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CH 535/ Curriculum Development

Canyon College
Community Health Education Program

Syllabus

CH535
Curriculum Development

This course is intended for educators working in health care and community service settings, although the student of general education principles and applications will benefit from content and applications also.

Your instructor welcomes you to this course! Please print and save this information!

Dale Mueller, EdD, RN, NHA

dmueller@canyoncollege.edu
http://www.love2learn.com
office 909.920.5854
fax 909.920.6046

Course Description | Overview | Course Objectives | Weekly Assignment Objectives
Course Policies | Grades | Required Text | Contact Instructor

I. Course Description

This course is intended to introduce the graduate student to traditional and contemporary considerations for effective curriculum planning and design as applied to endeavors in community settings. This exploratory and research opportunity is made available to students to enhance their knowledge and abilities in working with diverse populations across the life span in a variety of circumstances toward specified health related issues or initiatives. This course includes learning theory, human development and learning styles as considerations for design and planning of educational interventions in community settings. In keeping with community based service roles, this course supports linkages with established institutions or agencies in community settings. The diverse roles filled by community health educators and accompanying impacts on curriculum planning are explored.

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II. Course Objectives

At the conclusion of this course, students will be able to:

Describe the impacts of social forces upon curriculum design
Incorporate appropriate aspects of learning styles and stages of human development in curriculum planning
Discuss ways curriculum planning can be sensitive to cultural diversity in changing environments
Identify considerations for curriculum planning for children, adolescents, young adults, older adults, and frail adults
Discuss health education curricula in the workplace, schools, health care institutions, and other settings
Assess opportunities for community linkages and health advocacy
Design a model curriculum demonstrating considerations for a selected age group, setting, and health care issue including appropriate community linkages

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III. Overview

This course is intended to facilitate construction of relevant and appropriate educational curricula, whether the courses be brief encounters, or extensive and presented over the course of weeks or months. The community health educator should be sensitive to learning needs and styles as well as providing meaningful and relevant course content. This course is designed to prepare the community health educator to frame the learning experience and content presented in ways that will link to the community and sustainability of the educational content.

Course assignments are designed such that they are individually tailored within an area of focus as selected by the student, thus supporting the specific career interest of each student. The first half of this course provides theory and background regarding curriculum, while the second half of the course focuses on applications and linkages in community settings.

This course has weekly homework assignments or activities, which will draw upon numerous and varied resources. These activities and assignments include information from readings, research, prior coursework, and personal experiences. There are several occasions throughout the course that information drawn from the student's own community will be integrated into the learning opportunities.

There is a midterm activity paper due in week #4, consisting of an assignment designed to integrate course material. There is a final activity paper due in week #8, consisting of a detailed plan for a model curriculum on a selected topic. Requirements and specific details for these papers and weekly homework are given in the weekly assignment section of this syllabus, and may not be available for public view without an enrollment password issued by Canyon College.

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IV. Textbook Online Bookstore

Required text:
Parkay, F., & Hass, G. (2000). Curriculum planning: A contemporary approach. (7th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
ISBN #: 0205307108

Reagan, P.A., & Brookins-Fisher, J. (1997). Community Health in the 21st Century. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
ISBN #: 0205197493

Suggested reading and reference materials:
Breckon, D., Harvey, J., & Lancaster, R. (1998). Community health education: Settings roles and skills for the 21st century.(4th ed.). Gaithersburg, MD: Aspen.
ISBN #: 083420987X

Theories about how people learn:
http://www.funderstanding.com/about_learning.cfm

Literacy promotion: A Library Advocate's Guide to Building Information Literate Communities (free):
http://www.ala.org/pio/advocacy
http://www.ala.org/pio/advocacy/informationliteracy.pdf

Resources for curriculum theory and multicultural education
http://www.love2learn.com/refs.html

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V. Weekly Assignment Objectives

Upon successful completion of Week 1 assignments, the student should be able to:

Describe the role of "relevance" in curriculum planning
Discuss the social forces that are likely to influence curriculum planning in community settings
Identify major contributors to the field of curriculum development as well as their contributions

Upon successful completion of Week 2 assignments, the student should be able to:

Describe the pertinent aspects of stages of human development from infant through adulthood and senescence that are of immediate importance in curriculum design and planning
Describe contemporary learning theories and their importance in curriculum design and planning
Explore ways the community health educator could provide age-appropriate curriculum materials for young children, adolescents, retirees, and the frail elderly

Upon successful completion of Week 3 assignments, the student should be able to:

Identify applications of age-appropriate curriculum planning through examination of examples obtained from community or other resources
Identify applications of cultural relevance, cultural sensitivity, multicultural impacts, and cultural diversity in community health curriculum development through examples obtained from community or other resources
Evaluate opportunities for positive contributions by community health educators to existing community based curricula

Upon successful completion of Week 4 assignments, the student should be able to:

Integrate the unique contributions of the community health educator into an existing health education program located in the student's own community or other resources

Upon successful completion of Week 5 assignments, the student should be able to:

Identify positioning and usage of health education curricula in the workplace, schools, community centers, and public health agencies in the student's own community
Evaluate a selected program curriculum regarding relevance, age-appropriate presentation and learning style, and sustainability of learning
Evaluate barriers that may exist regarding suggested improvements or enhancements to curriculum plan or implementation
Discuss potential solutions to identified barriers

Upon successful completion of Week 6 assignments, the student should be able to:

Compose a personal position statement regarding the community health educator as advocate for open access to education, including that of functional literacy for persons served
Critique information obtained from a face to face interview from an established community health educator regarding considerations of human development, learning style, literacy, cultural competence, and relevance in the process of curriculum design

Upon successful completion of Week 7 assignments, the student should be able to:

Evaluate the curriculum planning considerations needed in situations such as international humanitarian interventions and disaster response interventions

Upon successful completion of Week 8 assignments, the student should be able to:

Complete a plan for curriculum design for a selected population, setting, and topic integrating the principles of development, learning theory, cultural competence, and relevance.

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VI. Course Policies

On-Line Participation. Since this course is offered over the Internet, which allows students to participate at "any time, any where," it is important to plan your time carefully. Students are expected to pace themselves to access assignments, prepare their work and necessary research, and submit assignments to the instructor by the established due dates. Students are expected to make use of local resources as well as required readings.

Course Week and Due Dates. Generally, Monday is the first of the course week, and Sunday is the last day of the course week. Assignments scheduled for completion during a class week should be sent to the instructor via email or fax by end of the day Sunday, determined by your own time zone. If a student is sending assignments through the postal service, please make prior arrangements with instructor, as there is no postal delivery on Sunday. Given that this is a graduate level course, and that some community contact and independent research is necessary to fulfill assignments, some flexibility regarding due dates may be granted by mutual agreement between student and instructor.

Submitting Assignments - Instructions.

Students may submit work in MSWord (any version) or Excel (any version) or HTML and send as an email note or file attachment. If you use another word processing program (such as Works), please save as an .rtf file.

Formats for files received other than those specified here that your instructor cannot open using MSWord or a Word converter program for PC or Macintosh will be returned to you for reprocessing, and will be considered late. Any questions on formatting of your file attachment documents, please Email your instructor with any questions now and we can find a format that will work for your particular needs. Thanks in advance on this matter.

Please include name, reply address, title of assignment, title of course, and date submitted on the document itself, in addition to the email text. Please indicate "CH 535" in the subject line of your email.

Late Assignment Penalties. Weekly assignments must be received by the instructor not later than Sunday midnight (your time zone) of the week assigned. Students who anticipate that their schedule may cause assignments to be out of compliance are advised to contact instructor at least one week in advance, as an extension may be permitted with prior mutual agreement. Instructor discretion regarding point penalties for any late work will be considered final.

Absentee Policy. While this course is designed to be completed through independent study, "attendance" is recorded through assignment submissions in a timely manner to the instructor's email address (or via post or fax). However, please note that any student who has not participated (completed assignments) for 14 consecutive days without prior discussion with the instructor regarding such absence shall be recommended for administrative withdrawal. The school shall make recommendations to the instructor as to what action will be taken.

Academic Honesty. Canyon College policies are in effect. All work must be your own. Presenting as one's own the words, ideas, or expression of another in any form is cheating through plagiarism, and will not be tolerated.

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VII. Grading

Assignments will be graded based on completeness, correctness and timeliness of submissions. There is a total of 100 points possible.

Given that graduate courses are designed to support development of competencies and integration of theory with practical applications, the following criteria will be used by your instructor to assign both midterm and final letter grades based on assignments in aggregate. Please note that with few exceptions, there are no letter or point grades for weekly assignments, as the learner's work is assessed in aggregate based on demonstrated achievements toward the course objectives.

Categories for assessment by the instructor of the graduate student's work are as follows:

UNDERSTANDING
Content of readings and other assigned source materials should be reflected by critical analysis and synthesis of ideas in work submitted. Intellectual depth of understanding also applies, by evidence of advancing the course objectives within the student's breadth of knowledge.

APPLICATION
Examples and discussion of course content as assigned to real-life situations, including critique or conclusion.

CLARITY OF EXPRESSION
Written work should be presented in a scholarly manner, with evidence of logic and coherence, including introduction and conclusion as appropriate. Mechanics of writing, such as spelling, grammar, and citations should also be evident.

RESEARCH and SUPPORTING MATERIAL
Examples or evidence as requested should match the level of the assignment, level of inquiry, and depth of investigative endeavor as requested.

Letter grades will be assigned according to the following definitions:

A = Excellent
Work that may be described as superior, excellent, or outstanding. The student demonstrates accuracy, depth of understanding and illustration, and provides original thought and analysis beyond the basic textbook information requested in the assignment.

B = Very Good
Demonstrates high level of competence relative to the assessment criteria, but falls short of the consistent excellence required for A/Excellent category. The B/Very Good category allows for some minor weaknesses in presentation but the content is effectively demonstrated.

C = Satisfactory
Demonstrates the information requested in the assignment, but less completely than B/Very Good work. The major points are expressed, but less complete topic development, and minimal original thought and analysis. Work that contains significant issues with spelling or grammar may fit this category even though development of ideas are of higher levels of synthesis.

D = Flawed
Information digresses and is not adequately focused. Persistent work of D/Flawed level may indicate the student is not ready for graduate level work.

Homework.
Weekly assignments may have more than one component, and the point value for each component is worth 5, 10, or 15 points as shown on the assignment detail.

Midterm and Final Weeks.
The Midterm grade is determined by aggregate point performance of work submitted for assignments designated in weeks 1-4.

The Final point allocation is determined through aggregate points submitted for all weeks of the course.

Final Letter Grade.
Letter grades will be assigned at the conclusion of the eight weeks based on cumulative points achieved over the entirety of the eight week course. The grading scale based on 100 possible points is as follows:

A = 95 - 100 points
A- = 90 - 94.5 points
B+ = 86 - 89.5 points
B = 83 - 85.5 points
B- = 80 - 82.5 points
C+ = 76 - 79.5 points
C = 73 - 75.5 points
C- = 70 - 72.5 points
D = 60 points to 69.5 points
F = below 60 points

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