Psychology 2110: Introduction to Child Development

Class meetings: T, TH 10:30-11:15am Professor: Fangfang Li

Office: SA8382, Science Commons Phone: 403-329-2568
E-mail: fangfang.li@uleth.ca

Graduate teaching assistant: Rosemary Blersch (blerschr@uleth.ca)

Course description: Oki, and welcome to the University of Lethbridge. Our University’s
Blackfoot name is Iniskim, meaning Sacred Buffalo Stone. The University is located in
traditional Blackfoot Confederacy territory. We honour the Blackfoot people and their
traditional ways of knowing in caring for this land, as well as all Aboriginal peoples who have
helped shape and continue to strengthen our University community.

This is an introductory course on child psychology. It describes how the biological, cognitive,
cultural, environmental, and social factors together influence development throughout
childhood. It also introduces you to the major phenomena, methods, theories, and findings of
developmental psychology, especially as they apply to infancy and childhood.

Textbook:
Siegler, Eisenberg, DeLoache, Saffran, & Graham (2020) How Children Develop. 6th Canadian
Edition, Worth Publishers. (Note that this textbook has an online version.)

Online delivery
The course will be delivered online asynchronously. Pre-recorded lectures will be put on the
Moodle website (https://moodle.uleth.ca/202003/course/view.php?id=1555) , and the
instructor will be available for questions for up to 30 miniates each Thursday at 10:30am except
the reading week.

Coursework and grading:

The coursework will be marked based on your performance of three modules: exams (70%),
discussions (20%), and one-sentence summary and question (10%).

Exams: There will be two exams for this course, one midterm (25% each) and one final (45%).
The final exam is cumulative, covering all materials presented throughout the semester. The
exams will be asynchronous, over a three-day window, timed for 1 hour for the midterm and 2
hours for the final exam. You can take the exams by signing in to your Moodle course website.
The date range during which you will be allowed to write the tests are in the course schedule
(note that the final exam dates will not be available until after September 23, 2020).

Discussions: You will participate in online discussions (20%) through posting comments to
the discussion topics on the course website. Discussion topics are real-life issues that are
related to child development. You are expected to contribute original ideas in your post,
demonstrating your understanding of both the issue being discussed and making linkage to
the concepts, theories, findings that we have learned in class. Discussion comments should be
concise (<5 sentences), relevant, original and/or critical, and make references to concepts,
theories, findings, or examples that are mentioned in the lectures. The dates to participate
each discussion topic can be found in the course schedule.
 One-sentence summary and question: Lastly, students are expected to read assigned textbook
chapters or journal articles before listening to the course lectures. After watching the lecture
videos, students should complete the one-sentence summary and question (OSSQ) module.
The OSSQ module requires students to submit a one-sentence summary on the required
material (lecture videos, supplementary videos, etc.) and a related thought-question that is
also one sentence long. The OSSQ module will be marked on length (whether adhere to two
sentences) and relevance. OSSQ is due on Friday morning at 9:00am of each week (except the
reading week).

Zoom meetings: Live Zoom meetings will be held every Tuesday from 10:30am to 11:00am.
The purpose of the Zoom meetings is for the instructor to address questions that arise from
the OSSQ module and other questions that students may ask. Your participation is not
required but strongly recommended. The Zoom meetings is a great way for you to get
connected with the professor and other students. Note that you are not allowed to record the
Zoom meetings without the permission from the instructor.

Practice quizzes: After each topic, the instructor will open up a practice quiz that is related to
the topic. Each practice quiz typically contains 4~5 questions that resemble the questions that
you will encounter in the exams. The practice quiz is intended for you to self-evaluate your
comprehension of the course materials and to rehearse for the exams. Marks of the practice
quizzes will not be counted towards your final grade and you can take them multiple times.

Grading scale:

A+ 95 – 100 B+ 82 – 86.9 C+ 70 – 73.9 D+ 58 – 61.9 F 0 – 49.9

A 90 – 94.9 B 78 – 81.9 C 66 – 69.9 D 50 – 57.9
A- 87 – 89.9 B- 74 – 77.9 C- 62 – 65.9

Make-up policy: Make-up midterm or final exam will only be given if you present to the course
instructor a valid medical note or other official documentation.

Late policy: Late submissions of discussion comments or one-sentence summary and question
will not be accepted without a valid excuse accompanied by official documentation.

Email policy: Please email me during the regular work hours (9am-5pm Monday to Friday). I will
respond within 24 hours. If for some reason, you didn’t receive a response in time, please re-send
your email during regular work hours. When writing your email, please address me as “Dr. Li”, use
complete sentences, and include the course reference number (PSYC 2110) in the subject line. Note
that you should check the course outline and related emails first to see whether the answer to your
question is there before emailing me.

Basic Needs Policy: Your safety and wellbeing are more important than anything going on in
class. Please feel free to reach out to me if you need to talk. Any student who faces challenges
securing their food or housing or personal safety is urged to contact staff of student support in the
University. Furthermore, please notify me if you are comfortable in doing so. This will enable me to
provide any resources that I can.
Forum posting policy: The forums are viewable to all registered students in the class. If you are
uncomfortable with your posts being viewed by others, you may need to find an alternative class to
take. That being said, students are to treat one another with respect when posting on the forums,
any form of harassment, discrimination, bullying, or in anything that is disrespectful to your fellow
students will NOT be tolerated. Be polite when posting your own comments. Some course topics can
create controversy and debate, and we’ll all have to learn how to disagree with each other in a
respectful manner.

Research bonus marks (optional): This course provides students with an opportunity to
participate in active research programs of faculty members and students in the Department of
Psychology. Studies will become available between September 21, 2020 and December 9th, 2020 by
going to https://psychleth.sona-systems.com and signing in with your U of L username and
password. Calls for volunteers to assist in these studies will be made during the semester. Due to the
University’s response to Covid-19 and current government regulations, study participation will be
primarily online. However, a select number of in-person studies will also be offered (please refer to
study descriptions for details). Studies may be added throughout the semester and participation is
on a first-come basis. Please note, there is no guarantee that all students will be able to achieve the
maximum credit or that studies will be available for the entire semester. Therefore, if a
study/studies are cancelled (due to researcher illness, campus closure, etc.), participants will not be
awarded credit for cancelled/incomplete timeslots. The last date to participate in studies is
December 9, 2020. If you are asked to volunteer, and you accept, each study usually requires one
hour or less of your time, but this will depend on the individual research study. In recognition for
your time, and in recognition that you are learning something about the discipline of child
development, beyond what you would in the normal classroom environment, an extra 1% for each
study in which you participate will be added to your total grade at the end of the semester, up to a
maximum of 2%. It is the responsibility of the participant (student) to ensure study credits are
being assigned to the correct course BEFORE completing a study, as there will be NO transfer of
credits between courses. If you experience problems with the Sona System, or you have inquiries
regarding participation in studies, DO NOT CONTACT the instructor of this course. All questions
regarding research participation should be directed to psychology@uleth.ca.

Students with special needs: If you have any special needs that require accommodation, please
contact Counseling Services to acquire an official letter concerning your situation.
Accommodations will be given upon receiving the official notification from that office.

Academic integrity: Academic misconduct will not be tolerated. Please refer to the University
of Lethbridge Academic Calendar Discipline Policy for a discussion of violations and possible
consequences. It is your responsibility to become familiar with the Discipline Policy. The
University of Lethbridge Academic Calendar provides the following definition of plagiarism: "No
student shall represent the words, ideas, images or data of another person as his or her own.
This regulation will affect any academic assignment or other component of any course or
program of study, whether the plagiarized material constitutes a part or the entirety of the
work submitted." All work that is submitted in this course must be produced individually,
unless otherwise specified. A claim that "you didn't know it was wrong" will not be
accepted as an excuse.
 Tentative course schedule

Weeks Date Topic Reading Zoom Meetings Discussion

Week 1 Sep 9~11 Introduction to the Sep 10 @ 10:30am
online course
Week 2 Sep 14~18 Introduction to Chapter 1 Sep 15 @ 10:30am Vaccine War
child development (due Sep 18)
Week 3 Sep 21~25 Prenatal Chapter 2 Sep 22 @ 10:30am
development
Week 4 Sep 27~Oct Biology and Chapter 3 Sep 28 @ 10:30am Screen time and
2 behavior; Brain brain
development development
(Due Oct 2)
Week 5 Oct 5~9 Theories of Chapter 4 Oct 6 @ 10:30am
cognitive
development
Week 6 Oct 12~16 Perception, action, Chapter 5 Oct 13 @ 10:30am
and learning in
infancy
Week 7 Oct 19~23 Midterm exam October 23 Oct 20 @ 10:30am
10:30am ~
11:30am
Week 8 Oct 26~30 Language and Chapter 6 & Oct 27 @ 10:30am The story of
conceptual 7 feral children
development (Due Oct 30)
Week 9 Nov 2~6 Intelligence Chapter 8 Nov 3 @ 10:30am
Week 10 Nov 9~13 Fall break No class.
Week 11 Nov 16~20 Theories of social Chap 9 Nov 17 @ 10:30am
development
Week 12 Nov 23~27 Emotional Chap 10 Nov 24 @ 10:30am Returning to
development School amid
Pandemic (Due
Nov 27)
Week 13 Nov Attachment; Chapter 11- Dec 1 @ 10:30am
30~Dec 4 Family and peer 13
relations
Week 14 Dec 7~9 Moral and gender Chapter 14- Dec 8 @ 10:30am The boy with no
development 15 penis (Due Dec
9)
Exam TBA Final exam
week