Educational Psychology

What do we learn? How do we learn? Why do we learn? In this course, we will study issues of learning, teaching, and motivation that are central to educational psychology. We will explore the shifting paradigms within educational psychology, multiple subject matter areas, (dis)continuities between classroom and home cultures, students' prior experiences, teachers as learners, ethnic and gender identity in the classroom, and learning in out-of-school settings. Requires a prepracticum in a community-based setting.

Developmental Psychology

Examines changes in cognitive, social, and emotional functioning, including theory and research that illuminate some central issues in characterizing these changes: the relative contributions of nature and nurture, the influence of the context on development, continuity versus discontinuity in development, and the concept of stage. Includes observations at the Gorse Children's Center at Stonybrook.

Racism/Inequality in Schools

What is race? Who decides? Are we a 'postracial' society? This course focuses on historical, social, psychological, and legal underpinnings of the social construction of race and examines how perspectives on race have influenced the lives of students and teachers in schools. Class sessions compare the old vs.

Women, Work, and Family

This course explores the experience of working mothers in America. What are the political, economic, social and psychological factors that shape the experiences of women who work and raise children? How does the American woman's experience vary across race, class and educational level, and how does it compare to the experiences of women in other cultures? How have the roles of mother and worker or 'career woman' changed over time? How have they remained the same? What type of support do women need to balance these roles?

Economic Development

A study of micro-economic development topics related to how households in lower-income countries consume and produce food. Topics include the causes and consequences of hunger and malnutrition, the agricultural household model, household-level food production and demand, intra-household allocation and bargaining, human and social capital investments and their impacts on food production and consumption, land rights and land use, child labor, and risk, credit and insurance markets used by agricultural households.
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