CHILD DEVELOPMENT: PSYCHOLOGY 2700
FALL 2015
TR 2-3:15 Gilmer 130
Professor Angeline Lillard
Gilmer Office: 109
Prerequisites: Psyc 1001 Recommended (Students with
strong academic backgrounds usually do fine without)
Syllabus Edited on 6 April 2015
Office Hours: R 3:15-4:45 (email to confirm if
plan to visit, just in case) or by appt
Phone: 982-4750
Course Website on Collab
Overview
The first goal of this course is for you to better understand children. Children are fascinating creatures: so like
us, and yet so different. Are children just miniature adults, or do they actually reason in unique ways? What
can babies see at different ages? If they feel an object in the dark and then see it, do they know it is the same
object? Is television bad for children or is it okay? Learning research-based information about children will help
you be a better parent and advocate for children, and hopefully have more fun with them too.
A second major goal of this course is to help you think like a scientist. How do we gather information about
children? What constitutes good data? How do we draw conclusions from that data? The world is full of faulty
reasoning; I hope taking this course will help you think more clearly about what constitutes good evidence
generally, as well as with reference to child development specifically.
What Where When:
1. Lecture: GILMER 130 TR 2-3:15
2. 1-credit OPTIONAL Discussion Section; add on SIS. For ?s see below.
3. Optional Review Sessions: some Wednesdays 5-6 PM, Gilmer 130.
Textbook: Siegler, R., DeLoache, J., & Eisenberg, N. (2014). 4th edition (purple). How Children Develop (4th
Edition-purple color). Available at bookstore and Amazon; on reserve at Clemmons. Readings normally
readings FOLLOW lecture on a topic. If you choose to purchase an earlier edition, you might miss some
exam questions unless you also study the 4th edition.
This syllabus contains important information that will influence how well you do in the course and
could even influence your standing at the University (Honor). All students are expected to know all the
information herein. Students who ask me questions that are answered on the syllabus will lose a
bonus point awarded at the end of the semester. Large lecture courses require tight policies. Please do not
ask for exceptions.
Class Format and Structure
Class format: Begins promptly at 2 with 2 iClicker questions, followed by 2 minutes of Mindfulness, followed by
Announcements then an interactive lecture, sometimes with live children and films. If you arrive after iClickers
begin, please wait until Announcements to take a seat.
This is a no-technology class: Research has shown that people learn better when they take notes by hand
and are not distracted by others’ devices. Come to my office if you should be an exception. Those who violate
the policy by having an iPhone, iPad, or computer out in class (without permission) will suffer a full step
reduction in their course grade for each instance.
iClickers: iClicker questions are exam questions (comprising 20% of course grade), and students should
behave during them as they would in an exam (no talking, no looking at others’ answers, and no answering for
other students). Anyone violating these rules will surrender their iClicker for the class, and will have iClicker
points erased (possibly for several classes, at my discretion). Questions remain up until ~5 s after 90% of
students have responded. Content will be anything from previous lecture or reading; recent material is most
frequent. iClicker registration and grading are explained below.
Reading Schedule: The attached schedule gives approximate dates for each lecture topic, exam, and the day
reading should be done by (the day when an iClicker on it might first appear).
Exams: I will give 3 midterm exams plus the final, but students need only take 2 of the midterms. If you are
sick, in jury duty, at a sports event, or just don’t feel like taking one of them, that’s fine! Please don’t ask to take
one at a different time, or you might well lose your bonus point. If you do take all 3 midterm exams, I’ll use your
highest 2 grades (20% each). Midterm exams are 50 multiple choice (2 pts each) from the material up to the
exam date, focusing mainly on material since the last exam. The cumulative final exam is worth 50% and will
be comprised of 100 MC questions. If you typically do well on essays but poorly on MC, please see me about
an essay exam option.
SDAC students with extra time or reduced distraction environments should bring their form to me, and
we will contact you prior to the first exam.
Exam Review Session: An exam review session will be held during the review hour (or closer to the exam time
if necessary) with the Review TA just before each exam.
Email: I will try to respond to email, which I try to look at no more than once/day, if your inquiry is short and
formally-constructed and has not already been answered in the syllabus, other materials on the web, or in
another email. For longer questions, please come see me during office hours or by appointment.
Missing Lecture: Please do not write to me or a TA if you need to miss lecture. On any given day, 20-30
students miss lecture, and I don’t need why. You get iClicker credit for being there, and you lose it for being
absent, despite the reason (illness, your brother’s wedding, jury duty, court date, emergency hospitalization
etc.).
Optional 1-credit discussion: There is an optional 1-credit discussion class offered for those who sign up for it.
These are graded as separate courses. It will probably raise your grade in this class, since you will review and
go into more depth about course material, but it is entirely optional.
Registration and Checking for Points:
- iClicker use is your responsibility, from registration to technical difficulties particular to your
iclicker.
- You can purchase an iClicker at the UVA bookstore or online.
- Register on Collab BEFORE ADD PERIOD IS OVER using first part of email (up to the @). If you lose
your iClicker, get a new one asap and register that number; you will not lose your old points when you
add a second or even a third iClicker to your name. If you think you registered but are not seeing points
by October, email me your iClicker number and I’ll fix it.
- Be sure set to classroom’s frequency (AA)
- Keep spare batteries on hand if you worry it might run low
- It is your responsibility to be sure your answers are registering; your clicker confirms for every answer,
and you can check Collab regularly (I’ll post scores every 2 weeks or so after they begin to count) to be
sure you are getting points. I CANNOT GO BACK AND GIVE POINTS POSTHUMOUSLY.
- Please understand that I am unable to record points by hand for people who forget their iClicker or let
its batteries die in class.
iClicker Grading: The average grade in this course is usually a B. MC exams are straightforward. For iClickers,
2 points are given for submitting any answer, and 1 more (hence 3) or the correct answer. Answers start to
“count” in the first class after the last add day; prior to that is practice. I aim to have 4-5 questions per class
(although this varies due to matters out of my control, like class discussion, arrival times of babies, etc.). A
maximum iClicker score will be calculated based on the number of questions given during the semester minus
10 questions (30 points), so missing 2 classes has no impact on this grade. Final iClicker grades are assigned
as a proportion of the maximum, so if you have 91% of the maximum score, your score will be an A-. I reserve
the right to adjust this if it results in grades that do not have a good A-F range and mean (in the B range).
iClicker points are credit for keeping up with the reading, being in class, and paying attention. There is
therefore no way to make up these points if you are not in class; if you have to miss a lot of classes for any
reason you will need to do even better on the exams to make up for it, and an A grade might be impossible
depending on how much you need to miss. A student could miss all classes and still get a B for the course,
provided they score perfectly on 3 exams.
Calculating Your Course Grade
iClicker. At the end of the semester I will announce the iClicker total, MAXTOTAL. This is the total from my
iGrader program—sometimes students tell me they have a different total but I must go with the machinecalculated one as it’s more likely to be correct than humans on this point. MAXTOTAL will be the iGrader total
possible minus 30, and it is the highest total anyone can get (if you have accrued more points, you only get
MAXTOTAL). Last year MAXTOTAL was 208, but it might be different this year.
iClicker grade = 100 x (the smaller of: the total of your iClicker scores or MAXTOTAL)/MAXTOTAL.
Final Course Grade = (.20 x iClicker grade) + (.20 x highest midterm exam grade) + (.20 x 2nd highest midterm
exam grade)+ (Final Exam Grade x .40). To convert this number to a letter grade for your transcript, see the
Letter-Number grade equivalent sheet on Collab. I round up from .5, so an 89.5 is an A-.
Expectations for Doing Well
To get the most out of this course, I suggest you engage your attention to all lectures, taking organized notes
that you look over (and possibly rewrite, in concert with your study buddy’s notes) a day or two after class. The
best study includes recalling the information and examples, and relating them to other things you know. I also
suggest that you do all readings twice, taking notes the second time through, and answering the chapter-end
questions from your own head. In general, 3 credit college classes require 6 hours of study outside of class; a
Discussion Section requires 2-3 more. Spreading studying out over time is most effective. If you are not happy
with your first exam grade, please come to see me about your learning strategies.
How to Tackle the Textbook: Like many textbooks, this one has a lot of information. I recommend you first
peruse the chapter headings and get the gist of what it will cover. Then read it, making not of the keywords in
the margins. Ask yourself the questions at chapter end. A few days later, go back to it (preferably in a new
place, which helps learning). Go thru the section headings, asking yourself what you learned in that part.
Connect it to other things you learned, in lecture or the chapter or other courses. Think of your own examples.
Ask yourself what the keywords mean. Know all the figures and why the information in them is important
enough to put in a figure. Know what is in the boxes. Do this again a few days later. Sit down with a friend and
quiz each other. These are the ways one learns information well!
Exam follow up
If you want to discuss an exam, please first contact the review TA to set up an appointment to go over your
answers and identify patterns where you had problems. If you’d like to talk more about how you study and
how you might do better, then please make an appointment with me to which you bring your course notes
and an analysis of the types of problems you missed on the exam.
Participant Pool
Many 2000-level classes in the Psychology Department ask students to participate in experiments for course
credit, on the grounds that they will learn about course content through that participation. My Child
Development has no experiment participation requirement. However, if you know a child whom you can bring
to the Child Developmental Laboratories to participate in an experiment, this would have educational value for
you; to see how to go about this, go to http://www.virginia.edu/psychology/childdevelopmentlabs/. You may
also volunteer for the adult Participant Pool at any time, and hours accumulated there should count towards
credit for other courses that require it (ask the Ppool coordinator). There is also a paid participant pool.
Tentative Schedule
Date
Lecture Topic
Text
(Read by date listed for iclickers and exams)
8/25
Introduction
8/27
Theory
9/1
Methods
9/3
Prenatal Development
9/8
Brain Development
2
9/10
Attachment
3
9/15
Attachment
9/17
Perception
9/22
Perception
9/24
Exam 1
9/29
Piaget
10/01
Cognitive Development
10/6
Reading Day
10/08
Language
10/13
Language
10/15
Social Cognition
6, 7
10/20
Social Cognition
Z
10/22
Schooling-Culture
8
10/27
Montessori Education
10/29
Exam 2
11/03
Emotional Development
11/05
Self
10
11/10
Peers
11: 439-60; 12
11/12
Moral Development
13
11/17
Gender
14
11/19
Gender
11/24
Psychopathologies
1
11: 425-438
5
4 (Cog Dev Soc Columbus
9
15
Thanksgiving Break
12/01
Psychopathologies
12/03
Child Fest
12/08
Exam 3
12/15
Final Exam (Mandatory)
16
9 AM – 12 PM