Overview

Students will apply what they have learned in the major by teaching family life education. Students will also create a professional portfolio of the professional activities associated with the educational program.

Required Resources

Resource Title and Description	Author or Provider	Ed. and Vol.	13-Digit ISBN (if applicable)
Family Life Education: Principles and Practices for Effective Outreach	Duncan, S. F., & Goddard, H. W.	3rd	9781483384573
Teaching in the Savior's Way	The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints	2022	N/A

Structure

Overarching Learning Outcome

Students will develop confidence in their ability to use knowledge and skills learned from the major, coupled with their individual and unique strengths and abilities, to strengthen individuals and families through developing and delivering family life education.  

Course Outcomes

1. Learn principles, methods, and ethical guidelines associated with delivering effective family life education.
2. Develop and teach a family life education program using scholarly sources and by preparing detailed lessons that draw on active learning methods; this includes completing a professional write-up of activities associated with delivering the program.
3. Write professionally and use correct APA format. 

Major Assignments

The table below is meant to help you see the relevance of each major assignment as it pertains to the course outcomes.

Major Assignment	Description	Course Outcome #
Family Life Education Project	Teach family life education by completing one of the following three options: Family Relations, Online Curriculum, or a Workshop, and create a professional portfolio that highlights activities associated with teaching.	1, 2, 3
Reading Reflections	Study material from Family Life Education: Principles and Practices for Effective Outreach and Teaching in the Saviors Way and incorporate principles relevant to your specific project.	1
Ethics Assignment	Learn about the code of ethics and apply ethics while completing three case studies.	1

Family Life Education Project Options

To complete this course you must teach family life education by selecting and completing one of the following three options: Family Relations, Online Curriculum, or a Workshop. Read through the options below and begin thinking about which option most closely corresponds with your interests. In addition, be thinking about potential family life topics you are most interested in teaching.

Along with preparing and teaching family life education, regardless of which option you choose, you are to create a professional portfolio that summarizes what you did for your project, including what you learned. When completed, the portfolio will serve as a finished product that can be shared with a potential employer. In fact, as you organize and write your portfolio, keep in mind that the audience you are writing for is a potential employer. Make sure the portfolio is well-written, organized, and professional in content and appearance.

Family Relations

What is Family Relations? Family Relations is a program developed specifically for this course. This option enables students to teach family life education one-on-one. To do this, students will conduct an interview to assess the educational needs or interests of individuals, couples, and families, and then prepare and teach approximately three lessons beyond the initial intake interview. The ideal thing about this option is that it allows you to tailor family life education to the specific needs of an individual, couple, or family.

For those who select this option, the expectation is to teach at least two different individuals, couples, or families and to teach them three times beyond the initial intake interview, whereby students build rapport and work with participants to come up with goals to guide the development of lesson plans. You will recruit your own participants. This option could be completed by teaching face-to-face or through Zoom or Google+.

For details about this option, see the Family Relations Portfolio Guidelines.

Online Curriculum

With exciting technological advances, teaching family life education can now be done using social media. Through this option you have the potential to influence many individuals, especially if you continue to stay involved in teaching through social media and you refine your skills and abilities over time. This option consists of working with a partner to write at least four well written, scholarly lessons about family life that are all centered around a theme and share the messages through a social media webpage. You are encouraged to increase the number of viewers by using other social media platforms to direct readers to your online curriculum. You are welcome to use whatever social media site you are most comfortable with (such as WordPress, Blogger, or other online tools).

It is assumed that those who select this option are somewhat knowledgeable about using social media. If you choose this option and have limited experience, you will be expected to identify and learn from available resources about how to use social media effectively. If your understanding is limited, you would be wise to work with a partner with some social media experience.

If you select this option, it is also important that you are skilled as a writer since you will be teaching family life education to many individuals through the medium of writing. Along these lines, besides your partner, you will need a good writer to proofread your lessons and give you feedback before submitting them to the instructor. The instructor does not have the time or resources to provide detailed editing and feedback on your writing. The BYU-Idaho Writing Center will be an important resource to help with this.

Social media is quickly gravitating toward the use of video clips. Consistent with this trend, along with lessons, you are to create a video clip (like those on YouTube or a TED Talk) that can be integrated into one of your lessons. The length of the video is short (3–4 minutes). If you have a partner, you can record the videos individually or together, but both partners must be equally represented. This means each of you must appear in at least one of the videos. The video should build upon a lesson in some way. 

For details about this option, see the Online Curriculum Portfolio Guidelines.

Workshop

Those interested in this option are to develop, market, teach, and evaluate a family life education workshop. You select the topic for your workshop and prepare the lessons with the needs of a specific audience in mind. To fulfill the requirements of this option, you must teach four hours; however, you choose how to structure the teaching time. For example, you could teach the same group of participants once a week for four or five weeks; or teach the same workshop to two different groups for 2–3 hours each. You also decide where to teach the workshop. For instance, students living in Rexburg could teach on the BYU-Idaho campus, or the workshop could be taught in other settings within the community.

General content areas associated with family life are listed in Appendix B of the text for the class (Duncan & Goddard, 2017). Use this appendix to help generate ideas for a potential topic. Keep in mind that if you are teaching a sensitive topic (such as the effects of pornography on the family, domestic violence, intimacy within marriage, and so on), you will especially need to work closely with the instructor because of the ethical dilemmas that may occur and to make sure that the content is in keeping with principles taught in The Family: A Proclamation to the World.

For details about this option, see the Workshop Portfolio Guidelines. 

Partnerships

Working With a Partner

Ideally, you will complete the project with a partner. Completing the course with a partner enables you to combine your strengths and resources and learn from one another. When selecting a partner, search for someone with similar interests in one of the three options and similar interests in a given family life education topic. You are encouraged to be sensitive to other students who may need a partner. A student information Google Doc will be provided to help you learn about and select a partner.

If working with a partner is not possible because you are separated from other students geographically or because your interest in teaching a given family life topic does not correspond with others, then you may consider completing the project alone. For those who select the workshop option, working with a partner will likely be the most difficult if you live in different communities. If this is the case, as mentioned, you could complete the project alone or prepare the workshop and portfolio together but teach separately.

If you work with a partner, you and your partner should complete the portfolio assignments together, but each partner should submit the assignments in Canvas individually.

Partnership and Peer Relations

Be a good partner by respecting your partner's time, communicating regularly, being responsive to feedback, and pulling your share of the workload. Conflict is inevitable whenever individuals from different backgrounds complete a major project together. You must be open and honest in your feedback and address conflict early on in the semester, as needed. Resentment builds if one fails to address conflict. Moreover, learning how to work through conflict in a healthy and constructive manner is consistent with the major in marriage and family studies. If you do not pull your weight and do not work as a cooperative team member, it is likely to affect your grade significantly at the end of the semester.

Learning From All Aspects of the Practicum Project

If you can work with another member of the class, you are to create one portfolio between the two of you. Having said this, keep in mind that the course is to help each student in the class to develop and refine a range of skills (like writing, interpersonal relations, use of technology, ability to work through problems and challenges, finding scholarly research, teaching, or others). Therefore, students are responsible for ensuring that they and their partner learn from all aspects of the project, especially in those areas where one tends to lack confidence or has limitations. For example, it may be tempting to shy away from learning activities in areas where one tends to have weaknesses and to complete activities associated with one's strengths. Doing so defeats the purpose of the course experience. In short, you are strongly encouraged to teach and support one another in the range of learning activities so both of you grow in remarkable ways from the course experience.

Other Assignments

Reading Reflection Outlines

The Reading Reflection assignments are learning activities designed to help you achieve the course learning outcome of understanding principles and methods associated with delivering effective family life education. These reading assignments will help you think more deeply about the assigned reading material for the course and the relevance of the readings to your specific project. The reading reflection assignments consist of reading all of the assigned readings for a given unit (three units in total) and writing a brief outline summarizing some of your thoughts, insights, and questions. Refer to Reading Reflection Instructions.

Ethics Assignment

Ethical guidelines are established to protect the well-being of those we serve. As professional family life educators, we must be true to the highest ethical standards. Consistent with this imperative, there are three ethics assignments. The last one is the most important and consists of using problem-solving and critical thinking skills to apply ethical guidelines as you make wise decisions about participants in case studies. Make sure you put forth the needed time to do well on these assignments.

Expectations

Feedback

You can expect to receive grades and feedback within seven days of the due date for all assignments.

Workload

Expect a minimum of nine hours a week of work for this class.

Late Work

As a sign of professionalism and respect, you should complete your work on time. However, your instructor has the discretion to accept late work or extend due dates as appropriate, but a late penalty of 10% per day will apply. 

Extra Credit

Extra credit will not be awarded in this course. 

Grading

Personal Commitment

It is hoped that you genuinely care about improving skills related to critical thinking, teaching, and writing, and that you do not see this course as merely a hoop to jump through to graduate. If you take personal growth to heart, you will likely find that this will be one of the more valuable courses you will take. Most likely you chose this major because you want to make a difference strengthening individuals and families. This is the very course to do this. This course is about developing confidence and skills to share good information that can make a difference in the lives of families. Moreover, this course will help you improve your teaching and writing abilities. These interpersonal skills are among the most valuable to employers. If you have a desire to improve and commitment to work hard, you will grow in remarkable ways. 

Portfolio Submissions and Feedback

It is important to know that this course was developed to help you improve your in-depth thinking and writing skills over the course of the semester. The primary tool to help you improve is feedback. Unlike many courses that have you turn in the final project at the end of the semester, this course requires that you submit sections of your portfolio as you progress through the course. Doing so will enable you to receive feedback and incorporate what you learn into forthcoming submissions. What this means is that it is critical for you to submit portfolio sections in a timely manner. Furthermore, submit each portfolio section when finished, rather than waiting to submit several sections at once. Before submitting a piece, thoroughly study what is required in the portfolio guidelines and in the grading rubric. Once feedback is given, learn from it and take it upon yourself to devote further study and practice to compensate for gaps in your learning.

This course's most important learning activities are those associated with your teaching and the portfolio. Portfolio assignments can be submitted twice as a means of learning from instructor feedback and enhancing your writing abilities. Ideally, you will do well enough on the first submission that you do not need to submit it a second time. However, a second submission is permitted to enable you to learn from feedback and refine your writing abilities. If you want to resubmit a portfolio section, you have one week to resubmit it after receiving feedback but the final portfolio cannot be resubmitted. Assignments not included in the portfolio can only be submitted once. 

Grading Submissions

Instructors for this course have many responsibilities and cannot grade submissions immediately. You must know that it will take 4–7 days to grade submissions, depending on the day of the week and the time of the semester when you submit.

Grades

Grades are based on the following weights. As you can see, certain learning activities carry more weight when calculating the final grade, especially the portfolio. Points will not be rounded up when calculating final grades. 

Learning Activities	Weight (% of points toward final grade)
Reading reflection outlines	10
Non-portfolio assignments	10
Ethics assignment	5
Portfolio assignments	75

Grading Scale

Letter Grade	Percent
A	100%–93%
A-	92%–90%
B+	89%–87%
B	86%–83%
B-	82%–80%
C+	79%–77%
C	76%–73%
C-	72%–70%
D+	69%–67%
D	66%–63%
D-	62%–60%
F	59% and lower

The BYU-Idaho grading system describes each letter grade as follows:

• A represents outstanding understanding, application, and integration of subject material and extensive evidence of original thinking, skillful use of concepts, and ability to analyze and solve complex problems. Demonstrates diligent application of Learning Model principles, including initiative in serving other students.
• B represents significant understanding, application, and incorporation of the material that would prepare a student to be successful in next-level courses, graduate school, or employment. The student participates in the Learning Model as applied in the course.
• C represents a sufficient understanding of the subject matter. The student demonstrates minimal initiative to be prepared for class. Sequenced courses could be attempted, but mastering new materials might prove challenging. The student participates only marginally in the Learning Model.
• D represents poor performance and initiative to learn, understand, and apply course materials. Retaking a course or remediation may be necessary to prepare for additional instruction in this subject matter.

University Policies

Students with Disabilities

Brigham Young University-Idaho is committed to providing a working and learning atmosphere that accommodates qualified persons with disabilities. If you have a disability and require accommodations, please contact the Accessibility Services Office at 1-208-496-9210 or visit their website and follow the Steps for Receiving Accommodations. Reasonable academic accommodations are reviewed for all students who have qualified documented disabilities. Services are coordinated with students and instructors by the Accessibility Services Office.

This course includes required synchronous meetings if you chose a project which requires a partner. If you are currently registered with the Accessibility Services Office and need an interpreter or transcriber for these meetings, please contact the deaf and hard of hearing coordinator at 1-208-496-9219.

Other University Policies

Student Honor and Other Policies

Please read through the document called University Policies. It gives important information about the following topics:

• Student Honor
  • Academic Honesty
  • Student Conduct
    • Sexual Harassment
• Student with Disabilities
• Complaints and Grievances
• Copyright Notice

Go to the Student Resources module to review further resources and information.