Teaching about Nontraditional Families and Individual Development

In this article, I describe the goals, content, and format of an undergraduate course on the implications of nontraditional families for life span development. Course goals include students gaining knowledge of scientifically based research and theory concerning nontraditional families and improving critical thinking and writing skills. The 5 major content areas are definitions of the word family, nontraditional 2-parent families, nonnuclear parenting arrangements, family options for infertile adults, and adult family arrangements. The format combines lectures, class discussions, assigned readings, reading logs, in-class exercises, guest speakers, videotapes, take-home essay exams, an interview of a nontraditional family, and an optional media review. Student responses on multiple methods of assessment indicated that the course effectively met its goals.