Evaluating Claims
This assignment is designed for students to apply their knowledge of research methods to evaluate claims regarding child and adolescent development found in a variety of sources. Students will also demonstrate their understanding of course content by developing a proposal for an empirical study designed to add information to the selected topic. This assignment serves as the Program Learning Objective 4 assessment for the department [Differentiate between sources of information (research, professional, and popular) and evaluate the credibility and validity of each type of information source].Description of Assignment:Students will take an in-depth look at a topical issue in child and adolescent development. In this assignment students will find non-scholarly and scholarly sources that focus on a central issue of interest. Students must include 3 non-scholarly sources of different types (e.g., newspaper, magazine, TV advertisement, Twitter feed, blog, podcast, etc.) and 3 scholarly sources in their research of the topic. Students will evaluate each of the sources, identify competing ideas, and based on the strength of the evidence of the sources, make conclusions regarding the topic. Students will then propose a study that would help contribute knowledge to the topic or resolve unanswered questions on the topic.