Identifying and Conceptualizing the Learning Styles of Youth Referred to the Juvenile Court System

Author

Linda Hall Smith, Utah State University

Date of Award

5-2004

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Departmental Honors

Department

Human Development and Family Studies

Abstract

Increasingly youth are being referred to the Juvenile Court for a variety of crimes, including those involving sexually offensive behavior. In the Fall of 2003 the Honorable Judge Gordon Low, of the First District Court in Cache County, State of Utah, requested that a program be developed that would address concerns with regard to the increased frequency of sexually offensive complaints being filed in both the Juvenile, as well as the District Court. His desire was that this program be designed, using an educational format, for youth in Middle and High Schools. Further, it was his intent that it serves a preventative function, thus reducing not only the number of complaints, but also decreases the number of those being arrested for sexually offensive behavior.

Dr. Openshaw agreed to take on this project with the help of Ms. Linda Hall Smith and an offender. During the process of developing the curriculum it was determined that the learning styles of those youth who would be serviced by this program needed to be understood so that the content, exercises, and evaluations to be included would take the learning styles into consideration. This in mind it was determined that a brief learning styles inventory, the "Pedagogical Learning Styles of Juveniles who Offend" (hereafter referred to as the PLSJO) would be developed and administered, not as a research instrument which would allow for the publication of these data, but rather as a device that would assess and provide feedback with regards to learning styles of those being referred to the Juvenile Court so that the curriculum developed would reflect these learning styles.

Recommended Citation

Smith, Linda Hall, "Identifying and Conceptualizing the Learning Styles of Youth Referred to the Juvenile Court System" (2004). Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects. 795.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/honors/795