Purpose: As mentioned before, active learning activities are your opportunity to practice and apply the concepts discussed in your reading to class discussions. These action assignments will help you deepen your learning and help you become active, reflective, responsible, and successful learners.
Activity Overview: This week we learned that one of the primary goals of child development professionals is to promote positive and optimal child development. Educators, social workers, childcare providers, nurses, and other healthcare providers all draw on the field of child development’s research and findings. In this active learning reflection, you will have the opportunity to explore a career related to child development and then discuss how a solid understanding of milestones and developmental pathways can benefit the career path you chose.
Active Learning Activities:
- Step 1: Complete the following tasks:
- The first part of this assignment will be to COMPLETE the active learning activity in your course textbook (link provided below). This assignment’s active learning activity is called “How Much Do You Know About Careers in Child Development” To locate this activity in your textbook, please search for the title provided in Ch.1. Instructions for this activity include using the Occupational Outlook Handbook to find information about a career and then comparing it to your existing knowledge. See the textbook for full instructions.
- After you complete the active learning activity, summarize (200 words) your research results and how the information you found compared to your current knowledge of the career you chose? Be sure to include the career you selected and what you found most interesting about your career? Also, explain how this career is related to the field of Child Development.
- Answer the following discussion questions (250-300 words): Given the information you learned about the career you chose, what type of child development knowledge would be important to know in this profession? What are the roles and responsibilities of this profession in ensuring a child’s positive development and how should they take into account cultural perspectives when working with children? Be sure to explain your answer to the discussion questions using key concepts, ideas or facts that you learned about this week in addition to your own experiences. Here are some example sentence starters for your explanation: On page xx, it states . . . According to our text, research suggests…This activity reminds me of…Lastly, don’t forget to include your in-text citation (Author, Year, page #) as mentioned in the active learning guide to success rubric. For the 3rd edition of our textbook it would look like (Levine & Munsch, 2018, p.18).
- Link to textbook: https://ebooksbrand.com/wp-content/uploads/woocomm
Step 2: On a separate document, answer the following questions based on what you’ve learned this week. Use knowledge you’ve gained. (around 75-100 words each).
- What are the domains of child development and some recurring themes and issues?
- Why do individuals study children and what are some ways they use knowledge about children to promote positive development?
- What are the contexts for child development?
- How can you be a smart consumer of information about development?
