Foundations of Family and Consumer Sciences Education

List the common goals (9) that family and consumer sciences education attempts to accomplish as set by the Association for Career and Technical Education.

1. Improving the overall quality of life for individuals and families. 2. Helping individuals and families become responsible members of society. 3. Encouraging healthy eating habits, nutrition, and lifestyle. 4. Improve how individuals and families balance their personal, family, and work lives. 5. Improve how individuals and families manage their resources. 6. Teaching individuals better problem-solving techniques. 7. Encouraging personal and career development. 8. Teaching individuals to successfully function as both consumers and providers. 9. Recognizing human worth and taking responsibility for one's actions.

Explain the importance of laboratory settings in family and consumer sciences education and give some examples of places that might be used as a laboratory setting.

A laboratory setting is important for an educator teaching family and consumer sciences because it offers students an opportunity to gain hands-on experience using a variety of skills and techniques. Many important areas of the family and consumer sciences discipline center around using a combination of various skills to achieve a certain end result and sometimes the best way to teach the appropriate way to integrate these skills is through experience. A laboratory setting offers students a place to demonstrate and improve their skills related to the family and consumer science field with the advantage of having a teacher present to answer questions and correct mistakes. Some examples of useful laboratory settings for the family and consumer sciences field include kitchens or food science laboratories, day care centers, and testing laboratories for textiles and consumer products.

Define affective skill.

Affective skill refers to how effectively an individual can recognize, understand, and handle emotions and relationships. Affective skills allow individuals to feel appropriate emotion in response to certain situations and stimuli, and then to respond appropriately.

Define cognitive skill.

Cognitive skills refers to an individual's ability to gather and understand information. Cognitive skills allow an individual to comprehend new situations and apply the knowledge that he or she has gathered elsewhere.

Explain the importance that community advisory committees can have to an education professional who is designing a teaching plan.

Community advisory committees can be extremely useful to an education professional who is attempting to determine what areas of the family and consumer science discipline a teaching plan should emphasize because the committees offer insight into the concerns and demographics of the students. Each community has its own problems, concern, and level of diversity, and it is important that a family and consumer science teacher can recognize and focus on areas of concern in the school's community. For example, a community that is having widespread problem with teenage drug abuse and teenage suicide may want the community's family and consumer science teachers to focus more on the topic of avoiding substance abuse and the methods of handling depression. The goal of a family and consumer sciences educator is to improve the overall quality of life for students and their families, and the educator cannot do that if he or she does not know what problems need to be addressed.

Explain the importance of eliminating sexual stereotypes in relation to an individual's role in a family or work setting.

Eliminating sexual stereotypes is a major concern of family and consumer sciences education. It is important for students to disregard sexual stereotypes and recognize that an individual's gender does not necessarily affect the role he or she plays. In the early and mid 1900s, women were commonly seen as caretakers of the home and men as providers for the family. However, these roles have changed drastically over the past 50-60 years, and are not entirely realistic at this point. As the cost of living increases, it becomes more difficult for a single individual to provide for an entire family. As a result, it is more common for men and women to share the caretaker and provider roles to satisfy the physiological, financial, psychological needs of the family.

Describe family and consumer education.

Family and consumer education aims to improve a variety of skills that are essential for dad to day functioning of an individual and his or her family. Family and consumer education includes specific topics such as family interaction, human development, nutrition, consumer economics, types of housing design, textiles, parenting, and the appropriate cooking and handling of foods. It covers both the physical and psychological needs of the individual, and emphasizes appropriate social interaction between the individual and the rest of society.

Identify some specific careers that individuals might be able to use family and consumer science skills in and explain what skills apply to those careers.

Family and consumer science skills are useful in food management, financial management, human resources, public relations, tailoring, dress-making, etc. Indeed, regardless of career, an individual always finds a use for these skills in life. An individual in food management needs to know about nutrition and the proper handling and preparation of food. Financial advisors need to know how to assess resources, cut costs, and determine how much an individual needs to save before retirement. Human resource and public relations managers need social skills and training in time and resource management, human development, and psychology. Finally, tailors and dressmakers use their knowledge of textiles and textile design to create better garments.

Explain some of the ways an educator might teach students about various careers.

In order to help students determine their interests and develop their skills, teachers should give them some example descriptions of various careers. Some of these examples may be family and consumer science careers, though it is not necessary for them all to be so. The class should examine a diverse sampling of different careers, especially since family and consumer science skills can be applied to virtually any setting. For example, a construction worker might not need to know about food, textiles, or housing design, but he or she still needs to know various problem-solving techniques. It can also be extremely useful for students to get some hands-on experience applying family and consumer science concepts to the tasks associated with different careers.

Explain the importance of using affective, cognitive, and psychomotor skills together in an individual's day-to-day living.

It is extremely important for an individual to be able to use a combination of his or her affective, cognitive, and psychomotor skills together on a day-to-day basis, as each type of skill is essential to the overall functioning of a healthy individual. An individual who has mastered his or her psychomotor skills may be in excellent physical health, but the individual's emotional and intellectual health will suffer if he or she is unable to make effective relationships or who can only understand complex concepts, as it will be significantly more difficult for them to perform everyday functions if they have poor control of their psychomotor skills. For an individual to maintain his or her physical and mental health, along with that of his or her family, the individual must be able to use a combination of different skills.

Explain the importance of balancing home and work roles and how family and consumer sciences education attempts to help balance these roles.

It is important that an individual is able to balance his or her work and home roles because it is becoming more and more common for individuals to have to act as both caregiver and provider for the family. The ever more common presence of dual roles in society can be be extremely difficult for an individual to balance, as there may instances where work-related responsibilities and family-related responsibilities conflict with one another. Family and consumer sciences education attempts to teach individuals how to avoid and how decision-making techniques, and effective communication techniques. tactics such as time and resources management, problem-solving and to handle these conflicts through the use of successful life management Family and consumer sciences education also attempts to give for the successful completion of each role so that individuals a basic understanding of what responsibilities and qualities are necessary individuals can set better priorities and find better ways to plan their lives.

Identify some of the characteristics of occupational family and consumer sciences education.

Occupational family and consumer sciences education is a teaching discipline that is similar to the standard discipline of family and consumer education but focuses less on the skills for day-to-day living and more on how those skills can be used in the workplace. Occupational family and consumer sciences education covers information regarding skills that can commonly be applied in fields such as interior design, health services, food services, childcare, hospitality, fashion design, any many other similar fields. Occupational family and consumer sciences education places more emphasis on family and consumer skills that directly relate to a career, such as management techniques and ethical business practices, than the standard family and consumer education discipline. The occupational family and consumer sciences education discipline ultimately takes the skills that an individual has learned from the standard discipline and shows how those skills can be applied to a career.

Explain the importance of professional organizations in regards to family and consumer sciences education.

Professional organizations such as the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences, also known as the AAFCS, play an important education of individuals in the methodology and knowledge associated with family and consumer sciences. Many of these and publications local and national professional organizations offer seminars, courses, on a wide range of topics directly to individuals and families to teach them about essential career and management skills, how to be smart consumers, the importance of following nutritional guidelines, and information about wide range of other topics. These professional organizations also provide publications, advice, and curriculum guides to educational professionals that help these professionals teach and stay informed regarding important changes to the curriculum that result from changes in legislation, society, and the education system itself. These organizations also have a profound effect on family and consumer science education by influencing public policy and gathering support for programs that help educate and protect individuals and families from unsafe habits, business practices, products, and lifestyles.

Define psychomotor skill.

Psychomotor skills refers to an individual's ability to coordinate his or her physical movements. In other words, a person's control over simple and complex motor functions.

Identify some of the factors that might indicate whether an individual is using his or her affective skills effectively.

Some of the factors that can be used to measure how well-developed an individual's affective skills are include determining how well the individual receives emotional stimuli and how well the individual responds to those stimuli. It is also important to determine how easy it is for the individual to acknowledge the worth of a particular situation, relationship, or individual and whether the individual has an organized and well-conceived value system. An individual's ability to receive and respond to emotional stimuli can be measured by how aware the individual is of a particular stimulus, how willing the individual is to acknowledge that particular stimulus, and how focused the individual is on that stimulus. An individual's ability to assign value to a situation and uphold a value system can be measured by how motivated the individual is, how the individual behaves, and how consistent that individual's behavior is. For example, a student that always comes to class and clearly always pays attention may have well-developed affective skills.

Identify some of the factors that might indicate whether an individual is using his or her cognitive skills effectively.

Some of the factors that can be used to measure how well-developed an individual's cognitive skills are include determining the individual's ability to retain knowledge, comprehend knowledge, apply knowledge, and evaluate knowledge. An individual's ability to retain knowledge can be measured by testing the individual's ability to remember certain facts and information through exams or simply asking questions. An individual's ability to comprehend knowledge can be measured by an individual demonstrating a concept in a different form, explaining a concept in more detail or simplifying a concept, or predicting a result based on a particular concept. An individual breaking a concept down into individual parts and demonstrating how those parts make up the whole can also show comprehension of a particular concept. An individual's ability to apply knowledge can be measured by an individual demonstrating that they can use a particular concept for a real-life purpose. Finally, an individual's ability to evaluate a particular piece of knowledge can be indicated by the individual showing the value of that knowledge.

Explain some of the functions, other than offering advice to education professionals, that community advisory committees perform.

Some of the functions that community advisory committees perform, other than offering advice to education professionals, include assessing the performance of family and consumer science programs, assessing the performance of students with special needs, and providing equipment, technology, and resources for family and consumer science programs. These resources may include raw materials, textile samples, charts and diagrams, library books, and access to computers and design software. Community advisory committees also help students improve their chances of finding better jobs and careers and act as a public relations liaison for local family and consumer science programs. Ultimately, the primary purpose of a family and consumer sciences community advisory committee is to ensure that a family and consumer sciences program has all of the resources and training necessary to achieve the program's goals.

Explain the role that the FCCLA and other family- oriented youth organizations play in family and consumer sciences education.

The FCCLA and other similar youth organizations play an important role in influencing national policy related to protecting families and consumers. Additionally, these organizations are important because they support family and consumer science educational programs, which strive to improve the overall quality of life for individuals and families by teaching people skills that will enable them to live better lives.

Explain what the FCCLA is and inedtify the purpose of the FCCLA.

The FCCLA, which stands for the Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America, is a youth organization for students in family and consumer science education. The FCCLA offers a variety of publications and programs designed to educate people about parenting, relationships, substance abuse, teen pregnancy, and teen violence, among other concerns. By focusing public attention to the problems that young people face, the FCCLA gains support for programs and laws that help protect young people and their families. The FCCLA also shows students how they can improve their family and consumer science skills and apply those skills later in life.

Explain the importance of improving the overall quality of life to family and consumer sciences education and explain some of the ways that this education attempts to improve the overall quality of life.

The first of the nine goals established for family and consumer sciences education is to improve the overall quality of life for individuals and families, which is also the primary mission of all of the goals. Family and consumer sciences education teaches people about how individuals, families, and the rest of society interact with each other, along with methods for improving those interactions. These methods include problem-solving techniques, common scams and problems to avoid, methods to stay healthy both physically and psychologically, and the distribution of a variety of other information regarding how the individual, family, and the rest of society function. Ultimately, family and consumer sciences education strives to improve the quality of life by educating individuals and families in the best manner to function on a day to day basis. However, this goal is truly accomplished only when the other eight goals of family and consumer sciences education are met as well.

Explain some of the steps that an educator might take when determining the best way to meet the special needs of a student.

The first step an educator should take when determining the best way to meet the special needs of a student is to identify exactly what that particular child's needs consist of, as each student is unique in his or her ability to learn and comprehend. If a student is performing poorly, a teacher must determine the cause of the student's poor performance. Once the cause has been identified, the teacher can then determine how much assistance the student needs. If the student's needs can be met through such techniques as one-on-one attention or special project assignments, this is usually the best course of action. However, if the student has needs that require solutions beyond simple changes in curriculum, including potential psychological or physiological disorders, the educator has an obligation to consult with other educational professionals and to discuss other options with the child's parents.

Define work simplification.

The process of discovering and implementing a series of procedures allowing an individual or a group of individuals to complete a task more easily and efficiently.

Identify some of the methods an educator could use to demonstrate family and consumer science concepts.

There are a large number of methods that an educator can use to demonstrate concepts related to family and consumer sciences, but the best methods always involve promoting students' active participation. Some examples of active participation include allowing students to use a sewing machine; having students test the qualities of various textiles to see how soft, lustrous, resilient, absorbent, etc. each material is; and requiring students to prepare a meal. Students can also demonstrate active participation with the following activities: comparing advertisements to find the best offer for a particular product, examining common marketing tactics, visiting or working in a local daycare center, and being involved in local community service activities. Many of these activities serve not only as effective ways of teaching students about the important concepts of family and consumer sciences, but also as a means of testing the students' ability to apply the techniques, skills, and information that they have learned.

Briefly explain some of the basic concepts that family and consumer education focuses on.

There are several concepts at the core of family and consumer education, but one of the most important concepts is that families form the basic unit of society. Another important concept of family and consumer education is that individuals need to be life-long learners in order to develop and function successfully, Finally, family and consumer education promotes the idea that individuals and families need to have an understanding of the advantages of experimenting with different decision-making methods and diverse ways of thinking in order to solve and given problem.

Identify some of the methods an educator might use to determine whether a student understands a particular concept.

Usually, the best method an educator can use to verify whether a student understands a particular concept is to see if the student can actively apply the information he or she has learned to such everyday tasks as cooking, sewing, and time management; however, a student may not be able to demonstrate his or her understanding of certain concepts if a laboratory setting is not available. Alternative methods by which an educator can evaluate a student's level of comprehension include administering written tests, assigning projects and research papers, teaching students to design charts and diagrams, involving students in the evaluation of case studies and scenarios, and requiring students keep a journal of their activities and eating habits. Which evaluation method an educator should use depends primarily on the curriculum being covered and the abilities of the students who are taking the class.

Explain the impact new acts of legislation can have on familynand consumer sciences education.

When a new act of legislation is passed, it can often have a profound impact on the types of materials used in family and consumer sciences classrooms, as well as the issues that should be addressed by family and consumer sciences education. It is important that individuals understand the legal protections and rights granted to them by the various acts put into place by state and federal governments. Since laws are constantly changing, family and consumer science educators must be able to adapt quickly and add information regarding new legislation to their curriculum.

Explain some of the ways work can be simplified.

Work can be simplified in a number of ways by determining the best possible way to complete a task without significantly impacting the overall quality of the work. Some of the basic methods include ensuring that individuals have access to necessary equipment, that work areas are organized, and that any steps in the work process that do not directly affect the outcome of the work are eliminated.