This course is designed for the preservice teacher and will examine the effect of psychological and social forces on the growth and development of the adolescent with particular attention paid to the ramification of these for teaching and learning. Examination of theories of adolescent psychological development including identity formation, the impact of the family, and cognitive development. Exploration of the impact of social and cultural forces on adolescent growth and development, including cultural background, race, gender, class and media.

This undergraduate seminar examines key historical events, issues, and people in the nineteenth-century United States. Readings will cover a wide range of topics, including presidential politics and the two-party system; slavery and abolition; citizenship and suffrage; the Second Great Awakening and social reform movements; Indian Removal; westward expansion and the U.S.-Mexico War; the Civil War and Reconstruction; and immigration, industrialization, and labor.