Teaching of Psychology

We reviewed the body of published research in the journal Teaching of Psychology (ToP) concerning diversity issues (e.g., age, race/ethnicity, gender, national origin, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status). Between 1974 and 2002, approximately 7 of articles published in ToP substantively dealt with diversity issues, with gender issues being the most frequent topic. ToP publications concerning diversity issues have increased across time, especially recently, with the 1999 and 2001 volumes having the highest number of articles. Most of these diversity articles were conceptual in nature rather than empirical studies. The 33 empirical studies published in ToP concerning diversity were largely descriptive, exploratory, and atheoretical. We offer an agenda and recommendations for future research and submissions to ToP focusing on diversity issues.

We compared male and female psychology majors to psychology minors and nonmajors to understand the trends in a growing major in which women outnumber men. A total of 451 psychology majors, minors, and nonmajors from 4 institutions completed a questionnaire measuring empathy, career goals, and perceptions of the importance of empathy for therapy. Perspective taking and a desire to enter a helping profession mediated the relation between gender and major, suggesting that personality contributes to the choice of a psychology major. Highly empathic students may choose psychology because they believe that empathy is important for success in clinical and counseling psychology.

In this article, I describe Writing in Psychology, a semester-length 3-credit elective course designed to improve students' writing skills, familiarize them with psychology's writing conventions, and teach them American Psychological Association (APA) style. Students produced a case report, a report of an empirical study, a conference abstract, and a literature review. An attitude inventory and tests over grammar and APA style revealed significant precourse versus postcourse improvement, providing evidence that the course can be a valuable addition to the undergraduate curriculum.

This study addressed the impact of a semester-long course called Learning to Learn, an undergraduate psychology course designed to teach college students to be self-regulated learners. Results of pretesting and posttesting of 78 students with the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (Pintrich, Smith, Garcia, & McKeachie, 1993) provided support for the intervention. Mean differences and correlational results suggest that students increased in their mastery orientation to learning and their self-efficacy for learning, increased in their valuing of the course and in cognitive strategy use, and declined in test anxiety over the term. These findings suggest that an intervention that targets a range of cognitive and motivational components can have utility for college students and that there is value to a stand-alone course in learning to learn at the college level.

More than 100 years after it was published, William James's (1899/1939) book, Talks to Teachers on Psychology, is relevant and helpful for teachers and those who aspire to teach. In this article, I highlight certain memorable points in Talks and relate them to James's (1890) classic work, The Principles of Psychology. Many of James's insights foreshadowed certain emphases of present-day researchers, and his observations on teaching are as germane now as they were more than a century ago.

William James addressed the last 3 lectures in Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals (1899/1958) specifically to students. The first of these lectures, “The Gospel of Relaxation,” encouraged students to be both relaxed and active. The second, “On a Certain Blindness in Human Beings,” promoted awareness of and empathy for the diversity of individual human interest. The last lecture, “What Makes Life Significant,” argued that neither ideals nor passion alone gave life meaning but that the 2 in confluence yield significance. In all, James shared insights suggesting how students might improve their lives.

What has changed and what has stayed the same in the years since the first publication of James's Talks to Teachers on Psychology: And to Students on some of Life's Ideals(1899) and the 10 editions of McKeachie's Teaching Tips? Although research and theory have given us better understanding of learning, memory, cognition, and motivation, much of James's wisdom and the student-centered orientation of Teaching Tips are still valid.

William James provided not only practical advice to teachers but also wisdom concerning values in living. Statements from his students show his qualities as a teacher, although some of his statements convey his ambivalence about teaching.

An issues-oriented capstone course can help undergraduate psychology students appreciate the complexity of the discipline, integrate the material, and exercise the critical thinking skills they have learned throughout their courses in the major. Example issues for such a course include clashes between major theoretical approaches, ethical challenges, fundamental questions (e.g., nature–nurture), and contemporary debates (e.g., repressed memories).

In this article, we describe and evaluate a Web-based interactive tutorial used to present hypothesis testing concepts. The tutorial includes multiple-choice questions with feedback, an interactive applet that allows students to draw samples and evaluate null hypotheses, and follow-up questions suitable for grading. Students either used the interactive tutorial (n = 15) or completed a standard laboratory assignment (n = 10) covering the same topics. Students who used the tutorial performed better (p =.06) on a quiz than students who completed the standard laboratory, supporting the effectiveness of this freely available online tutorial. A second group of students (n = 112) who did not participate in the assessment overwhelmingly rated the tutorial as easy to use, clear, and useful.

Charles Lockett is an Assistant Professor in the School of Psychology at James Madison University, where he teaches developmental psychology as well as advanced topic courses in cultural psychology and the psychology of race and racism. A graduate of Howard University, Lockett credits Howard's Preparing Future Faculty Fellowship Program for his grasp of classroom dynamics. Lockett's research focus is examining cultural and personal identity factors that lead to achievement among minority populations.

Robert Serpell, Professor of Psychology, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, is currently a visiting professor at the University of Malawi where he conducts applied developmental psychology research. He was the Director of the Doctoral Studies Program in Applied Developmental Psychology (1989 to 2001). Born and raised in England, with a BA (Oxford, 1965), and a PhD (Sussex, 1969), he is a citizen of Zambia and worked at the University of Zambia (1965 to 1989) as Head, Psychology Department, and Director, Institute for African Studies. His theoretical and applied research in Africa, Britain, and the United States has centered on the sociocultural context of children's cognitive development.