Time Schedule:
Diane Gillespie
BIS 490
Bothell Campus
Study of special topics in interdisciplinary arts and sciences. Prerequisite: BIS 300.
Class description
This senior seminar will allow students to examine transformative human rights education and community-led development through doing a service learning project for the non-governmental, non-profit organization Tostan. Tostan has invited UWB seniors to research training institutes that will serve as models as Tostan develops its own. The course looks at research conducted on Tostan’s effectiveness, its descriptions of its own practices, and the capabilities approach to development as background for investigating the myriad training institutes available internationally. Students will have a chance to study a survey that Tostan staff have been talking about and taking to help direct our research efforts. The course is especially relevant for students minoring in human rights and education and those majoring in community psychology.
Student learning goals
become familiar with institutes that promote and teach human rights through interactive pedagogical strategies and evaluate them given the needs of Tostan;
become familiar with the capabilities approach to development;
understand and appreciate how culture and learning interact and become aware of the influence of social statuses, such as class and gender, on learning and interaction;
develop collaboration skills, including ways to share leadership in small groups;
write well supported, analytic research papers; and
enhance critical thinking through comparing and contrasting different models of training.
General method of instruction
This class will consist of lectures, interactive small group research clusters, and interactive online experiences with skype and bb.
Recommended preparation
BIS 300, Community Psychology 342, and a course from the human rights minor
Class assignments and grading
Students will complete participation exercises designed to foster reflection among students about the readings. They will conduct a research project that analyzes training institutes that are relevant for Tostan's ability to expand its program throughout Africa. And students will have a chance to write, with a small group, an execute summary of several reports as a way of consolidating information.
Students will be graded on their reading reflections, their research project, and their small group's executive summary.
