Teaching of Psychology

Accountability pressures influence all levels of psychology instruction. In this article we explore how to meet those pressures with integrity, focusing on authentic assessment and teaching as a primary solution. We propose a rubric to describe the progress of students' acquisition of scientific inquiry skills applied to behavior and provide an example of an authentic assessment that demonstrates use of the rubric. Application of the rubric can enhance active learning, promote more sophisticated scientific inquiry, improve metacognitive development, support program evaluation, and enrich faculty development.

To enhance student interest in research methods, tests and measurement, and statistics classes, we describe how teachers may use resources from economic psychology to illustrate key concepts in these courses. Because of their applied nature and relevance to student experiences, topics covered by these resources may capture student attention and provide continuity to what might otherwise be regarded as disconnected or uninteresting material. We conclude by discussing student reaction to and cautions about introducing such applied resources.

Academic dishonesty among students reveals potential problems in the teaching of psychology. In particular, a teaching pedagogy that emphasizes information delivery, and uses examinations as a method to discriminate among students aspiring for social and financial status, contributes to an academic climate of dishonesty. As a constructive response, I recommend that psychology faculty discuss with students (and with each other) certain fundamental assumptions of liberal education and consider how these assumptions relate to the discipline of psychology.

Students' scores on a psychological critical thinking instrument administered at the beginning and end of a large human development course significantly correlated with multiple-choice exam scores, with the posttest critical thinking scores being the better predictor of exam performance. The sample as a whole gained significantly on critical thinking, but students with high and low exam scores differed in their patterns of change on critical thinking. Students who scored high (As and B+s) on the exams significantly improved their critical thinking scores, whereas students who scored low (Ds and Fs) on the exams did not. An explicit practice and feedback procedure implemented through an existing course activity presumably contributed to gains in critical thinking.

We propose a procedure for increasing student participation, particularly in large classes. The procedure establishes a token economy in which students earn tokens for participation and then exchange those tokens for extra credit. We evaluated the effectiveness of the procedure by recording the degree of participation in an introductory psychology class before, during, and after implementation of the token economy. Results revealed that the amount of directed and nondirected participation increased during the token economy and returned to baseline after removal of the token economy. Furthermore, students responded faster to questions from the instructor during the token economy than during baseline, and this decrease in response latency continued even after removal of the token economy.

Eighty college students read textbook passages that either included marginal inserts to signal key concepts or did not include these inserts. Signaling key concepts enhanced performance on content quizzes overall and on subsets of items assessing signaled material. Performance was not affected on subsets of items for nonsignaled content. Students reported preferring the signaled format and found it both clearer and easier to understand than the nonsignaled format. Signaling key concepts by extracting and highlighting them in marginal inserts may facilitate encoding and retention of these concepts.

This article describes a project to reinforce learning in an undergraduate health psychology seminar. The project required students to (a) profile the physical and mental health status of at least 15 family members, (b) identify trends or patterns related to health and illness in their families, and (c) develop an action plan for maintaining good health. Students' evaluations of the project suggested that the project reinforced learning from the class, enhanced knowledge about the causes for illnesses, and prompted them to monitor or change health-related behavior to maintain good health.

This study investigated the effectiveness of portfolios as an instructional technique to reduce errors associated with test scoring by graduate students. Both the control and experimental conditions consisted of a lecture and demonstration on proper administration and scoring followed by a discussion. The experimental condition also required students to maintain a portfolio with completed protocols, which students reviewed prior to each ensuing practice administration. The experimental group demonstrated a significant reduction in scoring errors in comparison to the control group. These findings suggest portfolios are an effective instructional technique that can reduce errors made by graduate students when scoring tests measuring cognitive ability.

Diversity is increasing within the United States, and higher education will likely play a key role in preparing people to function in this new environment. This study assessed the effectiveness of a semester-long psychology workplace diversity course at changing student levels of ethnocentrism and attitudes regarding gender roles; the disabled; gays, lesbians, and bisexuals (GLBs); racial minorities; and the elderly in the workplace. The results indicated that the course had a positive impact on the perceived equality of gender roles; improved student attitudes toward the disabled, racial minorities, and GLBs at work; and increased intercultural tolerance.

We describe the use of academic guide maps to learn psychology. Academic guide maps are the combination of derived structural schemas (recurrent knowledge structures in psychology) and node-link knowledge maps (diagrammatic presentations that illustrate the relational organization of information). We identified theories, research, procedures, techniques, classification systems, concepts, principles, processes, and systems as recurrent structures in psychology and created guide maps for each. Based on studies of derived structural schemas and node-link maps, the guide maps should help students when taking notes during lectures and studying for exams. Additionally, the guide maps may aid professors in preparing and organizing their lectures and in assessing their students' understanding of the material.

A public Web site (Goolkasian & Van Wallendael, 2001), established to provide educational materials in cognitive science, served as the primary text for an interdisciplinary course. We tracked student use of the Web site online and with self-report questionnaires. A majority (74%) of the students rated the Web site to be as useful or more useful than a traditional textbook. Although time spent online with the Web materials predicted scores for 2 of the 4 exams, class attendance was the strongest predictor of exam performance.

Krista Forrest is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, where she teaches general psychology and life span development as well as advanced courses in adolescent psychology, group dynamics, and psychology and law. A graduate of North Carolina State University with a MS in developmental psychology and a PhD in social psychology, she is currently examining the extent to which specific police interrogation strategies influence a suspect's likelihood of falsely confessing. Her dedication to educating students with disabilities comes from 12 years of combined teaching experience at North Carolina State, Elon College, and University of Nebraska at Kearney as well as her role as a mother to a child who has both visual and hearing impairments.

Catherine Fichten received her MA in experimental social psychology from Concordia University, her PhD in clinical psychology from McGill University, and is currently a Professor of Psychology at Dawson College, an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at McGill University, and a clinical psychologist at the SMBD–Jewish General Hospital. In addition to her research in the areas of sexual dysfunction and sleep disorders, she has published or has in press over 30 articles concerning postsecondary students and disabilities. Topics range from nondisabled student and faculty perceptions of students with disabilities to the availability of technology for students with disabilities. She has authored or coauthored grants worth over 2 million dollars to empirically investigate factors influencing the academic and social success of college students with disabilities. As a member of the advisory committee for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, she has informed multiple institutes within the agency of the needs and research opportunities related to mobility issues. Many of her articles are available on her Web page (www.fichten.org).