Course Description
This is an integrated course for students who are interested in pursuing future training and employment in human services, but who first need to strengthen their reading, writing and vocabulary skills. Reading, writing and vocabulary skill development will be based on human services related content including the development of personal and professional identity and roles; historical perspectives and ethical decision making; and
Significant current social policy trends. Reading material used will be at an introductory college level. Writing work will require students to make use of information, concepts and analyses from their readings in a range of academic formats and to apply these skills to academic writing. Students who receive Mastery in this course
and are subsequently accepted into one of the Integrated Programs in the Faculty of Child, Family and
Community Studies at Douglas College, will receive credit for CFCS 1110.
Course Content
Human Services Content
This course will provide students with an orientation to the field of human services including future training and employment options. The following ideas will guide the design and delivery of course content:
- Communities - professional, geographic, cultural and those based on shared experiences - have identities, values and resources. Through collaborative work, communities have power, the capacity to effect change and the ability to take care of their members.
- Exploring and reflecting on one’s own experience as a member of a community is fundamental to determining one’s professional practice and precedes the ability to support others to make informed, empowered decisions.
- Critical thinking (making comparisons, analyzing information, making and reflecting on choices and drawing conclusions) and clear, effective articulation of ideas in a variety of formats and settings are essential to effective practice and community involvement.
- Knowing the history of the human services field and service delivery is necessary to understand what has been, what is and what is to come.
- It is critical that human service practitioners reflect on their life, educational experiences, values and beliefs in order to develop a personalized set of values they can apply to their practice.
- Professional practice in human services requires a high level of ethical practice. This requires an understanding of ethical principles and their application to decisions and actions taken.
- The knowledge of how systems function and a commitment to be active, ethical change agents within the political, education and human services system contributes to the development of strong and healthy communities.
- Economic justice, celebration of diversity, respect for self-determination, the ethical use of power and the absence of violence combine to form strong and healthy communities.
Writing and Reading Content
Based on this human services related content, the course will provide students with reading and writing skills for the comprehension of academic text and the expression of ideas in a variety of formats including academic essays and reports.
Writing – Students will receive instruction in:
- Writing strategies
- generating ideas and accessing information from library catalogues and periodical databases
- setting purpose and recognizing needs of the audience
- planning and organizing material
- initiate drafting techniques
- obtaining and handling feedback
- redrafting and editing
- proofreading and producing final copy
- Standard Written Expression
- mechanics and punctuation (end marks, commas, apostrophes, quotation marks, semi-colons, and capital letters, etc.)
- usage errors (verb forms, agreement, pronoun reference, and fractured idioms, etc.)
- documentation (APA style)
- Syntactic and Semantic Control
- sentence construction (simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences)
- sentence variety (use of infinitive phrases, appositives, and other adjectival and adverbial constructions)
- avoidance of sentence errors (fragments, run-ons, faulty parallelism, dangling modifiers, etc.)
- use of abstract and specific language
- choice of appropriate words (formality, connotation, precision, etc.)
- vocabulary development consistent with the human services field
Reading and Responding – Students will receive instruction in the following areas, using reading materials selected from a variety of academic contexts and covering a range of topics related to the human services field:
- Identifying main idea and differentiating main ideas from supporting details.
- Drawing inferences and determining implications
- Distinguishing fact from opinion
- Identifying cause and effect
- Recognizing author's tone, intent, and point of view
- Paraphrasing
- Making generalizations
- Summarizing
- Making comparisons and synthesizing ideas from different sources
- Compiling a brief report based on a lengthy article or book
- Critically evaluating ideas in text
- Conducting library research
- Participating in class discussion
- Developing flexibility in reading speed
- Using context to determine meaning
- Making a short oral presentation
Learning Activities
Classroom instruction will be delivered by a team of instructors, one from ENGU (two section workload) and one from CFCS (one section workload).
Instructional methods will include lectures, large-group discussion, small-group activities, audio-visual presentations, cooperative learning, student presentations, and guest speakers.
Lab tutorial and scheduled individual appointment time will be available as required.
Student-directed learning outside of the classroom will also constitute a component of instruction.
Means of Assessment
A mastery model of evaluation will be used.
Progress will be monitored on an ongoing and cumulative fashion by the instructors, based on written and oral demonstrations of skill. Course credit will be granted on the basis of achievement of 80% of course objectives as demonstrated by satisfactory completion of course assignments including written assignments, groups presentations and self assessments. Specific feedback will accompany completed assignments, and more general feedback on progress will be provided periodically by the instructors.
Learning Outcomes
This course integrates course objectives and learning outcomes from English Upgrading (at a level equivalent to ENGU 0355) and Child, Family and Community Studies (at a level equivalent to CFCS 1110). The reading, writing and oral objectives will be met through focusing on 6 human services related learning outcomes.
Human Service Learning Outcomes
Students will:
- Demonstrate critical thinking by;
- describing and using a consistent approach for critical thinking
- actively listening and responding in a fair-minded way to views different from one’s own
- describing various positions on a given issue
- considering the impact of critical thinking on practice.
- Demonstrate an understanding of the impact of values, both individual and societal, in the field of human services by;
- identifying personal key values
- identifying cultural and political values
- articulating potential impact of student’s own values on practice
- articulating core values of CFCS programs at Douglas College.
- Demonstrate a consistent approach to ethical decision making by;
- articulating steps to ethical decision making
- describing the difference between an ethical dilemma and a breach of ethics
- applying field specific codes of ethics to dilemmas
- explaining the relationship between values and ethical decision making
- considering general principles of ethical decision making in approaching ethical dilemmas.
- Demonstrate an understanding of the impact of history on current social attitudes and policies by;
- exploring current practices in human services through the use of historical perspectives
- identifying significant historical changes in the treatment of people who are “labeled” or marginalized.
- Demonstrate the ability to apply general systems theory to specific social issues by;
- describing component parts of a system and their interactive dynamics
- conducting research into municipal, provincial and federal systems of government
- identifying key components and processes in Canada’s electoral system
- explaining the impact of different political systems on human service delivery.
- Explore issues of social justice and diversity by;
- articulating an understanding of inherent human rights
- describing a variety of circumstances where individuals’ and groups’ rights have been compromised
- explaining the individual and community impacts of the denial of rights and resulting social justice
- describing the impact of different social policies on social justice.
Writing Learning Outcomes
Writing work will require students to make use of information, concepts and analyses from their readings and to employ these in developing academic organization, content and language in their writing. The following writing outcomes will be applied to human services related content.
Students will:
- Develop confidence and experience using the process of writing: prewriting, organizing, drafting, revising and editing.
- Extend experience and improve effectiveness at composing a variety of practical writing assignments related to readings in the human services field.
- Develop experience with the techniques and styles of essays and reports.
- Improve awareness and control of the degrees of language formality suitable for different writing tasks.
- Develop and use vocabulary relevant to the human services field and improve ability to make appropriate word choices in writing pieces.
- Demonstrate the ability to create texts characterized by effective unity, organization and support.
Reading Learning Outcomes
Using human services related content, reading work will emphasize summing up of main points, analyzing points of view and responding critically.
Students will:
- Develop and practice effective strategies, skills and approaches to reading in order to improve the comprehension of academic text;
- Broaden and deepen general as well as content-specific knowledge in order to improve comprehension;
- Comprehend vocabulary relevant to the human services field and use it appropriately in oral responses.
Oral Learning Outcomes
Oral work will focus on the appropriate use of human services related vocabulary and presentation styles.
Students will:
- Develop the skills required to participate in group discussion.
- Develop the skills required to work cooperatively in a team setting.
- Develop the ability to use human services related vocabulary appropriately in individual and group oral presentations.
- Develop the ability to select and use vocabulary appropriate to a human services setting.
Textbook Materials
Students may be required to purchase a textbook, coursepack, and/or computer disks.