Applied Human Sciences Courses

Description:

This course reviews approaches to applied research that are applicable to youth work practice. Students compare a range of methodological approaches, explore definitions of evidence-based practice and learn techniques for collecting, analyzing and disseminating qualitative and quantitative data. Students undertake an applied research project, relevant to an area of practice or programs of intervention with youth. Emphasis is placed on ethical issues, developmentally appropriate research practices, and accountability.

Component(s):

Seminar; Workshop

Description:

This course provides an introduction to applied ethics in youth work with a focus on the Code of Ethics of the Ordre des psychoéducateurs et psychoéducatrices du Québec. It also reviews the policy, legislative and organizational contexts of the practice of psychoeducation and youth work, and considers the ways in which models of ethical decision making inform practice. Topics include confidentiality and information sharing in inter-professional contexts, balancing issues of control, empowerment and education, developing critical reflexivity, and appreciating the complexities and dilemmas inherent in youth work practice.

Component(s):

Seminar; Workshop

Description:

This course provides students with an understanding of the scope and status of child and youth care work, sensitizes them to the necessary competencies and daily challenges of this work in a range of settings, and reviews relevant theory. Intervention planning in the context of psychoeducation and relational child and youth care work is emphasized.

Component(s):

Seminar; Workshop; Modular

Prerequisite/Corequisite:

The following course must be completed previously or concurrently: AHSC 522.

Description:

The focus of this course is to develop theoretical understanding and skills in anti-oppressive individual work with youth. Skills are introduced and practiced in the context of an intervention process, including intake, assessment, engagement, and closure, and within crisis intervention situations.

Component(s):

Seminar; Workshop

Prerequisite/Corequisite:

The following course must be completed previously: AHSC 525.

Description:

This course explores the fundamental concepts and theories of case management and supervision. Topics include supervisory relationships and process issues, multi-disciplinary teams and teamwork, management of the overall intervention process including the evaluation of social functioning and development, planning, implementation, monitoring and termination of effective and collaborative case plans with young people and their families.

Component(s):

Seminar; Workshop

Prerequisite/Corequisite:

The following course must be completed previously: AHSC 525.

Description:

This course explores both historical and contemporary foundations of non-formal, community-based youth development in Canada and internationally. It focuses on creating opportunities for youth to engage with individuals, organizations and institutions at the community level. Various community youth development models are explored in-depth with practical applications for community-based youth programs, including life skills, assets, resiliency, and ecological models. Emphasis is placed on research, theory and practice applied in community youth development environments.

Component(s):

Seminar; Workshop; Practicum/Internship/Work Term

Prerequisite/Corequisite:

The following course must be completed previously: AHSC 525.

Description:

This course explores the precursors, presentations, nature and impacts of mental health concerns and addictions for youth, their families, and within communities. Students have the opportunity to develop, and apply within the classroom, knowledge and skills related to addictions and mental illness prevention, assessment and intervention, and mental health promotion. Topics include an introduction to adolescent psychopathology; diagnosis, assessment, and current policy and practices in relation to the current edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association (DSM); the uses of standardized testing to evaluate adaptation; psychopharmacology; suicide; evidence-based and alternative treatment interventions (e.g., psychoeducational approaches; dialectical behaviour therapy);ethical and legislative considerations; and the roles/responsibilities of youth workers in the inter-professional and community care of adolescents with mental health and/or addictions concerns.

Component(s):

Seminar; Workshop

Description:

This course provides an advanced understanding of parenting theories, research, and applications in the context of parent-child relations over the life span. Topics include parenting rights and responsibilities, parenting practices and programs, high-risk parenting, issues in the transition from parenting children to parenting adolescents and parental assessment.

Component(s):

Lecture; Workshop

Description:

This course provides students with knowledge of physical and psychosocial aspects of sexuality in relationships through life and specifically during adolescence with an examination of values, attitudes, and issues related to the development and expression of sexuality. Topics include gender identity development, fuzzy identities, teen pregnancy, family, cultural and media influences; historically and culturally based attitudes; prevention and sexually transmitted diseases; self-perception and identity in sexuality; sexual diversity; and emotion and sexuality. The course aims to foster respect for persons and diversity.

Component(s):

Seminar; Workshop

Description:

This course is an examination of patterns, effective approaches, and issues in communication among persons in primary partnerships and families with adolescents. It also explores topics such as diversity in forms of “family,” decision-making, problem-solving, power relations, gender issues, managing differences in expectations, and the influences of cultural, social, and economic contexts. Interventions for youth work practice designed to enhance communication and strengthen the parent-youth bond are explored.

Component(s):

Seminar; Workshop

Description:

This course advances students’ understanding of core counselling theories and develops an understanding for theoretical and value frameworks of the youth work therapeutic relationship. It fosters the application of essential helping skills for relational practice within youth work settings. Skill areas include attending skills, such as attending to nonverbal behaviour, reflection of content, reflection of feeling, paraphrasing and summarizing, empathy, selfdisclosure; and influencing skills, such as interpretation and analysis. Also highlighted are ethical issues, attention to cultural differences, and practitioner reflexivity.

Component(s):

Seminar; Workshop; Fieldwork

Description:

This course helps students to develop intervention skills and theoretical understanding in the area of health promotion across the lifespan. It is of particular interest to youth work students whose career interests involve lifestyle planning, health and wellness promotion, and stress management with young people. A holistic approach including cultural and developmental understandings are discussed in relation to the following topics: health and wellness, stress and illness, psychological and physical self-appraisal processes, psychosomatic processes and disorders, understanding addictions and their management, interventions to promote health and wellness, behavioural self-management, and issues in medical/psychological health compliance.

Component(s):

Seminar; Workshop

Description:

Specific topics for this course and prerequisites relevant in each case are stated in the Graduate Class Schedule.

Component(s):

Seminar

Prerequisite/Corequisite:

Permission of the Department is required.

Description:

Students work on topics in consultation with a study supervisor. The study may include readings, field studies, and/or research.

Component(s):

Independent Study

Prerequisite/Corequisite:

The following courses must be completed previously: AHSC 522; AHSC 525.

Description:

This entry-level internship in youth work is designed to provide an opportunity for a first field experience that promotes integration into a clinical or normative youth work setting. A major focus is on participatory observation. Students are required to participate in a field placement one day per week, for a total of 100 hours in settings such as schools, community organizations, hospitals, or rehabilitation centres. The site is selected in consultation with the Graduate Program Director.

Component(s):

Practicum/Internship/Work Term

Prerequisite/Corequisite:

The following courses must be completed previously: AHSC 533; and 12 credits completed in youth work with permission of the Department.

Description:

This 220-hour internship is designed to provide a supervised apprenticeship in either a clinical or normative youth work setting that builds on the student’s previous courses. The focus of this internship is that the student fully assumes all the duties and responsibilities of a youth worker in the same site selected for the first internship. The student’s work is supervised and evaluated by an on-site field supervisor.

Component(s):

Seminar; Practicum/Internship/Work Term

Notes:

• Students who have received credit for AHSC 538 may not take this course for credit.

Prerequisite/Corequisite:

The following courses must be completed previously: AHSC 533; and 12 credits completed in youth work with permission of the Department.

Description:

This 320-hour internship is designed to provide a full-time supervised experience in either a clinical or a normative youth work setting and requires additional hours to assist the student in building his/her application for licensing. The focus of this internship is that the student fully assumes all the duties and responsibilities of a youth worker in the same site selected for the first internship. The student’s work is supervised and evaluated by an on-site field supervisor.

Component(s):

Seminar; Practicum/Internship/Work Term

Notes:

• Students who have received credit for AHSC 537 may not take this course for credit.

Description:

This course is oriented to the theory and practice of intervention in small groups. The course involves participation in a small group laboratory through which students’ experiences are integrated with conceptual frameworks, including theories of group development and leadership. Ethical issues in group processes will be considered.

Component(s):

Laboratory (Group Relations)

Description:

This course will examine research and theory of individual learning and change which involves cognitive, affective and behavioural components. Intervention with an emphasis on a normative re-educative approach to facilitating learning and change will be emphasized. Illustrative intervention cases will be examined to identify essential qualities, underlying assumptions about learning and change in the context of human systems, and implications for the role of the intervener.

Component(s):

Seminar; Laboratory (Learning Change)

Description:

This course examines research methods involved in action research and other applied field perspectives. Methods applicable at all stages of the research process include the literature review, defining the purpose of study, design of quantitative and qualitative research tools, data gathering, qualitative and quantitative data analysis, and reporting and communicating research results and recommendations.

Component(s):

Workshop; Research

Notes:

• Students who have received credit for AHSC 630 may not take this course for credit.

Description:

This course will review the philosophical underpinnings of intervention in human systems with an emphasis on a normative re-educative approach. It will address core values and ethics imbedded in change efforts, as well as examining the philosophical roots of different traditions of change methodology. It will consider the philosophical implications of change agents functioning as consultants rather than experts and as process rather than content specialists. It will consider ethical and philosophical aspects of power, strategy, and conflict, among other issues associated with intervention.

Component(s):

Seminar; Workshop

Description:

This course examines issues of equity and social justice within organizations. Students examine the ways in which organizations can reproduce systemic and institutional inequity. Students critically reflect on approaches to address structural inequity; the strengths and limitations of such approaches in transforming organizations; and the roles of consultants and practitioners in facilitating social justice and equity-oriented processes within organizations. Additionally, students explore the roles of organizations in supporting social justice and equity in a broader social and political context.

Component(s):

Seminar

Prerequisite/Corequisite:

Students must have completed Year I coursework including AHSC 610, AHSC 620, AHSC 631, AHSC 640, AHSC 660, and AHSC 672 prior to enrolling.

Description:

This course focuses on interventions at the individual and group levels. Client-centered models of working in groups to achieve learning and task objectives are reviewed. Issues of design, planning, and implementation of learning programs for individuals and groups, including attention to power, problem-solving, decision-making, and conflict management are examined in a laboratory setting where students plan and conduct a group learning program under supervision.

Component(s):

Seminar; Workshop

Description:

The course examines current models of consultation, intervention, and planning. It enables students to establish effective client-consultant relationships based on collaborative approaches in current consulting models. Ethical concerns are integrated. Through observation and analysis of student-designed activities, the course provides experiential learning and feedback. Special attention is given to considerations of power, conflict, and other system dynamics.

Component(s):

Seminar; Practicum/Internship/Work Term; Fieldwork Group Consulting

Notes:

• Students who have received credit for AHSC 632 and AHSC 670 may not take this course for credit.

Description:

This course explores current and emerging intervention themes, methods, and practices. Some examples of the evolving field are the business of consulting, trauma-informed intervention, contemplative practices in organizational consulting; advanced facilitation theories and methods, remote consulting, advanced coaching, approaches to evaluation; arts-based organizational research methods.

Component(s):

Seminar; Workshop

Description:

This course develops professional understanding of theories and methodologies relevant to individual coaching processes in the functioning of groups, organizations and communities. Emphasis is placed on the development of competencies in executive, managerial and employee coaching. Course content encompasses phases of the coaching process, communication methodologies, obstacles and barriers to change, individual change models, strategic individual interventions, dealing with resistance, philosophy and ethics of coaching, and coaching structures. Practical components are integrated into the course.

Component(s):

Seminar; Laboratory

Description:

This course introduces the socio-ecological version of open systems theory (OST) and practice with a particular focus on the Search Conference, the Participative Design Workshop, and Unique Designs. OST was developed to promote and create change toward a world that is consciously designed by people, and for people, living harmoniously within their ecological systems, both physical and social. Students learn how to design and implement interventions in organizations, communities and larger social systems.

Component(s):

Seminar; Workshop

Notes:

• Students who have received credit for this course under an AHSC 681 number may not take this course for credit.

Description:

Topical seminars will be offered to provide perspectives about current intervention themes. These may complement students’ programs, but will not constitute part of the required curriculum. Examples include: emerging trends in organizational development; strategic planning models; the use of self as an instrument of change; intercultural issues in intervention; appreciative inquiry; complexity theory.

Component(s):

Seminar; Workshop

Description:

Same as AHSC 681 when a second special topic is offered in the same term.

Component(s):

Seminar; Workshop

Description:

Students may pursue studies in areas of specialized professional interest related to the graduate program or as a means of strengthening understanding of the core areas of the graduate program.

Component(s):

Independent Study

Description:

Students may pursue a second area of specialized professional interest related to the graduate program or further develop understanding in the core areas of the graduate program.

Component(s):

Independent Study

Prerequisite/Corequisite:

The following course must be taken concurrently: AHSC 680.

Description:

Students identify an organizational or community partner and contract to do an intervention with the system. Students must demonstrate their ability to conduct an intervention to effect change in a human system as the principal consultants in a collaborative relationship with clients representing that system.

Component(s):

Fieldwork

Notes:

• This course is graded on a pass/fail basis.