ____
Engaging the World (as appropriate, generally zero to two)
American Diversity: ____
Common Good: _X__
Community Engagement: ____
Global Perspectives: ____
11. Expected Attachments:
a) Syllabus: Current course syllabus, expected to contain a course description
and learning outcomes. The course’s learning outcomes must include
coverage of the Learning Outcomes associated with the Core Curriculum
Learning Goal for which the course is being proposed.
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b) Teaching and Learning: A narrative that explains how the course will guide
students toward achieving each Learning Outcome and how coursework
(e.g., papers, exams, videotaped presentations) will be used to measure
student achievement of each Learning Outcome. Please address the outcomes
directly and one by one.
Additional Guidelines:
a) While courses and individual sections within courses may vary, the Core should
provide relatively consistent experiences. Thus our expectation is that each
section of a Pathway to Knowledge course will satisfy all the corresponding
learning outcomes. We also expect that the features of any syllabus submitted
are sufficiently generic to faithfully represent all sections of the course. The CCC
relies on department chairs and program directors to oversee a reasonable
degree of uniformity in how its courses address the learning outcomes.
b) We encourage departments and programs to develop courses so that an
Engaging the World goal can apply to all sections (in which case we will expect a
representative syllabus). We also welcome proposals from individual
instructors.
c) Any course approved for the Core must provide data for the assessment of Core
Curriculum learning goals at an institutional level. Via this proposal a
chair/program director agrees to oversee the submission of the student work
necessary for the assessment of the learning goals, and that his/her instructors
of Core courses will participate in assessment exercises, if asked. Similarly, if the
proposal is from an instructor, that individual agrees to oversee submission of
work from appropriate sections of their course.
d) (Legal and Logistical Workshop) Each instructor of a Community Engagement
(CE) course must participate in a workshop each year before the course is
taught. This workshop will outline the logistical and pedagogical support the
College will be providing to CE courses, as well as provide updates on any legal
or regulatory requirements of community-involved courses. At the workshops,
instructors will be provided information about legal and logistical paperwork
that must be completed by stated deadlines in order to ensure that each CE
course / experience can run safely and effectively.
e) (Pedagogical Workshops) Each instructor of a Community Engagement (CE)
course is required to have training in the pedagogy of Community Engagement.
Faculty who have studied the pedagogy of CE or taught such courses in the past
are invited to submit those experiences to the Community Engagement Working
Group as evidence of qualification. For faculty without previous CE experience
or training, CILSA provides regular workshops each semester that will assist the
instructor in integrating the community engagement learning outcomes into
their course. (These workshops are also available for faculty who wish a
refresher.)
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f) Faculty interested in determining whether a more permanent Engaging the
World designation is appropriate for their course may apply for a one-year
“provisional” designation. Please contact the chair of the CCC and/or chair of the
Working Group for details.
Core Curriculum Proposal
Common Good Course Designation
Psychology 115: Health Psychology
Elena Andrea Escalera
Teaching
Health Psychology is a course that explores how psychology and health are
interconnected, through the mind/body connection, through behavior, and through
the interaction of the person with the health care system. This course has always
had a strong social justice theme and focus, which is why I am now applying for a
Common Good Designation.
In Health Psychology, students reflect and write substantively on ways in
which human beings find fulfillment in community. Students must attempt to change
a health behavior during the semester. This could be getting more and regular sleep,
eating more fruits and vegetables, using stress management, or getting more
exercise. But unlike lay beliefs about health and psychology, students soon learn
that willpower is a myth. It is a myth of a particular cultural individuality. Health, or
wellness, exists as a systemic phenomenon, based in community connection and
support. During this behavior change the students keep a reflective journal to track
their progress and to see how it connects to larger social issues (such as social
support, social engineering- resources and community design that supports their
behavior, stress and demand, etc.). Students must track how they are supported or
not supported by the system and how that impacts the success of their behavior
change.
Students are continually asked to articulate a critical account of just social
order. This begins with the reading and discussion component of the course.
Students engage in shared inquiry about current literature in the field, most of
which is related to social justice. Students read Mark Oliver on the social model of
disability, which holds that disability does not lie in the person, but in the inability of
the system to accommodate different abilities. They read Oscar Barbarin’s paper on
institutional racism, to understand how systems can be racist even though no
person is intending to discriminate. Students read about how gender variation,
stereotypes and cultural practices influence the kind of health care available to
medical minorities. Discussion revolves around awareness of the issue and an
analysis of the concrete social problems described in the articles. In terms of
disability, students discuss adaptive technology and how it impacts the public’s view
of disability and the degree to which mechanical adaptations decrease or increase
humanness. This is the process throughout the semester with each topic. Social
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justice is seen as a health variable that is omnipresent in the understanding of
health of the whole person and the system.
Learning
Students reflect and write substantively on ways in which human beings find
fulfillment in community through both their reflective journals, which address the
role of community in their personal health, and through examinations. Reflective
journals are graded on the criteria of personal reflection, integration of the social
justice readings, and application of these ideas to personal experience. Each of the
examinations requires an essay question that integrates a social justice issue (such as
racial discrimination) and a health phenomenon (high blood pressure). Students are
asked to apply the Biopsychosocial model of health in each of these essays.
Students are graded on their ability to articulate a critical account of just
social order in discussion sessions and in their examinations. Students need to be
able to articulate not just their position on a social justice topic, but also an
alternative position as well. For instance, in discussion of death and dying, students
must consider both sides of the issue. For assisted suicide, students need to consider
and discuss both the position of the Right to Die, self-determination and patient
dignity, but also the opposition which includes religious communities and the
disability movement, who opposes such legislation as a danger to their lives.
In addition, each semester the class is involved in an ongoing public good
issue to increase their capacity for coherent, principled analysis of concrete social
problems. One year the students had a skype session with Jeannette Beal, a blind
teacher who specializes in helping children use adaptive technology. She was going
to lose her job because the state of Massachusetts would not make an exception on
how they administered a re-certification test that was incompatible with her screen
reader. Students discussed this with Miss Beal and with themselves, and then wrote
letters to Pearson/Vue (creators of the test) and the State of Massachusetts Board of
Education. Last year the students were active in the hearings about the new BART
“Fleet of the Future”. The changes to the BART trains make it impossible for
wheelchair users to enter the train during rush hour. On the other hand, the new
design will allow for more standing grab bars, which may make it easier for seniors
and ambulatory disabled people to use the trains. Students could attend a hearing or
write in to BART with their opinions.
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