Summary
Storytelling offers amazing benefits to both tellers and listeners. For older adults, telling stories or reminiscing is particularly beneficial, facilitating life review (Butler, 1963) and fostering ego integrity (vs. despair) in later life (Erikson, 1950). Stories allow older individuals to make sense of their lives and establish a legacy of self (McAdams, 1996). In this presentation, we describe the life story portion of the Elder Service Partner (ESP) Program incorporated into a Sociology of Aging course. In addition to being paired with an older adult (65+) for 15 hours of community service during the semester, students spend an additional five hours interviewing their ESPs to create chapters of their life story. We also present evaluative feedback from ESPs on the life story portion of the program, highlighting benefits and challenges of the project.Findings support the benefits of life review for older adults who are sharing stories with university students.

Objectives

• Participants will identify ways to enhance intergenerational service-learning among undergraduate students.
• Participants will articulate benefits of storytelling for older adults.
• Participants will consider the impact of service-learning on community partners.

Subject Codes: aging, gerontology, interpersonal relationships
Population Codes: older adults
Method and Approach Codes: pedagogy, outcomes-based research, program evaluation

Summary
In an effort to meet the needs of local parents who were feeling isolated and concerned about the social and behavioral effects of the pandemic on their children, we created an intervention that brought together university faculty, students, local childcare providers and parents/caretakers via Zoom. The weekly program offered parents a chance to ask questions, share concerns, and develop connections with other parents. The students benefitted from gaining practical experience in delivering a virtual family life education program. Additionally, this program helped meet the needs of students who could no longer participate in field placements due to COVID restrictions. Parents and caretakers could actively participate in the session by asking questions and engaging in discussion, or they could simply observe and listen. The parents and students were positively impacted with respect to increased knowledge, growth, and confidence. We anticipate continuing and expanding this program in future semesters.

Objectives

• To evaluate the effectiveness of a virtual parenting education program offered during the COVID-19 quarantine
• To determine the need for and content of ongoing support for parents during the pandemic
• To analyze the value of this type of parenting education training for undergraduate HDF students relative to their skill development in family life education

Subject Codes: parenting education, family functioning, parent-child relationships
Population Codes: early childhood, undergraduate students, early childhood education
Method and Approach Codes: parenting education, program development, Family Science

Summary
This presentation will describe innovative, research-based teaching practices aimed at fostering social belonging and social connectedness in a 100-level HDFS hybrid/online course during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Objectives

• Describe evidence-based strategies that support students' sense of belonging
• Describe evidence-based strategies that support students' social connectedness
• Identify unique teaching and learning challenges and opportunities born from the pandemic

Subject Codes: pandemic, interpersonal relationships, education
Population Codes: emerging/young adulthood, undergraduate students, educators
Method and Approach Codes: pedagogy, best practices, curriculum development

Summary
Many family services professionals utilize group modalities in order to provide both educational and treatment interventions. The need for trauma-informed services, including trauma-informed group work, has been articulated across helping professions (Muskett, 2013; Miller & Najavits, 2012, Kramer et al., 2013). This is crucial considering both the high rates of trauma exposure in the general population and the likelihood of those in many group settings to have a history of trauma (Kilpatrick et al., 2013; Grubaugh et al., 2011; Giordano et al., 2016; Copeland et al., 2018). In this presentation, the authors describe challenges in providing trauma-informed group interventions and suggestions for training professionals to engage in trauma-sensitive practices. Using trauma theory, models of trauma-informed care, and the group process model, facilitators discuss a lesson plan using an applied case study that can aid in training students and/or professionals.

Objectives

• Describe obstacles and challenges in providing trauma-informed group interventions.
• Introduce trauma theory and group process model as guides for inclusive group work.
• Identify effective teaching strategies for training students to implement trauma-informed group interventions.

Subject Codes: trauma, education, addiction
Population Codes: educators, Family Life Education, marriage and family therapists/clinicians
Method and Approach Codes: educational, pedagogy, therapy

Summary
Through a systematic examination of original documents, publications, books, and career interviews, the history of the family science discipline and the key points of intersection with other disciplines was mapped and documented. The challenges of documenting the history included verification of dates and the use of career interviews to explore the story of the process of department and curriculum development, the advocacy for policy and change and how shifts in representation of gender and race were facilitated. This paper offers insight into the need for the history of the discipline to be integrated into the curriculum and suggests strategies to overcome the barriers as well as advocates for a greater consistency in the compilation and preservation of historical documents related to the Family Science discipline.

Objectives

• Analyze the history of the Family Science Discipline and its relevance and intersection with political, economic, educational developments in the United States.
• Explore the barriers to the preservation of historical documents and materials related to the discipline and the strategies that can be used to overcome the barriers.
• Advocate for the need for the history of the discipline to be integrated into curriculum.

Subject Codes: society, education, family policy
Population Codes: Family Scientists, educators
Method and Approach Codes: Family Science, social justice, systematic literature review

Summary
The authors describe the creation, administration/organization, content, and evidence behind their trauma-informed undergraduate course on Integrated Health Practices. Using Bronfenbrenner’s theory, they describe application to/ implications at the micro and macro levels, culminating with connection to translational research and science via student career paths and a discussion of “discovering our voices of racial healing,” (King, 2018, p. 5). A resource list of readings and documentaries from the course is provided.

Objectives

• Share approaches and resources used to inform teaching evidence-based integrative health practices that promote health, wellbeing, and resilience in individuals, families, and communities.
• Describe concepts of trauma-informed care utilized in mindfulness pedagogy and practice.
• Discuss application of course pedagogy to the development of racial consciousness and healing.

Subject Codes: mindfulness, education, health
Population Codes: undergraduate students
Method and Approach Codes: educational, pedagogy, social justice

Summary
The pandemic presented a unique opportunity for family life and other community educators to embrace new approaches to education and outreach. When in-person parent education workshops were no longer an option, Extension professionals leveraged external funding to meet families where they were (i.e., in their homes) to promote positive parenting practices. The “nudge” approach to behavior change (rooted in behavioral economics) was applied to family life education efforts to effectively nurture hope, happiness, and health among families. Positive parenting toolkits were developed to provide parents with the information and resources needed to “nudge” their behavior in a direction that will result in the prevention of child maltreatment and promotion of healthy parent-child and family relationships. These parenting toolkits are described and best-practices for implementing and evaluating the toolkits will be developed.

Objectives

• To explore the “nudge” approach as applied to family life education.
• To describe positive parenting toolkits as a novel family life education approach.
• To develop best-practices for implementing and evaluating positive parenting toolkits.

Subject Codes: parenting education, evidence-based practice, parent-child relationships
Population Codes: biological parent, adoptive parent, foster parent
Method and Approach Codes: Family Life Education, evidence-based practices/programs, prevention

Summary
This teaching roundtable explores one approach for teaching a family life education (FLE) methodology course by examining four student cases—two graduate students and two undergraduate students—via written and verbal reflection. The successes and lessons learned from these cases in this FLE course can provide the foundation for discussion with interested CFLEs, faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates.

Objectives

• Describe a framework for teaching family life education (FLE) methodology with the intent for each student to develop an evidence-informed program
• Explore four cases that resulted from this framework: 1. a graduate student (CFLE-P) who implemented the program she developed in the course, 2. a graduate student emphasizes how the process of developing a FLE program influenced her current work as an infant mental health specialist, 3. an undergraduate student underscores how the process of developing an evidence-informed program solidified her desire to become a CFLE and to secure an internship placement at a community site that selected her to help with curriculum writing, 4. an undergraduate student illustrates how community sites may benefit from principles of FLE when working with gender minority individuals.
• Discuss if these cases could serve as a model that informs and prompts answering the “So what?” and “What now?” questions of teaching and learning in FLE methodology.

Subject Codes: education, andragogy,
Population Codes: Family Life Education, undergraduate students, graduate students
Method and Approach Codes: Family Life Education, scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL)

Summary
Effective interventions must be adapted for participants’ culture and context. Financial education for refugees often fails to account for unfamiliarity with financial goals and complex financial systems. Many refugees transition from subsistence farming in a home country to dependence on rations in refugee camps to complex financial systems in the host country, and education must be adapted for these experiences and strengths. We share a culturally adapted financial education module for Karen refugees. This module helps participants understand the importance of financial goals, gain insight into US cultural values about money, understand sources of income and categories of expenses, and create a spending plan. The curriculum uses simplified language, culturally specific case examples, and interactive activities to identify and respond to cultural values. Financial educators should adapt examples to reflect the historical context and the cultural differences in money values and practices that are unique to transnational refugee families.

Objectives

• To demonstrate a culturally adapted financial intervention module for refugee families
• To demonstrate how to adapt discussions of goals with families navigating new systems
• To demonstrate how to adapt examples to reflect the historical context and the cultural differences in values and practices unique to newly arrived immigrant families, using adapted examples of spending plans.

Subject Codes: culturally aware, family resource management, education
Population Codes: refugees, documented immigrant, cross-cultural
Method and Approach Codes: curriculum development, educational,

Summary
Due to the pandemic, many courses started in-person class but shifted to virtual synchronous. The question is raised: does this unexpected change affect student learning? Can virtual synchronous courses be just as effective as traditional face-to-face courses? This study compared assessment data from classes using different teaching modalities. Data from four courses (78 students from two graduate classes and two undergraduate classes) from a midwestern university were included in the analyses. Both instructors taught in-person and online prior to the pandemic and have received online teaching effectiveness certificates. The preliminary results indicated that there were no significant differences in learning outcomes between half-and-half and virtual synchronous classes for undergraduate courses or graduate courses. Strategies for student engagement were shared and implications for educators were discussed.

Objectives

• Explain the advantages and disadvantages of virtual synchronous teaching.
• Identify strategies to enhance active learning and student engagement in virtual synchronous teaching.
• Discuss important considerations for conducting virtual synchronous courses.

Subject Codes: education, technology, COVID-19
Population Codes: undergraduate students, graduate students, emerging/young adulthood
Method and Approach Codes: applied research, enrichment, educational

Summary
COVID-19 pushed Family Life Educators (FLEs), including Military Family Service Providers (MFSPs), to almost completely digital/remote engagement to strengthen and build families’ resilience during this difficult time. As the pandemic persisted, distance learning experiences have become a core part of FLEs/MFSPs daily work, which likely will continue long after the pandemic. Learning theories provide valuable guidance for developing effective online education engagement. This proposal’s aim is to apply three groups of distance education (DE) learning theories to designing and implementing COVID-19-related changes for engaging families and delivering Family Life Education. These theories —- behavioral/cognitive, social cognitive/constructivist, and connectivism — are summarized into a table guide of key principles for each theory using a Community of Inquiry Model (Anderson & Dron, 2011; Garrison et al., 2010) and their best practices for improving digital learning events. Application and implications for practice during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond will be discussed.

Objectives

• Explain the significance of COVID-19 for the design and delivery of Family Life Education programs, including those offered by Military Family Service Providers
• Describe appropriate learning theories to engage families and develop distance education, including those for military families.
• Apply learning theories’ principles and best practices to examples of Family Life Education programs.

Subject Codes: COVID-19, education
Population Codes: Family Life Education, educators, military family
Method and Approach Codes: best practices, curriculum development, scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL)

Summary
A key to nurturing hope, happiness, and health for families is the professional capacity to adapt programmatic delivery and practices in order to ensure families retain access to quality resources. The purpose of this presentation is to provide participants with the tools in which to prepare Family Life Education students with the professional skills for virtual service delivery. By attending this session, participants will: 1) explore the impetus and rationale for adjusting course and assignment content, 2) identify vital content to support the development of virtual skills, 3) outline the assignment requirements and expectations, 4) review student virtual curriculum creations, 5) consider student feedback, and 6) clarify assignment and course adjustments for future implementation. Participants will be provided content resources, assignment description, expectation rubric, and examples of virtual curriculum.

Objectives

• Identify content and components unique to the implementation and creation of virtual Family Life Education curriculum for class-based projects;
• Clarify expectations for virtual Family Life Education curriculum assignments for students;
• Explore opportunities for improving virtual Family Life Education curriculum assignments and professional skills for students.

Subject Codes: technology, andragogy
Population Codes: Family Life Education, undergraduate students
Method and Approach Codes: Family Life Education, pedagogy, curriculum development

Summary
Over the past decade, Healthy Relationship and Marriage Education (HMRE) evaluation studies have collected rich data on couple relationship quality and stability, marriage-related values, mental health, economic and demographic characteristics, parenting, child wellbeing, and program participation. However, the evaluation data stemming from the programs has been underutilized by family science researchers. The Marriage Strengthening Research and Dissemination Center (MAST) has developed an interactive HMRE Evaluation Data Toolkit in efforts to increase access and use of the Building Strong Families (BSF), Supporting Healthy Marriage (SHM), and Parents and Children Together (PACT) data sets. We propose facilitating a resource exchange roundtable to introduce attendees on how to use the toolkit for their specific data needs. This resource will be beneficial to various audiences in the family science discipline including graduate students, researchers, faculty, and practitioners who work with couples including co-parents.

Objectives

• To orient users to participant-level and program-level data from the SHM and BSF evaluation studies.
• To provide an accessible platform for researchers and practitioners to explore and compare multiple HMRE evaluation datasets.
• To encourage utilization of federal evaluation data among family science researchers.

Subject Codes: relationships, coparenting, relationship quality
Population Codes: couples/coupled, cohabiting, romantic partners
Method and Approach Codes: program evaluation, ,

Summary
Using a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) approach, the current study evaluated the integration of community partnerships to create collaborative learning experiences in an undergraduate Family Life Education course. Students (n = 29) were divided into smaller groups (n = 9) and assigned a community partner to develop a needs-based, evidence-informed, multi-dosage educational program. A qualitative case study design was implemented with students in the Fall 2020 course. Results will be discussed in terms of the future utility of this pedagogical approach as well as future research recommendations.

Objectives

• To create more Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Family Life Education.
• To evaluate the structure of developing a multi-dose Family Life Education program with a community partner in an undergraduate course.
• To evaluate the student experience collaborating with a community partner and peers to develop a Family Life Education program.

Subject Codes: education, communities, parenting education
Population Codes: emerging/young adulthood, undergraduate students, Family Life Education
Method and Approach Codes: qualitative methodology, case study, scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL)

Summary
The COVID-19 Pandemic has shaken the foundation of academia, and subsequently, how instructors and faculty teach Family Science courses is likely forever changed. In this unique time of COVID-19 (hopefully transitioning to a post-COVID-19 era), it is critical to explore and document how instructors have adapted in these extreme circumstances while ensuring rigor and quality within the Family Science discipline. This Resource Exchange invites Family Science instructors, faculty, and scholars to collectively share their instructional experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. This semi-structured brainstorming session will provide an opportunity for collaborative sharing and learning about ‘what worked’, what was tried, and general lessons learned in teaching in the Family Science discipline during the pandemic. It is the goal of this session to document shared strategies used among instructors and faculty across institutions which can inform future instruction and SoTL research endeavors.

Objectives

• To explore challenges and lessons learned among Family Science instructors during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• To create possible recommendations for moving forward in instructing Family Science courses post-COVID-19.
• To brainstorm areas to further explore through SoTL efforts.

Subject Codes: education, pandemic,
Population Codes: undergraduate students, Family Scientists, educators
Method and Approach Codes: pedagogy, scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), best practices

Summary
This Resource Exchange will provide researchers, educators, practitioners, and members of professional communities with a space to expand their knowledge and understanding of public scholarship and the myriad of ways they can share their expertise with the public. Attendees will define the impact of their work, brainstorm ways to improve the bi-directional flow of knowledge between themselves and the public and explore methods for tracking diverse definitions of “impact.” Specifically, we will be working in teams to think through these questions using video-recorded prompts from public audiences and experiment with different methods for responding to these public queries relevant to our expertise with group support.

Objectives

• Foster an expanded definition of impact for scholarship and outreach
• Gain resources to disseminate knowledge for and with communities for a public good
• Develop skills and strategies to provide accessible research to public audiences and communities

Subject Codes: inequalities, relationships, social media
Population Codes: Family Life Education, Family Scientists, educators
Method and Approach Codes: translational, transdisciplinary, social justice

Summary
Family Life Education (FLE) focuses on healthy individual and family functioning within a family systems perspective and provides a primarily educational/preventive approach. Among the core competencies in FLE are interpersonal and communication skills. However, in courses that emphasize skills such as trauma-informed practice, the teaching of interpersonal and communication skills may not be a priority. When teaching family science, methods such as lecture and reading often place students in a passive mode. This presents limitations to learning outcomes as students are merely absorbing the information presented. While learning by doing tends to be a preferred method, it is not always feasible, particularly in an online environment. Learning opportunities are needed to build skills that do not place individuals and families at risk while providing students a space to practice what they are learning. This presentation will share activities that transcend traditional instruction to demonstrate interpersonal and communication skills.

Objectives

• To demonstrate effective strategies in teaching emotional competence.
• To analyze theoretical and pedagogical frameworks that promote empathetic thinking.
• To evaluate student learning outcomes using a constructivist approach.

Subject Codes: trauma, education, well-being
Population Codes: educators, Family Life Education, students and new professionals (SNP)
Method and Approach Codes: pedagogy, curriculum development, concept/construct development