by Jacki Fitzpatrick, Associate Professor, Texas Tech University, and Ryan Gerrity, student, James Madison University
Although commercial films are not written, directed, or produced specifically for the college classroom, instructors might find that such films are a valuable way to elicit students’ attention.
by James Marshall, Ph.D., LMFT, Associate Professor of Family Life, University of Arkansas, and H. Wallace Goddard, Ph.D., CFLE, Professor of Family Life, University of Arkansas
... the best instruction balances four different elements of oral or written instruction, according to David Merrill, who has developed a system of instructional design called Component Display Theory (CDT)
by Sharon M. Ballard, associate professor of Child Development & Family Relations, and Bryce Jorgensen, assistant professor of Child Development & Family Relations, East Carolina University
Many FCS graduates work in non-profit child and family agencies where fund-raising has become increasingly important in these challenging economic times. This article describes how fund-raising is incorporated into the FCS curriculum and the method we use to teach the grant-writing process.
As a Muslim Family Educator, I thought it was important to illustrate ways in which family professionals can show cultural sensitivity when working with Muslim families or individuals.
by Arminta Jacobson, Ph.D., CFCS, CFLE, Elaine Millikan Mathes Professor, Development and Family Studies, Department of Educational Psychology, University of North Texas
Parent and Family Education, the masters-level course that I developed and teach, provides a model for developing graduate student competencies and professional leaders in family life education.
by Terrance D. Olson, Professor, School of Family Life, Brigham Young University
What characterizes quality communication begins in something that precedes either knowledge or skill. It has to do with the quality of our hearts. That can sound mystical or like some platitude from fantasyland, but let’s examine the possibility.
by Meg Wilkes Karraker, Ph.D., University of St. Thomas
Some of us who teach undergraduates may be reluctant to make a research monograph a central focus of required reading for a family studies course. Conversations with colleagues across the family social science discipline reveal that many of us struggle with how to meet (at least) two different objectives when teaching.
by Bryce Dickey, M.S., CFLE, Western Michigan University
The development of a successful online course involves much more than simply taking presentations, lecture notes, and videos from the traditional classroom and moving them to an online platform.
by Lawrence G. Shelton, Ph.D., Human Development & Family Studies, University of Vermont
Over the past two decades, our HDFS program at the University of Vermont has evolved an introductory family course. The approach began when the late Armin Grams decided to use Urie Bronfenbrenner’s 1979 book, The Ecology of Human Development, as the core text.
by Julia M. Bernard, Ph.D., CFLE, MFT Intern, Assistant Professor, Family and Child Studies, and Juliet Hardtner Women in Arts and Humanities Endowed Professor, McNeese State University
So often it is not until students get jobs and start working that they come back and say, “I wish I had paid attention in your class.” So do I. Through the power of social media, I often find myself and other family science professors complaining about the same things in our daily lives.
by Elise Murowchick, Ph.D., CFLE, lecturer at Seattle University in the Department of Psychology
When you think back to your novice scholar days, you may remember if you were lucky enough to find two studies that showed exactly the same thing. Perhaps more likely, you encountered findings that did not exactly match.
by Trent W. Maurer, Ph.D., Georgia Southern University
POGIL offers a new constructivist approach for teaching family science. A POGIL classroom or lab consists of any number of students working in small groups on specially designed guided inquiry materials.
by Kari Morgan, PhD, CFLE, associate professor, Department of Family and Consumer Sciences
One of the things I most enjoy about my affiliation with NCFR is the company of colleagues who share my passion for teaching family science. Most of my “innovative ways, curricula, materials and experiences, and processes that I use to teach” are from my NCFR colleagues!
by Raeann R. Hamon, Messiah College, and Suzanne R. Smith, Washington State University Vancouver
As faculty within family science programs, it is imperative for us to continue to convey the content and teach the skills that make our graduates most marketable.
by Yolanda Mitchell, M.S., Jaimee Hartenstein, M.S., and Melinda Stafford Markham, Ph.D., CFLE, Kansas State University
The breadth of the family science field is sometimes hard for students to conceptualize. Assigning portfolios will help students to bridge the gap between exiting college as students and entering the world as new professionals.
