Awards January 2013
At the January 2013 NITOP, four participant posters were presented with awards. All awards were decided by Institute faculty and announced at the closing session on January 6, 2013. The Frank Costin Memorial Award for Excellence (including a certificate, a check for $250, and a complimentary registration at a future NITOP conference), for the poster judged by Institute faculty as best promoting quality teaching methods, was presented to Jack W. Berry for his poster entitled “A Classroom Activity Illustrating Big Five Personality Judgments from Facebook Cues.” The Doug Bernstein Award (a certificate, a check for $250, and a complimentary registration at a future NITOP conference), for the poster judged by the NITOP conference committee (not including Doug Bernstein) as the most humorous, creative, or original poster, was presented to Daniel R. VanHorn and Jon Mueller for their poster entitled "Fantasy Researcher League: Engaging Students in Psychological Research.” The Society for the Teaching of Psychology Award (a certificate, a check for $250, and a year's membership in STP), for the poster judged by Institute faculty as best incorporating new or innovative content into psychology courses, was presented to George Freeman, Jr. for his poster entitled "Psychology Is for the Birds: Interdisciplinary Teaching of Psychology, Ecology, and Ornithology.” The Society for the Teaching of Psychology also supported the STP Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Award, which included a certificate, a check for $250, and a complimentary one-year membership in STP. This award was given to the poster judged by the NITOP conference committee to be outstanding in terms of (a) the importance of the research question addressed, (b) the soundness of the research methodology employed, (c) the use of appropriate qualitative and/or statistical analyses, and (d) the clarity with which the implications of the research findings for teaching and learning are expressed: "What Constructs Matter for Motivating College Students? A Mixed Method Investigation,” by Kenneth E. Barron, Chris Hulleman, and Rory Lazowski. The abstracts of these posters follow.
FRANK COSTIN MEMORIAL AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE
A Classroom Activity Illustrating Big Five Personality Judgments
from Facebook Cues
Jack W. Berry
Samford University
email: jwberry@samford.edu
I describe an activity for use when teaching the Big Five personality traits. After describing research on personality judgments based on cues from living spaces (bedroom, offices), my class (32 students) rated the personality of a subject (unknown by them) based solely on his Facebook page, using the Ten Item Personality Inventory. The subject provided me with his self-ratings, and five people who know the subject well (relatives and fiancée) provided “close other” ratings. In class, I projected my computer screen so students could view the subject’s Facebook page. One student navigated the page, following student requests. After 15 minutes, students made their ratings. Results were presented the next class meeting. I first presented data on rater consistency on the subject’s standing on the Big Five factors. For “close other” ratings, the intraclass correlation was .94; for student ratings, .96. Next I presented bar charts for each Big Five factor showing the subject’s self-ratings, the mean “close other” ratings, and the mean class ratings. On all factors, “close other” ratings were closer to the self-report than were class ratings. Class ratings were fairly accurate for extraversion, conscientiousness, and openness, but less so for neuroticism and agreeableness (consistent with published research).
Students rated the activity on a 7-point scale (“not at all” to “very much”) according to whether it was enjoyable, helpful in understanding personality research, and promising for future classes. Mean ratings for enjoyment, understanding, and future use for 5.7, 5.6, and 5.9; median ratings were 6 on all items.
DOUG BERNSTEIN AWARD
Fantasy Researcher League:
Engaging Students in Psychological Research
Daniel R. VanHorn and Jon Mueller
North Central College
email: drvanhorn@noctrl.edu; jfmueller@noctrl.edu
We describe an innovative course that was developed to get students excited about finding, reading, and discussing current research in the field of psychology. More specifically, we took the hugely popular fantasy sports model and modified it to create a course that would engage students in psychological research. The course met approximately every three weeks throughout the academic year. Each student drafted a team of five active psychology researchers at the beginning of the course. These teams made up our Fantasy Researcher League. Students kept track of all their researchers’ scholarly activities and accomplishments (for example, books, articles, presentations, and number of times cited) during the academic year. Students documented their researchers’ activities by designing and maintaining a team webpage. A student earned points for their team by correctly documenting their team’s scholarly activities. During class meetings students discussed the recent research activity of their teams. Students were also asked to connect their researchers’ current work to their researchers’ past work. At the end of each class, team scores were updated and high scoring teams were recognized. Follow-up student surveys suggest that the course did help students engage in psychological research. For example, students reported that they could better search for research I psychology databases, were more familiar with current psychological research, felt more competent presenting and discussing research, could describe the research program of several prominent psychology researchers, had a better understanding of how research evolves over time, and had a better sense of which areas of psychology interest them.
SOCIETY FOR THE TEACHING OF PSYCHOLOGY AWARD
Psychology Is for the Birds:
Interdisciplinary Teaching of Psychology, Ecology, and Ornithology
George Freeman, Jr.
The Evergreen State College
email: freemang@evergreen.edu
Imagine teaching a yearlong class integrating psychology, ecology, and ornithology. The pedagogy of The Evergreen State College was founded on such an exchange of disciplines and ideas. Teaching in teams, the faculty are encouraged to construct creative two or three quarter long programs spanning the Environmental sciences, Natural sciences, Arts, Humanities, and the Social sciences. These team-taught programs at this Liberal Arts college allow faculty to stretch beyond the box of our discipline while finding new and enthralling ways of teaching the foundation of our discipline.
This poster presents an interdisciplinary yearlong program integrating psychology, ecology, and ornithology. This team-taught program targeted first-year, freshman-level students and included human development, ecological and environmental psychology, an introduction to personality theory, ecology, environmental studies, and ornithology. Field trips included an examination of the built and natural environment and how human and non-human animals share these environments. The poster will present the catalog copy, a range of activities, a sample of the syllabi used each quarter, the content areas and the readings for this yearlong program, and an example of our schedule. It will include narrative statements by the students regarding their experience and significant learning. Ever thought about spreading your wings and souring like an eagle? This program is for you!
STP SCHOLARSHIP OF TEACHING AND LEARNING (SoTL) AWARD
What Constructs Matter for Motivating College Students?
A Mixed Method Investigation
Kenneth E. Barron1, Chris Hulleman2, and Rory Lazowski1
1James Madison University, 2University of Virginia
email: barronke@jmu.edu; hullemcs@jmu.edu; lazowsra@jmu.edu
As psychologists, we would hope that knowledge of motivation theory could be used to help improve classroom learning and instruction. However, over the last few decades, motivation constructs and terminology have proliferated, leaving many confused about what constructs matter in student motivation (Murphy & Alexander, 2000). Even an author of a popular educational psychology textbook once remarked: “I hate writing the motivation chapter of my textbook. Motivation researchers have 48±8 theories of motivation, and I don’t know what should and shouldn’t be stressed to aspiring teachers.” Thus to evaluate different theoretical perspectives and identify core constructs that make a difference in college student motivation, we conducted a mixed method investigation of 13 motivational constructs from contemporary research. First, we engaged in a quantitative study by surveying 531 college students to determine which constructs were present in their most and least motivating college classes, and which constructs explained the most variance in predicting key educational outcomes. Second, we engaged in a qualitative study by interviewing 123 college students about the characteristics of their most and least motivating college classes and coding their responses for their connection to a particular motivation theory and construct. Although support was found for constructs from Expectancy-Value, Flow, and Self-Deteminaton Theories, Expectancy-Value constructs had the most consistent support (and largest effect sizes) across both methodological approaches in promoting college student motivation. One obvious implication for educators is that rather than learning “48±8 theories” of motivation, educators could be trained on one parsimonious model of motivation to apply in their classrooms.
Awards January 2012
At the January 2012 NITOP, four participant posters were presented with awards. All awards were decided by Institute faculty and announced at the closing session on January 6, 2012. The Frank Costin Memorial Award for Excellence (including a certificate, a check for $250, and a complimentary registration at a future NITOP conference), for the poster judged by Institute faculty as best promoting quality teaching methods, was presented to Vicki Sheafer for her poster entitled "Using Drama to Enhance Learning of Classic Experiments in Social Psychology." The NITOP faculty also recognized the runner-up for the Costin Award: "Development of an Introductory Psychology Assessment Inventory" by Sarah Hagedorn, Richard Stephens, Robert Bubb, and Bill Buskist. The Doug Bernstein Award (a certificate, a check for $250, and a complimentary registration at a future NITOP conference), for the poster judged by the NITOP conference committee (not including Doug Bernstein) as the most humorous, creative, or original poster, was presented to Jeremy Newton for his poster entitled "Using Social Networking to Teach and Mentor Psychology Majors." The Society for the Teaching of Psychology Award (a certificate, a check for $250, and a year's membership in STP), for the poster judged by Institute faculty as best incorporating new or innovative content into psychology courses, was presented to Rebecca Singer for her poster entitled "Study Abroad Courses Serve as Alternative 'Animal Laboratories.'" The NITOP faculty also recognized the runner-up for the STP Award: "Pharmaceutical Company Print Advertising as a Teaching Tool in Abnormal Psychology" by Sarah Hall. The Society for the Teaching of Psychology also supported the STP Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Award, which included a certificate, a check for $250, and a complimentary one-year membership in STP. This award was given to the poster judged by the NITOP conference committee to be outstanding in terms of (a) the importance of the research question addressed, (b) the soundness of the research methodology employed, (c) the use of appropriate qualitative and/or statistical analyses, and (d) the clarity with which the implications of the research findings for teaching and learning are expressed: "Practice Tests and Knowledge Surveys: A Comparison of Review Activities," by Heather Mitchell. The abstracts of these posters follow.
FRANK COSTIN MEMORIAL AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE
Using Drama to Enhance Learning of Classic Experiments in Social Psychology
Vicki Sheafer
LeTourneau University
email: vickisheafer@letu.edu
Psychology has a long history of using drama as an active learning technique (Brooks, 1985; Sheldon, 1996; Toner, 1978; Wann, 1993). It has been used in conjunction with many different kinds of psychology courses (Introductiory, Developmental, History, Social) and for many different purposes (demonstrations, active learning exercises, extra-credit). Wann (1993) had students in an undergraduate social psychology class select interesting experiments, develop a dramatic script to describe the research, and perform the play for class. I adapted Wann's (1993) technique for use in my own Social Psychology course. The class was split into six four- or five-person groups. Each of the groups chose an experiment from a list of 15 classic experiments in the history of social psychology included in the course syllabus. Each group was responsible for writing a script and performing their play in class. Each play had to be at least 15 minutes in length. After the completion of the assignment, a 17-question evaluation survey was filled out by twenty-eight class members. The questionnaire used a 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree) likert scale. Results show that the students enjoyed enjoyed both participating in the activity and also watching the plays of others, that it allowed them to be creative, caused them to work hard, was interesting and helpful, and recommended that the professor continue to use the assignment in the future. The poster explains the assignment in more detail, including a discussion of requirements, the experiment list, and sample scripts developed by the class.
Runner-up: FRANK COSTIN AWARD
Development of an Introductory Psychology Assessment Inventory
Sarah Hagedorn, Richard Stephens, Robert Bubb,
and Bill Buskist
Auburn University
email: srh0009@tigermail.auburn.edu
The American Psychological Association Assessment Task Force was established with a charge to standardize and integrate psychological curriculum across institutions (APA, 2008). To meet this charge, valid assessments of student learning, based on learning objectives, are necessary. Valid assessments can be used to guide student learning, evaluate student success, research and develop effective teaching strategies and techniques, and provide useful teacher evaluations and program appraisals. The purpose of the current study was to develop a valid introductory psychology assessment for use at the course and department level across universities. Learning objectives were developed using the "top" terms and concepts from ten subfields of psychology identified by Boneau (1990) and the level of proficiency for learning objectives at the introductory psychology level (APA, 2008). Assessment items were generated from the resulting learning objectives and pilot tested. Items deemed psychometrically sufficient were administered to a national sample of seven colleges and universities. The final assessment inventory consists of 42 items. Psychometric properties such as difficulty and discrimination indices are provided. The results demonstrate a significant correlation between the current assessment inventory and final course grades and suggest that the developed assessment inventory is a valid and reliable measure of students' knowledge of introductory psychology.
DOUG BERNSTEIN AWARD
Using Social Networking to Teach and Mentor Psychology Majors
Jeremy Newton
Saint Martin's University
email: jnewton@stmartin.edu
Social networking websites have permanently altered the way that people communicate. While much of this communication is personal, the impact of social networking websites can have both intentional and unintentional effects on a student's academic and professional pursuits. Students can do real harm to their careers by simply posting pictures or information that present them in a less than professional light. At the same time, however, social networking has demonstrable power as an information resource. It is surprisingly easy to share information with many people at one time. Given this power as a communication tool, there is a real opportunity to reach students and provide them with accurate information about psychology and other topics.
With this in mind, college level instructors have not necessarily mapped out best practice for use of social networking websites to reach students. This poster presentation covers how to use social networking as a reliable way to provide information to students in a manner that allows for enhancement of their academic experience. Further, details are offered about the best way to "approach" students via social networking websites that allow for the students to protect their own privacy. The entire mentoring process is covered, including classroom use, advising, career mentoring, and professional communications
SOCIETY FOR THE TEACHING OF PSYCHOLOGY AWARD
Study Abroad Courses Serve as Alternative "Animal Laboratories"
Rebecca A. Singer
Georgetown College and University of Phoenix
email: rebecca_singer@georgetowncollege.edu
Students intending to continue their education in graduate school often need to show research competency, a skill sometimes difficult to obtain at a small, liberal arts college. This is especially true of the animal learning and cognition field. Animal laboratories require time commitments and monetary investments that may not be readily available. While there are some virtual animal lab manuals, these do not replace the hands-on experience so vital for graduate work. This poster describes how a study abroad course can provide an alternative to the traditional laboratory experience. Two study abroad courses were designed to allow students to develop skills in understanding peer-reviewed journal articles, training marine mammals, and research methodology. The first course allows students to travel to the Roatan Institute of Marine Sciences (RIMS) in Roatan, Honduras to work with a group of captive bottlenose dolphins on three different research projects. Students learn how research questions guide the experimental design. In the second course, students travel to the Bahamas to engage in naturalistic observation of wild dolphin populations (Bimini) as well as to collect data on a captive dolphin population (Nassau). Students are able to compare and contrast research methodologies appropriate for wild and captive populations. Specific readings, descriptions of research projects, and assignments are presented. In addition, qualitative data on student satisfaction with the course is presented.
Runner-up: SOCIETY FOR THE TEACHING OF PSYCHOLOGY AWARD
Pharmaceutical Company Print Advertising as a Teaching Tool in Abnormal Psychology
Sarah E. Hall
Wheaton College (IL)
email: sarah.hall@wheaton.edu
This poster presents an in-class activity involving analysis and discussion of magazine advertisements for psychotropic medications to treat mood disorders. This activity has been successfully employed by the author in several Abnormal Psychology courses as a teaching technique to expand and challenge students' thinking and create class discussion. The purpose of the activity is fourfold: 1) to raise students' awareness of the public portrayal and perception of mental illness and of those who experience it; 2) to facilitate students' critical thinking about media materials; 3) to facilitate students' understanding of the many influences on treatment decisions; and 4) to enhance students' persuasion skills through debate about whether drug companies should be allowed to advertise directly to prescribers and/or consumers. Students are asked to look over and read a variety of print advertisements for antidepressants and mood stabilizers and discuss several topics related to the portrayal of the medication and disorder as well as pharmaceutical company advertising and its implications. A description of the small and large group components of the activity is presented along with discussion questions and prompts. Finally, possible adaptations and expansions of the activity are offered.
STP SCHOLARSHIP OF TEACHING AND LEARNING (SoTL) AWARD
Practice Tests and Knowledge Surveys: A Comparison of Review Activities
Heather Mitchell
Webster University
email: hmitchell33@webster.edu
From cooperative to experiential learning, research suggests that students learn best when they actively participate in learning environments (e.g., Anderson, Reder, & Simon, 1996; Cobb & Bowers, 1999). The precious 50 or 80 minutes of class instruction time is invaluable, so professors may want to introduce participatory, effective review activities outside of the classroom. Additionally, students typically begin introductory psychology with several misconceptions, and they often successfully complete the course with many of the same misconceptions (Kowalski & Taylor, 2009). This poster will present an empirical comparison of two review activities designed to improve exam performance and decrease psychological misconceptions: practice tests and knowledge surveys.
Over the course of four semesters, students' performance on the first exam
as well as their beliefs in common psychological misconceptions were assessed.
During the first of the four sessions, no specific review activity was suggested.
In subsequent sessions, students were strongly encouraged to complete the tests
at the end of the chapters. Testing effects have been shown to significantly
increase learning and retention (Karpicke & Blunt, 2011). However, the benefit
of the testing effects on exam performance and reducing misconceptions was not
reliable. So, reviews involving a course knowledge survey have been incorporated
in this current study in an effort to improve learning. Knowledge surveys include
questions covering the content of an entire course and introduce metacognition
as students are asked to rate how well they understand the course information.
Such surveys appear to significantly improve course outcomes. This poster presents
details and data for both review activities.
Awards January 2011
At the January 2011 NITOP, four participant posters were presented with awards. All awards were decided by Institute faculty and announced at the closing session on January 6, 2011. The Frank Costin Memorial Award for Excellence (including a certificate, a check for $250, and a complimentary registration at a future NITOP conference), for the poster judged by Institute faculty as best promoting quality teaching methods, was presented to David B. Miller for his poster entitled "Screencasts: A Hybrid Course That Increases Student Engagement and Learning." The NITOP faculty also recognized two runner-ups for the Frank Costin Memorial Award: "With Clickers It's the Questions and Not the Technology That Lead to Learning" by Jeffrey B. Henriques and Amanda F. Boris, and "Innovating by Inverting: Rethinking the Psychology Statistics/Methods Course" by Joseph G. Johnson. The Doug Bernstein Award (a certificate, a check for $250, and a complimentary registration at a future NITOP conference), for the poster judged by the NITOP conference committee (not including Doug Bernstein) as the most humorous, creative, or original poster, was presented to Phil D. Wann for his poster entitled "Student Views of the Zeitgeist in the 21st Century: An Exercise for the History of Psychology Course." The Society for the Teaching of Psychology Award (a certificate, a check for $250, and a year's membership in STP), for the poster judged by Institute faculty as best incorporating new or innovative content into psychology courses, was presented to Mary Harmon-Vukic for her poster entitled "Psychological Perspectives of Native Americans: The Lakota." The Society for the Teaching of Psychology also supported the STP Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Award, which included a certificate, a check for $250, and a complimentary one-year membership in STP. This award was given to the poster judged by the NITOP conference committee to be outstanding in terms of (a) the importance of the research question addressed, (b) the soundness of the research methodology employed, (c) the use of appropriate qualitative and/or statistical analyses, and (d) the clarity with which the implications of the research findings for teaching and learning are expressed: "Evaluating an Active Learning Approach to Teaching Introductory Statistics," by Jennifer Winquist and Kieth A. Carlson. The abstracts of these posters follow.
FRANK COSTIN MEMORIAL AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE
Screencasts: A Hybrid Course That Increases Student Engagement and Learning
David B. Miller
University of Connecticut
email: david.b.miller@uconn.edu
For the past two decades, I have invested thousands of hours in multimedia course development for my large-enrollment General Psychology and Animal Behavior courses. Motivated by increasing student engagement in course material, I created a hybrid (part online, part in-class) Animal Behavior course using a combination of Apple Keynote and Telestream ScreenFlow software. My intent was to transcend the already extensive multimedia nature of my in-class lectures by adding additional components that could not be duplicated in a classroom setting by employing the unique editing features of ScreenFlow. After 400 hours of production and editing that rendered 90 screencasts of primary course content, the outcome in terms of student engagement and learning far exceeded my expectations.
Most of the content is available 24/7 on a protected website. Every Tuesday, I meet with my 140 students in a lecture hall for additional content, questions and answers, and discussion. Every Thursday, I meet with up to 15 Honors students for an additional hour of a podcast discussion, for which they earn Honors credit.
In Fall 2008, almost half the students earned A's, and none of the students
failed—an outcome that I have not observed in my 30 years of teaching this
course in its usual lecture format. Student comments indicated extreme engagement
in the course material that was documented by the learning outcomes.
Runner-up: FRANK COSTIN AWARD
With Clickers It's the Questions and Not the Technology That Lead to Learning
Jeffrey B. Henriques and Amanda F. Boris
University of Wisconsin - Madison
email: jhenriqu@wisc.edu
Although student feedback on the use of clickers in the classroom has been positive, evidence in the literature of their impact on test performance has been mixed. The utilization of clickers and more specifically how often they are used and their impact on test performance was examined from 5796 students across 19 sections of introductory psychology over an 8-year period of time. Examination of class performance within ten classes using (n=3171) or nine classes not using clickers (n=2625) failed to show any difference in students' grades across groups, F(1/5794)=.01, ns. However, test performance in sections where clicker concept questions were used frequently (n=1701) revealed a significant improvement in grades, mean=73.48 (sd=11.20) compared to sections which used these types of questions less regularly (n=1421), mean=70.78 (sd=11.16), F(1/3120)=45.13, p<.001. Results support the hypothesis that although clickers are useful tools for student learning, it is the quizzing effect reflected in the number of questions asked, and not the device itself, that has a positive impact on test scores.
Runner-up: FRANK COSTIN AWARD
Innovating by Inverting: Rethinking the Psychology Statistics/Methods Course
Joseph G. Johnson
Miami University of Ohio
Email: johnsojg@muohio.edu
There has been increasing concern about the statistical and quantitative literacy of college students in general, and psychology students in particular (e.g., Clay, 2005; Townsend, Golden, & Wallsten, 2005). To address this, I incorporated three key elements in a redesign of a required departmental statistics course (PSY 293). Specifically, American Statistical Association recommendations (2005), in conjunction with my own experiences and semesters of student feedback, became guidelines for introducing: (1) a new inverted structure where recorded lectures were viewed prior to class, which allowed for (2) class meetings devoted solely to hands-on activities to promote deeper learning, and (3) a "menu" of new homework assignments tailored to different learning styles from which students could choose. I conducted a natural experiment comparing two sections that I taught this semester, where one section implemented these changes for a single learning unit (correlation/regression). This poster reports results comparing learning outcomes and student perceptions across these two sections.
DOUG BERNSTEIN AWARD
Student Views of the Zeitgeist in the 21st
Century:
An Exercise for the History of Psychology Course
Phil D. Wann
Missouri Western State University
email: wann@missouriwestern.edu
History of Psychology courses have traditionally emphasized the Zeitgeist, or spirit of the times, as a key to understanding developments in the field. Broad societal and cultural factors, as well as trends within the discipline, have shaped the evolution of psychological science. Students (n=22) in the history of psychology course were given an assignment that required that they reflect on the Zeitgeist in modern day America and then identify the social, economic, and political forces affecting psychology as we enter the second decade of the 21st century. After the students had read and discussed one another's papers, the trends mentioned most frequently by the students were compared with those identified by psychology majors in the 1980's and 90's (Evans & Constable, 1994) and at the turn of the century (Wann, 2001). A summary of these trends is presented in the poster, together with student ratings of the assignment. Moreover, the impact of the Zeitgeist assignment on the quality of the historical research papers written by students at the end of the semester is examined by comparing paper grades with those from previous semesters in which the Zeitgeist assignment was not done.
SOCIETY FOR THE TEACHING OF PSYCHOLOGY AWARD
Psychological Perspectives of Native Americans: The Lakota
Mary Harmon-Vukic
Providence College
email: mharmon@providence.edu
Diversity is an important topic in psychology. In fact, the task force for
Undergraduate Psychology Major Learning Goals and Outcomes identifies diversity
education as an important objective for all psychology curricula. However, few
psychology courses completely focus upon diversity issues. In this poster I
describe a service-learning course called "Psychological Perspectives of
Native Americans: The Lakota." This course is unique in that students first
read historical and cultural literature. This is followed by a one-week trip
to Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, where students serve as volunteers
while continuing to learn about the history and culture of the Lakota through
readings, Lakota speakers, and interacting with the residents of the reservation.
After this trip students read psychological articles and/or book chapters relevant
to current issues on the reservation. Although the course is specific to the
Lakota, the general concepts and themes discussed can be applied to other populations.
Sample readings, assignments, projects, and student feedback on the course are
presented.
STP SCHOLARSHIP OF TEACHING AND LEARNING (SoTL) AWARD
Evaluating an Active Learning Approach to Teaching Introductory Statistics
Jennifer Winquist and Kieth A. Carlson
Valparaiso University
email: jennifer.winquist@valpo.edu
and kieth.carlson@valpo.edu
This poster evaluates a workbook approach to teaching a college level introductory
statistics course. We developed a workbook by converting statistics lectures
into activities that students completed during class sessions. The workbook
activities (1) presented the same content (or more content) than was presented
in the original statistics lectures and (2) included both computational and
conceptual questions pertaining to that content. Students completed the workbook
activities in groups of 2 to 4 students. Instead of lecturing during class sessions,
instructors provided (1) feedback on the quality of students' workbook answers
and (2) examples of how the statistical content being learned could be applied
to situations of interest to individual students. The 59 students who completed
the workbook curriculum showed significant increases in their confidence in
performing and understanding statistics and how much they liked statistics:
interestingly, these same students' ratings of statistics difficulty increased
significantly. Additionally, the 59 students' post course ratings for their
cognitive competence toward statistics, affect toward statistics, and statistics
difficulty ratings were positively correlated with their GPA's and their performance
on a comprehensive final exam. We discuss the various methodological problems
faced by classroom researchers and suggest that, in some cases, assessing students'
attitudes can be an effective solution to these methodological problems. We
suggest that the workbook approach holds promise for teaching introductory statistics
courses.
Awards January 2010
At the January 2010 NITOP, four participant posters were presented with awards. All awards were decided by Institute faculty and announced at the closing session on January 6, 2010. The Frank Costin Memorial Award for Excellence (including a certificate, a check for $250, and a complimentary registration at a future NITOP conference), for the poster judged by Institute faculty as best promoting quality teaching methods, was presented to Sally D. Farley for her poster entitled “Engaging Students in Statistics Using Personal Research: Can Students Tell if Someone Is in Love by the Sound of ‘How Are You?’” The NITOP faculty also recognized the runner-up for the Frank Costin Memorial Award: “The Animal Shelter as a Learning Laboratory,” by Stephanie Carlson, Ted Bryant, and Normal Spivey. The Doug Bernstein Award (a certificate, a check for $250, and a complimentary registration at a future NITOP conference), for the poster judged by the NITOP conference committee (not including Doug Bernstein) as the most humorous, creative, or original poster, was presented to Kelly Bouas Henry for her poster entitled “Social Psychology Gets Wicked: Using Musical Theatre to Identify Social Psychological Concepts in Context.” The Society for the Teaching of Psychology Award (a certificate, a check for $250, and a year’s membership in STP), for the poster judged by Institute faculty as best incorporating new or innovative content into psychology courses, was presented to Michael R. Hulsizer for his poster entitled “Psychology of Greed.” The NITOP faculty also recognized the runner-up for the STP Award: “Developing Topical Psychology Seminars for First-Year Students: A Case Study Using Animal Cognition,” by Kevin E. Moore. The Society for the Teaching of Psychology also supported the (new in January 2009) STP Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Award, which included a certificate, a check for $250, and a complimentary one-year membership in STP. This award was given to the poster judged by the NITOP conference committee to be outstanding in terms of (a) the importance of the research question addressed, (b) the soundness of the research methodology employed, (c) the use of appropriate qualitative and/or statistical analyses, and (d) the clarity with which the implications of the research findings for teaching and learning are expressed: “Designed Sequences of Examples Facilitate Learning of Statistical Concepts,” by Adrienne G. Hampton and Stephen L. Chew. The abstracts of these posters follow.
FRANK COSTIN MEMORIAL AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE
Engaging Students in Statistics
Using Personal Research:
Can Students Tell if Someone Is in Love by the Sound of “How Are You?”
Sally D. Farley
University of Baltimore
email: sfarley@ubalt.edu
Students’ fear and dislike of statistics is widely known, so the creation of engaging classroom exercises in this course is challenging. Pedagogical research suggests that active learning through interesting “real-world” examples enhances both interest in the material and retention. Because we are most passionate about our own research, the ability to integrate our teaching of statistics with personal research examples can benefit both professor and student.
I am conducting research on voice modulation as a function of conversational partner. In the first research phase, 24 individuals who self-reported being “in love” (12 men and 12 women) called a close same-sex friend and their romantic partner while being audiotaped. The calls were largely unstructured, but callers were asked to pose two questions to both conversational partners, “how are you?” and “what are you doing?” Participants rated these voice segments in terms of sexiness, pleasantness, and level of romantic interest. Some ratings were presented in a Likert-format while others were forced choice.
Students completed the ratings of the segments while in class. Because the segments were rated in several ways, the data was analyzed using a one-sample t test, and a chi-square test for independence. This flexibility facilitates a conversation about the relative advantages and disadvantages of different statistical techniques, in addition to the power of within-subjects designs.
Initial results from pitch analysis indicated
that women say "how are you?" in a deeper pitch when talking to their
romantic partners than their friends, whereas men say "how are you?"
in a higher pitch when talking to their romantic partners than their friends.
In addition, there is a tendency for raters to select voice samples directed
toward romantic partners as sounding more pleasant than those directed toward
friends. Raters were also more accurate than chance at determining whether the
caller is talking to a friend or romantic partner, even when the content has
been removed with a high band-pass filter. Furthermore, raters evaluate the
voice and personality (i.e. popularity, attractiveness) of callers more positively
when callers are talking to their romantic partners than their friends (based
on 20-second clips). Even when calls are filtered, raters tend to judge callers
as less animated and less confident when talking to romantic partners versus
friends.
Runner-up: FRANK COSTIN AWARD
The Animal Shelter as a Learning Laboratory
Stephanie Carlson, Ted Bryant,
and Normal Spivey
Bethel College
email: carlsos@bethelcollege.edu,
and bryantt@bethelcollege.edu
For two semesters, students in the Cognitive Psychology course at Bethel College have completed a service learning project at a local, no-kill animal shelter. Students were required to participate in obedience training of dogs for 8–10 hours per course. Students applied operant and classical conditioning methods in order to teach positive behaviors (sit, stay, down, come, heel, shake) and correct negative behaviors (jumping up, pulling on leash). Exposure and positive reinforcement techniques were used to reduce or eliminate phobic behaviors (fear of storm drains, training collars, strangers) in several dogs. The multiple-visit nature of the project enabled students to gain insight into the application of memory concepts (priming, recognition, chunking, spacing effect, context effects). Students were encouraged to apply learning, memory, and attention principles in novel ways for dogs with special needs (nearly blind, deaf, anxious, and dogs disinterested in training treats). In addition to gaining further understanding through class discussions, students kept journals of their training sessions and wrote research papers applying Cognitive Psychology principles to their experiences with the dogs. Several students chose to return to the shelter following the project for internship and volunteer opportunities.
DOUG BERNSTEIN AWARD
Social Psychology Gets Wicked:
Using Musical Theatre
to Identify Social Psychological Concepts in Context
Kelly Bouas Henry
Missouri Western State University
email: henry@missouriwestern.edu
Students have difficulty understanding Kelley’s covariation principle. The primary goal of this study was to determine whether using musical theatre analysis would promote better understanding of this concept. Participants enrolled in social psychology in the Fall of 2008 or 2009. A 2 (In-Class Assignment v. Wicked Assignment) x 2 (1st v. 2nd exam items) repeated measures design was employed. In 2008, students studied covariation using an in-class assignment, whereas in 2009 they used a Wicked assignment. The first exam occurred prior to the in-class or Wicked assignment and had a simple item assessing whether students could recognize the types of information needed to establish covariation. The second exam occurred after assignments, and contained an item that was more application-oriented.
The in-class assignment provided a brief scenario and asked students to generate additional content to produce person, situation, and entity attributions. The Wicked assignment involved taking the students to see the musical and writing a short paper analyzing whether the three central characters could best be explained by person, situation, or entity attributions.
First exam results showed little difference between the
“in-class” and “Wicked” groups (93% of the in-class group answered correctly
compared to 83% of the Wicked group). On the second exam, substantially more
difficult, the difference between the two groups was greater. Fifty percent
of the in-class assignment group answered correctly, compared to 75% of the
Wicked group. Additionally, 7 out of 13 students enrolled in the Wicked group
indicated they had never before been to a theatre event.
SOCIETY FOR THE TEACHING OF PSYCHOLOGY AWARD
Psychology of Greed
Michel R. Hulsizer
Webster University
email: hulsizer@webster.edu
There has been no shortage of blame for the recent global economic meltdown. However, one common theme that permeates any discussion of the antecedents of this historic event is greed. Psychology can provide a wealth of information toward understanding greed.
A course centered on greed examines the role that psychology plays in market dynamics by examining judgmental heuristics, motivated reasoning, social cognition, cognitive dissonance, and the role of culture. Students discuss the factors which produced the unrealistic optimism that everyday Americans felt which led to the various bubbles (tech, housing, etc.) that occurred throughout the past two decades.
Personality characteristics (e.g., social
dominance orientation) of greedy people are also examined. A discussion of capitalism
and culture allows for the exploration of social influence, consumerism, risk-taking
behavior, and group dynamics. The course discusses altruism, volunteerism, and
charitable giving of time, energy, and money.
The poster provides lecture and project suggestions. A handout provides a sample
syllabus, useful books, articles, videos, DVDs, and websites that can aid in
course preparation.
Runner-up: STP AWARD
Developing Topical Psychology
Seminars for First-Year Students:
A Case Study Using Animal Cognition
Kevin E. Moore
DePauw University
email: kemoore@depauw.edu
Most undergraduates pass through an introductory survey course and statistics/methods sequence before being exposed to content seminars. There is certainly a good rationale for this sequence, but there are also arguments to be made that the strengths of discussion-based content seminars would also benefit first-year students. There are, of course, many advantages for topical seminars—their discussion-oriented format, active-learning opportunities, depth of coverage, opportunities for exposure to primary literature, exposure to recent research, etc. This poster describes a successful case study of the development of a topical seminar in animal cognition (The Animal Mind) that was appropriate for first-year students. The class provided an opportunity (without prerequisites) for new college students to be in a discussion-oriented seminar that offered an exposure to psychology, and interdisciplinary connections to biology, anthropology, and philosophy. It provided an opportunity early in students’ education to engage primary and secondary literature and deeply explore research areas. The course also gave new students an opportunity to see how psychology is linked to other fields of study. The poster includes suggestions on texts, organization, level of coverage, and assignments. Data collected from students indicates that the class raised student interest in taking other psychology classes, as well as classes in related areas (e.g., biology and philosophy), and that first-year students were able to benefit in multiple ways from this type of course.
STP SCHOLARSHIP OF TEACHING AND LEARNING (SoTL) AWARD
Designed Sequences of Examples Facilitate Learning of Statistical Concepts
Adrienne G. Hampton and Stephen
L. Chew
Samford University
email: aghampto@samford.edu, and slchew@samford.edu
Designing and utilizing examples for effective learning is a complex process involving multiple factors (Chew, 2007). The present study examined the impact on student learning of two ways of sequencing a set of teaching examples. Participants were 76 students in statistics classes who were learning about probability. For the Structured order, participants were given a worked out example of a kind of probability. They then worked through three examples that progressed from highly similar to the initial example to dissimilar. For the Faded order, students were given a completely worked out example of a kind of probability. They then worked through three examples that progressed from almost completely worked out to not worked out at all. For control comparisons, the same examples were given in random order. The design was a 2 x 2 between groups factorial design with Structured versus Faded as one variable and In Sequence versus Random Order as the other variable.
Participants learned about marginal, joint, conditional, and multiple outcome probability using sequenced examples based on their assigned condition. They then attempted to solve eight novel problems, two of each kind of probability.
Students in the Structured condition solved significantly more problems than students in the Faded condition, with F(1,76)=22.987, p<.05. Students rated the In Sequence examples as significantly easier to understand than the Random examples. The results have important implications for the teaching of statistics and the use of examples.
Awards January 2009
At the January 2009 NITOP, four participant posters were presented with awards. All awards were decided by Institute faculty and announced at the closing session on January 6, 2009. The Frank Costin Memorial Award for Excellence (including a certificate, a check for $250, and a complimentary registration at a future NITOP conference), for the poster judged by Institute faculty as best promoting quality teaching methods, was presented to Pamela L. Bacon for her poster entitled “The More You Know: Reviewing Concepts Using Student-Centered Public Service Announcements.” The NITOP faculty also recognized the runner-up for the Frank Costin Memorial Award: “Podcasts Provide Beneficial Mechanism for Teaching Neuroanatomy in Absence of Lab,” by Walter L. Isaac and Noland White. The Doug Bernstein Award (a certificate, a check for $250, and a complimentary registration at a future NITOP conference), for the poster judged by the NITOP conference committee (not including Doug Bernstein) as the most humorous, creative, or original poster, was presented to Mary Harmon Vukic and Christopher Bloom for their poster entitled “Teaching Habituation Effects with Zombies.” The Society for the Teaching of Psychology Award (a certificate, a check for $250, and a year’s membership in STP), for the poster judged by Institute faculty as best incorporating new or innovative content into psychology courses, was presented to Guy A. Boysen for his poster entitled “An Integrative Undergraduate Course on the Unconscious.” The NITOP faculty also recognized the runner-up for the STP Award: “Teaching Habituation Effects with Zombies,” by Mary Harmon Vukic and Christopher Bloom, who also won the Doug Bernstein Award. The Society for the Teaching of Psychology also supported a new award in January 2009, the STP Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Award, which included a certificate, a check for $250, and a complimentary one-year membership in STP. This award was given to the poster judged by the NITOP conference committee to be outstanding in terms of (a) the importance of the research question addressed, (b) the soundness of the research methodology employed, (c) the use of appropriate qualitative and/or statistical analyses, and (d) the clarity with which the implications of the research findings for teaching and learning are expressed: “How Do Students’ Beliefs about Learning Relate to the Teaching Methods and Classroom Activities They Perceive as Effective?” by Robert A. Kachelski and Rodger Narloch. The abstracts of these posters follow.
FRANK COSTIN MEMORIAL AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE
The More You Know: Reviewing
Concepts Using Student-Centered
Public Service Announcements
Pamela L. Bacon
St. John’s University
email: pbacon@csbsju.edu
When students elaborate on past material, it helps them learn and increases their motivation and interest in the topic (Loyens et al., 2007). In an attempt to encourage students to build on past material, I turned to one of the most well-known Public Service Announcements (PSA): NBC's The More You Know information campaign. Students in my social psychology class created humorous mock PSA's that taught the viewer about a social psychological concept covered in the class. The students played their videotaped PSA's for the class and wrote a brief paper explaining their PSA. Students reported that the assignment helped them review course material, was enjoyable, caused them to talk about social psychology with their classmates outside of class, and let them demonstrate their understanding of social psychology in a creative way. The logistics and benefits of using PSA's as an end of the semester project will be discussed.
Runner-up: FRANK COSTIN AWARD
Podcasts Provide Beneficial Mechanism for Teaching Neuroanatomy in Absence of Lab
Walter L. Isaac and Noland White
Georgia College & State University
email: walter.isaac@gcsu.edu and
noland.white@gcsu.edu
Neuroanatomy podcasts were created for students in Physiological Psychology classes lacking a laboratory. A pretest-posttest method was used to evaluate college student learning. Five conditions were used: Group 1 never saw podcasts, Group 2 had iPods and access to the podcasts but no points toward their grade, Group 3 (Clinical Neuroscience class) took Physiological Psychology before podcasts were used, and had iPods and podcasts available, but no points toward their grade, Group 4 had iPods, podcasts, and points toward their grade, and Group 5 had podcasts and points toward their grade, but no iPods. A two-way repeated measure analysis of variance (ANOVA) and two subsequent one-way ANOVAs were used to explore the data. The repeated measure ANOVA revealed group differences (F(4,120) = 48.07, p = .0001), pre-/posttest differences (F(1,116) = 534.61, p=.0001), and an interaction (F(4,116) = 50.04, p = .0001). Groups performed equivalently on the pretest. Significant disparities between pre-/posttest performances were revealed. A Scheffé post hoc test showed the groups with both points toward grades and podcasts performed significantly better. Results indicate that availability of iPods did not provide an advantage over viewing the podcasts on computers. This suggests that web-based podcasts are an effective method of presenting neuroanatomy outside the classroom and that, as interested as students appear to be in iPods, points toward a final grade appear to be more motivating for students to use supplemental materials than access to iPods alone.
Teaching Habituation Effects with Zombies
Mary Harmon Vukic and Christopher
Bloom
Providence College
email: mharmon@providence.edu
and cbloom@providence.edu
Habituation effects are key concepts in the field of learning. In this poster we present an alternative way to teach these ideas using two different "zombie videos" from the internet. Students are presented with the videos over a series of ten trials. They are asked to rate their physiological arousal after each viewing. The first video is shown a few times without sound, and then with sound for several trials. After a break, students watch the video again, several times with sound. After another break students watch the second video with sound. Averages from the student ratings are compiled and shown in the following class. The concept of habituation, sensitization, effects of exposure to a second stimulus, stimulus intensity, stimulus frequency, time-out from stimulation, and effects of stimulus change are discussed in relation to the demonstration. The exam following this section includes a table of the data from the demonstration. Students are asked to use what they learned about habituation to describe the changes in physiological arousal. This demonstration can be used in an Introductory class as well as a Psychology of Learning course.
SOCIETY FOR THE TEACHING OF PSYCHOLOGY AWARD
An Integrative Undergraduate Course on the Unconscious
Guy A. Boysen
SUNY Fredonia
email: guy.boysen@fredonia.edu
The proposed poster will outline a unique course on the unconscious. Courses on consciousness are standard in psychology, but the unconscious has yet to receive such recognition despite its historical importance and the enormous amount of current research on the subject. Topics related to the unconscious tend to be spread across the curriculum, which makes the course necessarily integrative. I have taken a generalist approach by including material from classic psychoanalysis, clinical psychology, cognitive psychology, social psychology, and neuroscience. Some specific topics include dual processing, dissociation, conversion, terror management, the left brain interpreter, apparent mental causation, automaticity, and implicit conditioning, memory, and bias. All topics are integrated into the larger course themes of efficiency, confabulation, and lack of awareness, access, and control. Although no undergraduate textbook focusing on the unconscious exists, I have amassed a reading list with a special focus on short, general science journal articles. Course projects are used to foster students’ exploration of their unconscious. For example, students keep a journal of their dreams or parapraxes and then write a report outlining the discoveries made following a psychoanalytic self-analysis. Students also complete Implicit Association Tests measuring bias toward African Americans and homosexuality; afterward, they interpret and evaluate their results as part of a writing assignment. Overall, unconscious motivation and behavior is an increasingly important theme running through psychology; thus, the unconscious is worthy of its own course and a more prominent place in the modern curriculum.
Runner-up: STP AWARD
Teaching Habituation Effects with Zombies
Mary Harmon Vukic and Christopher
Bloom
Providence College
email: mharmon@providence.edu
and cbloom@providence.edu
[abstract posted above]
STP SCHOLARSHIP OF TEACHING AND LEARNING (SoTL) AWARD
How Do Students’ Beliefs about Learning Relate to the Teaching Methods and Classroom Activities They Perceive as Effective?
Robert A. Kachelski and Rodger
Narloch
St. John’s University
email: rkacheslki@csbsju.edu and
rnarloch@csbsju.edu
College students, and people in general, differ in their beliefs about knowledge and learning. Some believe that knowledge is made up of largely isolated bits of unchanging facts that can be learned fairly quickly from authorities such as professors and textbooks. Others believe that knowledge consists of networks of connected, continually evolving concepts that are learned gradually through experience, critical thinking, and active construction of links among related ideas. It is likely that students with such different ideas about knowledge and learning would also differ greatly in their views regarding which teaching methods and classroom activities would enable optimal learning.
The present research was designed to test this hypothesis
by determining a) what beliefs our Introductory Psychology students have about
knowledge and learning, b) to what degree these beliefs differ according to
year in school, and c) whether students' beliefs are related to the types of
teaching methods and classroom activities they view as effective in helping
them learn. We measured Introductory Psychology students' beliefs using the
Epistemic Beliefs Inventory (Schraw, Bendixen & Dunkle, 2002). We then correlated
those scores with students' ratings of how effective they found a variety of
classroom activities to be in promoting their learning. The poster will present
these results, as well as patterns based on class year and overall academic
performance. Also included in the poster will be suggestions about how to apply
these findings, as well as other research on epistemic beliefs, to instruction
both in and out of the classroom.
Awards January 2008
At the January 2008 NITOP, four participant posters were presented with awards. All awards were decided by Institute faculty and announced at the closing session on January 6, 2008. The Frank Costin Memorial Award for Excellence (including a certificate, a check for $250, and a complimentary registration at a future NITOP conference), for the poster judged by Institute faculty as best promoting quality teaching methods, was presented to Stacie M. Spender and Vicki DiLillo for their poster entitled “A Learner-Centered Approach to Teaching Adherence in a Health Psychology Course.” The NITOP faculty also recognized two tied runner-ups for the Frank Costin Memorial Award: “Methodology Shop,” by Marijke Engels-Freeke, and “Online Psychology Club: Engaging Distance Students beyond the Virtual Classroom,” by Teresa Mason, Jean Mandernach, Andrew Johnson, and Brian Cowley. The Doug Bernstein Award (a certificate, a check for $250, and a complimentary registration at a future NITOP conference), for the poster judged by the NITOP conference committee (not including Doug Bernstein) as the most humorous, creative, or original poster, was presented to Alice P. Carter for her poster entitled “Roadmaps for Statistical Decisions.” The Society for the Teaching of Psychology Award (a certificate, a check for $250, and a year’s membership in STP), for the poster judged by Institute faculty as best incorporating new or innovative content into psychology courses, was presented to Linda J. Kunce and Sarah Tribble for their poster entitled “Teaching Psychology Statistics with a Sustainability Theme.” The NITOP faculty also recognized the runner-up for the STP Award: “Reinforcing Concepts of Life-Span Development through Analysis of Holocaust Memoirs,” by Stephen L. Chew. The Society for the Teaching of Psychology also supported a new award in January 2008, the STP Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Award, which included a certificate, a check for $250, and a complimentary one-year membership in STP. This award was given to the poster judged by the NITOP conference committee to be outstanding in terms of (a) the importance of the research question addressed, (b) the soundness of the research methodology employed, (c) the use of appropriate qualitative and/or statistical analyses, and (d) the clarity with which the implications of the research findings for teaching and learning are expressed: “Traditional Lecture May Be More Effective in Teaching Nervous System Anatomy and Function than the Jigsaw Classroom Technique,” by Amanda Maynard and Sarah Uzelac. The abstracts of these posters follow.
FRANK COSTIN MEMORIAL AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE
A Learner-Centered Approach to Teaching Adherence in a Health Psychology Course
Stacie M. Spencer
Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences
email: stacie.spencer@mcphs.edu
and Vicki DiLillo
Ohio Wesleyan University
email: vgdillil@owu.edu
Adherence is an important concept in a Health Psychology course, especially adherence to long-term behavior change such as quitting smoking, increasing physical activity, and following complex medication regimens. The definition of adherence is easy to master, and textbooks typically provide lists of strategies for improving adherence that students can easily understand and memorize. The following assignment was developed to move students from these basic forms of critical thinking (retention and comprehension) to more advanced forms (application and evaluation). Prior to the class discussion of adherence, students are given candies and corresponding instructions that represent seven medications taken by a 65-year old person. Students are instructed to take these medications for three days, beginning the next morning. Two days later they are given three new medications to add to their regimen. Students are instructed to keep a record of when they take their medications and to write a two-page reaction paper to describe specific aspects of their experience. Reaction papers are due the day the topic of adherence is discussed in class. In class, students share their experiences and identify common issues. They are then given a list of strategies to improve adherence and discuss which they used and which were more/less effective. This technique has been successful in making adherence personally relevant to students, increasing participation in discussion of the topic, and improving retention and comprehension as well as evaluation and application skills. This poster will describe the technique and will include the medication regimen and reaction paper guidelines.
Runner-ups: FRANK COSTIN AWARD
Methodology Shop
Marijke Engels-Freeke
University of Amsterdam
email: m.freeke@uva.nl
The Methodology Shop is an advisory institute that is run by students of psychological methods at the Department of Psychology of the University of Amsterdam. The Methodology Shop is accessible to all staff members (of the Department of Psychology) and their students, who have methodological and/or statistical questions concerning their research. The questions concern a wide variety of methodological or statistical problems. These include questions relating to experimental design, data collection, statistical power calculations, the choice of appropriate statistical analyses, use of statistical software (general use of SPSS including data entry), and the interpretation of the results of statistical analyses. Students may also have questions concerning the contents of their first-year statistics courses or their second-year test theory courses. The Methodology Shop has three goals: (1) to support the students who have difficulties with methodology and/or statistics and therefore need help and perhaps reassurance, and assist staff and their students (both MA and PhD) with methodological and statistical aspects of their research; (2) to train the psychological methods students in the role of statistical advisor; and (3) to detect flaws in the contents of the first and second year methodological courses. On three days per week, two methods students are present in the shop to answer the questions of the students or staff members. They do not solve a given problem by actually performing the analysis for the questioner. Rather they provide a relevant illustrative worked example, and/or they refer the questioner to the relevant literature (including course material of the first and second year courses). All asked questions are registered and classified, together with the solution or answer provided by the methods students. The annual overview of the problems is used to adapt the contents of the first and second year methodological and statistical courses. The methods students who run the methodology shop are supervised by two staff members who give them advice and help them with problems that are beyond their present expertise.
Online Psychology Club: Engaging Distance Students beyond the Virtual Classroom
Teresa Mason, Jean Mandernach,
Andrew Johnson, and Brian Cowley
Park University
email addresses: teresa.mason@park.edu,
jean.mandernach@park.edu, andrew.johnson@park.edu,
brian.cowley@park.edu
Park University has an established distance learning program serving over 500 undergraduate social psychology majors. Typical of most online programs, the geographically diverse nature of the student population limits the feasibility of live, synchronous interactions. While online courses have clearly established themselves as an effective means of content-based education, online students have typically been limited in their opportunities to participate in traditional student organizations that are not linked to a particular course or degree requirement. To address this issue, we created an Online Social Psychology Club. Our goals for the Online Social Psychology Club are to: (1) increase awareness of the opportunities in the field of psychology, (2) create a forum for those people interested in learning more about psychology to gather information and participate in the field, and (3) facilitate involvement in psychological issues, such as relevant community service projects, leadership roles in this organization, and participation in professional enhancement activities relevant to the field. Due to the online nature of the organization, all club activities and interactions are facilitated via an asynchronous, online format. Our poster will address the following: (1) technology infrastructure needed to support the club, (2) compliance with university standards of club activity, (3) advisor duties and procedures for student leadership selection and training, (4) reasonable activities for an online psychology club, (5) challenges and successes, and (6) assessing the online club.
DOUG BERNSTEIN AWARD
Roadmaps for Statistical Decisions
Alice P. Carter
Louisiana Tech University
email: alice@latech.edu
Psychology students are often anxious about courses in research and statistics. Innovative techniques can help relieve some of the tension associated with learning statistical techniques and making appropriate decisions regarding when to use those techniques. Flowcharts and decision trees have been presented in textbooks as ways to simplify this process. This poster will provide another method of presenting the process to students. Two roadmaps, univariate and multivariate, for statistical decision-making will be displayed. The roadmaps will present a visual picture of the process. Individual roadmaps will be provided for participants at the conference. Student reactions to the roadmaps, including comments and suggestions, will be included as part of the poster.
SOCIETY FOR THE TEACHING OF PSYCHOLOGY AWARD
Teaching Psychology Statistics with a Sustainability Theme
Linda J. Kunce and Sarah Tribble
Illlinois Wesleyan University
email: lkunce@iwu.edu
Substantial evidence indicates that human choices and behavior are driving the current environmental crisis. Given this, teachers of psychology should be well placed to respond to calls for the greening of college campuses and curriculum (e.g., Bartlett & Chase, 2005; Koger & Scott, 2007). Because environmental sustainability has not been a major focus within the traditional domains of psychological science, however, teachers of psychology may struggle to apply their science to this critical social issue. In this poster, we will describe repeated efforts to teach a psychology statistics course with a sustainability theme. Emphasis will be placed on strategies for introducing the theme, organizing instruction to address multiple learning goals, and locating useful resources. In addition, we will share several demonstration activities, each designed to illustrate (a) an important statistical test, (b) a key psychological concept, and (c) an important sustainability issue. Finally, risks and benefits of teaching psychology statistics with a sustainability theme will be considered from multiple perspectives (e.g., student, instructor, disciplinary, societal).
Runner-up: STP AWARD
Reinforcing Concepts of Life-Span Development through Analysis of Holocaust Memoirs
Stephen L. Chew
Samford University
email: slchew@samford.edu
One way to enhance and reinforce learning of concepts in a life-span development course is to have students apply the concepts to analyze a person’s life. This may take the form of a student interviewing someone or reading a memoir. Holocaust memoirs are particularly well suited for this purpose, especially because there are now a number of fine memoirs in which the writer experienced the Holocaust as an adolescent or young adult, an age similar to traditional students and a dynamic time of development. The memoirs are highly engaging and teach students about development under both peaceful and horrific conditions. The books also teach students about the Holocaust and about another time and culture. This poster describes a book review project in which students were assigned one of five Holocaust memoirs to read and analyze using concepts such as identity development, resilience, attachment, social influence, and moral development. These memoirs were written for a young adult audience, so they are fairly brief and easy to read. As part of the assignment, students reflected on how it had affected their learning. The results indicated that the assignment had been highly engaging cognitively and emotionally, with many describing it as a transformative experience. Students came away with both a better understanding of development and a deeper understanding of the Holocaust. This assignment can easily be adapted for other psychology courses.
STP SCHOLARSHIP OF TEACHING AND LEARNING (SoTL) AWARD
Traditional Lecture May Be More Effective in Teaching Nervous System Anatomy and Function than the Jigsaw Classroom Technique
Amanda Maynard and Sarah Uzelac
Mount Saint Mary College
email addresses: maynard@msmc.edu, uzelac@msmc.edu
Undergraduate students in general psychology and biological psychology courses are required to learn about the locations and functions of the structures in the central nervous system (CNS), and often indicate that they feel intimidated by the technical nature of this material. We hypothesized that using a collaborative learning technique, the jigsaw classroom, instead of traditional lecture to teach about the CNS would improve learning, exam performance, liking for, and interest in the topic. Pre- and post-test knowledge, subjective student reactions to the material, as well as later exam performance were compared in both lower division general psychology and upper division biological psychology courses using the traditional lecture format and jigsaw classroom format. Contrary to our hypothesis, for general psychology, there was no significant difference in post-test performance for the jigsaw technique (t(39)=1.294, p=.203). There were significant differences in student reactions for the enjoyment (t(38.32)= -2.122, p=.04), intellectual stimulation (t(37.58)= -2.331, p=.025), and interest (t(39)= -2.60, p=.013), subjective response items and exam performance (t(31.65)= -2.941, p=.006), but in favor of traditional lecture. Similarly, for the biological psychology course, there was a significant difference in learning as indicated by post-test performance (t(44)= -2.89, p=.006) and a significant difference for interest in the material (t(38.57)= -2.166, p=.037), with both scores being greater for lecture compared to the jigsaw classroom technique.
Awards January 2007
At the January 2007 NITOP, three participant posters were presented with awards. All awards were decided by Institute faculty and announced at the closing session on January 6, 2007. The Frank Costin Memorial Award for Excellence (including a certificate, a check for $250, and a complimentary registration at a future NITOP conference), for the poster judged by Institute faculty as best promoting quality teaching methods, was presented to John Bates for his poster entitled "Concept-Network Analysis as a Measure of Learning Outcomes in a History and Systems of Psychology Course." The NITOP faculty also recognized the runner-up for the Frank Costin Memorial Award: "From Traditional Lecture to Problem-Based Learning in Undergraduate Statistics: Why and How," by Christie P. Karpiak. The Doug Bernstein Award (a certificate, a check for $250, and a complimentary registration at a future NITOP conference), for the poster judged by Institute faculty as the most humorous, creative, or original poster, was presented to Mark I. Walter and Jamie L. Walter for their poster entitled "Putting the Pieces Together: Using Puzzles to Help Students Integrate Key Figures in the History of Psychology." The NITOP faculty also recognized the runner-up for the Doug Bernstein Award: "Psychology of the Seven Deadly Sins and Heavenly Virtues," by Michael R. Hulsizer. The Society for the Teaching of Psychology Award (a certificate, a check for $250, and a year's membership in STP), for the poster judged by Institute faculty as best incorporating new or innovative content into psychology courses, was presented to Michael R. Hulsizer for his poster entitled "Psychology of the Seven Deadly Sins and Heavenly Virtues." The NITOP faculty also recognized the runner-up for the STP award: "Introductory Psychology Can Alter Student Views of Evolution and of Psychology as a Science," by Kevin E. Moore. The abstracts of these posters follow.
FRANK COSTIN MEMORIAL AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE
Concept-Network Analysis as
a Measure of Learning Outcomes
in a History and Systems of Psychology Course
John Bates
University of Baltimore
email: jbates@ubalt.edu
History and Systems of Psychology is a required course with the Psychology BA Program at the University of Baltimore. Many concepts discussed in this course, though arguably central to the evolution of modern psychological theory and practice, are so arcane and complex that their definitions may be rote-memorized by students while their historical significance and implications for other concepts may go unrecognized. Nevertheless, mastery of these concepts has been included as a significant learning objective in Psychology BA Program outcome assessment plans. Rather than using more traditional techniques, UB psychology faculty have selected analysis of students' concept networks pre and post instruction as a means of demonstrating achievement of that objective. An instrument was administered to 20 History and Systems of Psychology students at the first fall 2006 class meeting, on which students rated on a 4-point scale the degrees of relationship which they perceived within all unique pairs of 16 core course concepts. The instrument will be readministered during the final class meeting. Graphic representations of pre- and post-instruction individual and overall student concept networks will be constructed via Pathfinder analyses of these data, and will be contrasted to a concept network constructed from the course instructor's responses on the same instrument. Significant changes should be demonstrated in students' concept networks as a result of instruction, such that their post-instruction networks should be more similar to the network of their instructor's. A detailed description of this investigation along with results and implications will be presented at the conference.
Runner-up: FRANK COSTIN AWARD
From Traditional Lecture to
Problem-Based Learning in Undergraduate Statistics:
Why and How
Christie P. Karpiak
University of Scranton
email: karpiakc2@scranton.edu
Problem-based learning (PBL) has been employed
in medical schools for decades, is recommended by Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL)
for education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and is used
in science courses in many universities. PBL provides superior "retention,
application, and motivational outcomes," over traditional lecture (McKeachie
and Svinicki, 2006) and although it is not widely used in psychology courses,
it is highly compatible with psychological findings on optimal conditions for
learning. Psychology statistics courses are ideal contexts for PBL, which can
be used both to teach course content and to advance students' general quantitative
literacy, an important component of a liberal education (see PKAL and AAC&U).
The successful change from lecture to PBL in a psychology statistics course
is described in this poster and supporting materials. It is a major change-PBL
is markedly different from the traditional lecture format, most noticeably in
the presentation of problems before lecture and the centrality of group work.
After training, PBL problems were not difficult to develop. Real-world statistics
problems were readily generated from current events and publicly accessible
databases were identified for use with problems. More subtle but of equal importance
were the accompanying changes to the syllabus, class structure, nature of examinations,
demand for grading, and physical layout of furniture and computers. Course evaluations
from before and after and student feedback specific to these changes will be
presented. The importance of compatibility with course goals and catalog descriptions,
as well as preparation for the GRE or other outside evaluation, will be discussed.
DOUG BERNSTEIN AWARD
Putting the Pieces Together:
Using Puzzles to Help Students Integrate Key Figures in the History of Psychology
Mark I. Walter and Jamie L. Walter
Albion College
email: mwalter@albion.edu
email: jwalter@albion.edu
One of the major goals in a history of psychology course is for students to learn the interconnectedness of various people and ideas. In order to help students think about more than just the details of the individual psychologists/philosophers, we present a classroom exercise that encourages students to draw connections and integrate the key figures in psychology's history. Several seven-piece hard-backed toddlers' puzzles (available at most toy stores) were brought to class. Students, in groups of four or five, wrote the name of either a psychologist or a philosopher and a very brief detail about that person on the back of each puzzle piece. They were instructed to construct the puzzle in such a way that the pieces fit together based on the interrelationships of the people and concepts that they wrote on each puzzle piece. In so doing, they had to reflect not only on an individual's contribution to psychology but also how those contributions are related to other people discussed in class. Students then presented their puzzle to the class justifying their rationale for putting the names and ideas together as they did. Student comments regarding this exercise were very positive and indicated that the assignment did indeed promote thoughtful discussion regarding the key people and ideas in the history of psychology, while also being fun. This assignment provides instructors with a tool that augments lecture and provides students with an active and enjoyable hands-on approach to learning the material in a history of psychology course.
SOCIETY FOR THE TEACHING OF PSYCHOLOGY AWARD
Psychology of the Seven Deadly Sins and Heavenly Virtues
Michael R. Hulsizer
Webster University
email: hulsizer@webster.edu
Since the beginnings of recorded history, humans have felt the need to operationalize sin. This process led to the publication of the Seven Deadly Sins: Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Anger, Envy, and Pride. However, philosophers and religious scholars also felt a need to provide believers with a set of virtues. These Contrary (Heavenly) Virtues included Chastity, Moderation, Generosity, Zeal, Meekness, Charity, and Humility. The goal of creating a psychology course revolving around these sins and virtues is three-fold. First, discussion of these sins/virtues can serve as a means to discuss our current understanding of the psychological underpinnings of these behaviors. For example, a discussion of lust/chastity can open up into a lecture on the psychology of love and attraction. Discussion of Gluttony/Moderation can include a conversation about eating disorders. Similarly, the remaining sins/virtues all have a wealth of related psychological material that the instructor can introduce as the class further explores these behaviors. Second, the course can allow the instructor/class discussion to explore the boundaries between science and pseudoscience as related to these concepts-furthering critical thinking skills. Finally, this course is easily accessible to most students with minimal knowledge of psychological functioning. Consequently, it may serve as a useful "feeder" course for the department by encouraging students to take advanced classes in the field. The proposed poster will provide lecture and project suggestions. A handout will provide a sample syllabus, useful books, articles, videos, DVDs, and web sites that can aid in course preparation.
Runner-up: STP AWARD
Introductory Psychology Can
Alter Student Views
of Evolution and of Psychology as a Science
Kevin E. Moore
DePauw University
email: kemoore@depauw.edu
Many students come to Psychology courses
with little understanding of the nature of psychology as a science. Similarly,
many students view integration of evolutionary principles into psychology with
suspicion-often based on lack of knowledge or understanding of evolution. One
strategy for dealing with student misunderstandings of the importance of evolutionary
principles and the scientific nature of psychology is to postpone treatment
of these issues until later courses (e.g., research methods, evolutionary psychology,
a hoped-for biology elective, etc.). This poster describes another strategy
and provides evidence for its effectiveness-opening Introductory Psychology
with extensive coverage of evolutionary theory, applications, and common fallacies
concerning evolution, heavy coverage of the nature of science in general, and
of psychological science in particular. Students in Introductory Psychology
responded to scale and narrative items about psychology as a science, evolution,
and fallacies concerning evolutionary principles (e.g., naturalistic fallacy,
genetic determination, etc.) at the beginning of a course and later in the semester.
The results showed that intensive coverage of these issues was accompanied by
large changes in students' views in all the areas measured, and that students
were much less likely to fall prey to fallacies surrounding evolutionary theory.
The results suggest that introductory students benefit from this approach, and
that emphasizing this material early may be better than waiting until later
courses. It is also likely that after this early exposure to evolutionary theory
and ideas, students are better prepared to integrate this perspective into future
learning experiences.
Awards January 2006
At the January 2006 NITOP, three participant posters were presented with awards. All awards were decided by Institute faculty and announced at the closing session on January 5, 2006. The Frank Costin Memorial Award for Excellence (including a certificate, a check for $250, and a complimentary registration at a future NITOP conference), for the poster judged by Institute faculty as best promoting quality teaching methods, was presented to Andrew T. Johnson for his poster entitled "Utilizing a Mnemonic-Creation Activity to Assess Metacognition." The NITOP faculty also recognized the runnerup for the Frank Costin Memorial Award: "Use your 'Brain' to Study for the Cerebral Cortex: An Active Learning Exercise," by J Rudine, Leslie Gerrard, & Paul Fox. The Doug Bernstein Award (a certificate, a check for $250, and a complimentary registration at a future NITOP conference), for the poster judged by Institute faculty as the most humorous, creative, or original poster, was presented to Deborah A. Gagnon for her poster entitled "Conceal to Reveal: The Mask as a Reflection of Identity." The NITOP faculty also recognized the runnerup for the Doug Bernstein Award: "A Palatable Introduction to and Demonstration of the Concept of an Interaction," by Andrew N. Christopher & Pam Marek. The Society for the Teaching of Psychology Award (a certificate, a check for $100, and a year's membership in STP), for the poster judged by Institute faculty as best incorporating new or innovative content into psychology courses, was presented to Jeffrey S. Nevid for his poster entitled "Why Smart People Make Dumb Mistakes with Their Money: Teaching Points from Investment Psychology." The abstracts of the winning posters follow.
FRANK COSTIN MEMORIAL AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE
Utilizing a Mnemonic-Creation Activity to Assess Metacognition
Andrew T. Johnson
Park University
email: andrew.johnson@park.edu
Students in a senior-level Cognitive Psychology class were given the option of creating a one-page "cheat" sheet for an essay exam. The only condition for the cheat sheet was that the information had to appear in mnemonic form. If there was any information that could be identified by a psychology layperson, then the cheat sheet would be inadmissible to the exam. On the exam day, students received a mnemonic survey sheet asking questions such as: (1) How long did you work on creating your mnemonic sheet? (2) How much of your mnemonic sheet do you remember right now? (3) How much of your mnemonic sheet will you remember in the future, e.g., three months from now? This final question served as the Metacognition/metamemory question.
Following these questions, students responded to four general questions about the activity on a five-point Likert scale. During the final exam period the students were re-presented with a copy of their mnemonic sheets and asked to write down as much of their mnemonics as they could remember. Analyses of these were compared to the percentage of recall (question 3) recorded two and a half months earlier.
The following elements are included for this learning activity: (a) mnemonic activity survey sheet, (b) results from the mnemonic survey along with student comments, and (c) results from the evaluation of the mnemonic memory test.
Runnerup: FRANK COSTIN AWARD
Use Your "Brain" to Study for the Cerebral Cortex: An Active Learning Exercise
J Rudine, Leslie Gerard, and
Paul Fox
Appalachian State University
email: rudinejl@appstate.edu
Ten undergraduate introductory psychology classes participated in an investigation of the effectiveness of an active learning exercise on the cerebral cortex. Each of the classes received a guest presentation on the anatomical and functional areas of the cerebral cortex. Three different presentation styles were manipulated between classes. The first style was similar to a traditional lecture with PowerPoint slides as a visual aid. The second style combined lecture with a novel visual aid in the form of a human model with the anatomical and functional areas of the cerebral cortex painted on his head. The final style combined lecture with an active learning exercise in which students created their own 3-D model of the anatomical and functional areas of the cerebral cortex on a balloon. The effectiveness of the guest presentation on memory for the cerebral cortex was evaluated approximately 2 months later by administering a quiz on the cerebral cortex to each class. In addition, the effectiveness of presentation for different types of memory retrieval (recall versus recognition) was also assessed. Results indicated that using a balloon to draw a 3-D representation of the anatomical and functional areas of the cerebral cortex was more effective for long-term retention than lecture alone. In addition, long-term retention was better when assessed by recognition quiz questions as opposed to recall quiz questions. Finally, students found the balloon exercise to be more enjoyable and more effective in increasing understanding of the cerebral cortex than traditional lecture.
DOUG BERNSTEIN AWARD
Conceal to Reveal: The Mask as a Reflection of Identity
Deborah A. Gagnon
Wells College
email: dgagnon@wells.edu
Identity creation is a singular achievement in some personality theories, most notably, in Erikson's stage theory of development. Metaphorically, individuals try on various 'masks' and 'costumes' in the identity creation stage in an attempt to explore and discover who they are. The fully integrated identity reflects the values and ideals of the individual which have evolved through a personal and family history and been influenced by the culture and society in which they live. In a course titled Psychology, Art, Culture, and Experience, freshman students were asked to reflect upon these influences in the formation of their own identity. The course adopted the approach of using art to explore theories and concepts of note in the various subdisciplines of psychology. For instance, a mask-making exercise was used as an avenue for discussing Erikson's developmental theory and Snyder's self-monitoring theory of personality. Masks were cast of each student's face and then personalized through decoration and modification. The students wrote a reflection paper on the experience and analyzed their mask for what it revealed about themselves and the influences on their identity. The exercise also offered the opportunity for students to experience the rich personal and situational relationship that art has for the artist, a point that is often obscured in the traditional museum or gallery setting. To make the point, students collaborated in creating their own exhibit of masks and excerpts from their reflection papers; examples will be on display in the poster presentation.
Runnerup: DOUG BERNSTEIN AWARD
A Palatable Introduction to and Demonstration of the Concept of an Interaction
Andrew N. Christopher
Albion College
email: achristopher@albion.edu
& Pam Marek
Kennesaw State University
email: pmarek@kennesaw.edu
This poster presented an engaging technique to introduce the notion of an "interaction" in statistics and research methods courses. To conduct the demonstration, teachers prepare a cookie dough recipe, such as that found on most if not all packages of chocolate chips. As the recipe is prepared, teachers explain that each ingredient represents an independent variable, with the amounts of each ingredient representing its levels. The dependent variable is perception of taste. The demonstration provides an opportunity to distinguish between the main effect of each independent variable and the interactions between variables. Not only do students like this demonstration, but we have evidence in the form of exam question performance that it does improve understanding of the notions of main effects and interactions. We selected the chocolate chip cookie recipe because students are familiar with it; however, we also describe recipes that are less complex. The important point is to select a recipe that clearly enables students to understand how different ingredients (main effects) and the amount/levels of those ingredients (interactions) affect taste perception.
SOCIETY FOR THE TEACHING OF PSYCHOLOGY AWARD
Why Smart People Make Dumb
Mistakes with Their Money:
Teaching Points from Investment Psychology
Jeffrey S. Nevid
St. John's University
email: nevidj@stjohns.edu
Why do smart people make dumb mistakes with their money?
Scholars in the emerging field of behavioral finance are applying insights gleaned
from pioneering research conducted by Nobel prize-winning psychologist Daniel
Kahneman and his late colleague Amos Tversky to better understand the cognitive
biases and social influences that lead people to make bad investment decisions.
As psychology instructors, we need to demonstrate to our students how psychological principles relate to their daily lives. As an example, if classical conditioning only taught us about salivation processes in dogs, it would barely be worth a footnote in psychology textbooks today. This poster demonstrates how instructors can use psychological concepts to help students better understand their investment behavior. Though students may not currently have money of their own to invest, hopefully someday they will. By becoming better informed about underlying cognitive biases in decision-making, students may avoid some of the painful lessons their elders learned from the school of hard knocks.
Drawing upon the classic work of Kahneman and Tversky, as well as others from the fields of cognitive and social psychology, this poster identifies errors in thinking that underlie bad investment decisions. The poster presentation will include examples of cognitive biases and social influences that psychology instructors can use in class, including the availability heuristic, the representativeness heuristic, the overreaction bias, the confirmation bias, the herding principle, the hindsight fallacy, anchoring biases, and the inertia bias.
Awards January 2005
At the January 2005 NITOP, three participant posters
were presented with awards. All awards were decided by Institute faculty and
announced at the closing session on January 5, 2005. The Frank Costin Memorial
Award for Excellence (including a certificate, a check for $250, and a complimentary
registration at a future NITOP conference), for the poster judged by Institute
faculty as best promoting quality teaching methods, was presented to Guy A.
Boysen for his poster entitled "A Library Field Trip Activity to Achieve
McKeachie's First Day of Class Goals." The Doug Bernstein Award (a certificate,
a check for $250, and a complimentary registration at a future NITOP conference),
for the poster judged by Institute faculty as the most humorous, creative, or
original poster, was presented to Brian L. Burke for his poster entitled "'PoPS'
Art: Paintings of Piaget's Stages." NITOP faculty also recognized an honorable
mention poster which received a close second place in the voting for the Doug
Bernstein Award: "Helping Students Understand Psychology through The Sims"
by Eric K. Cooper. The Society for the Teaching of Psychology Award (a certificate,
a check for $250, and a year's membership in STP), for the poster judged by
Institute faculty as best incorporating new or innovative content into psychology
courses, was presented to Michael R. Hulsizer and Linda M. Woolf for their poster
entitled "Incorporating Online Hate Sites into Social Psychology Classes."
Congratulations to all these presenters! The abstracts follow below.
FRANK COSTIN MEMORIAL AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE
A Library Field Trip Activity to Achieve McKeachie's First Day of Class Goals
Guy A. Boysen
Iowa State University
email: gaboysen@iastate.edu
McKeachie (2002) suggests that specific goals can be achieved on the first day of class: students should have a basic idea of what will be covered in the class, rapport building with the students should be initiated, it should be clear that the instructor cares about student learning, and a perception should arise that the class "will be both valuable and fun" (p. 28). The current poster proposes a library field trip activity to achieve these goals and outlines an initial assessment of the activity.
The library field trip begins after handing out the syllabus and giving a general overview of the course. Class adjourns to the library where students are shown the section containing psychology texts and journals. Students are then assigned to explore the entire section. Their goal is to find a book that seems interesting to them, bring it back to the instructor, and introduce themselves and explain their interest in the book. The essential components of the field trip activity are to have students interact with real psychological materials and the instructor, but any number of variations can be performed to fit an instructor's specific situation and goal.
An initial evaluation of the library field trip activity indicated moderate support for its effectiveness. The primary benefit indicated by a comparison with another class was the development of some basic psychology research skills. In addition, student comments about the experience were positive and appreciative. In summary, the library field trip has promise in achieving McKeachie's first day of class goals but more controlled assessments are needed.
DOUG BERNSTEIN AWARD
"PoPS" Art: Painting of Piaget's Stages
Brian L. Burke
Fort Lewis College
email: burke_b@fortlewis.edu
This poster has two objectives: 1) Viewers will discover how visual metaphor can be effectively used to enhance student learning, and 2) Viewers will learn how to identify which stage of Piaget's cognitive development model the child-artist is in based on specific aspects of each drawing.
Rationale: 1) Empirical research (e.g., Gedeon, 1998) points to the potential utility of visual metaphor in the classroom, indicating that visual metaphor may encourage students to use a greater portion of their brains (i.e., both halves!) in the learning process and that visual metaphor may facilitate overall memory for the specific material taught. Cognitive psychologists (e.g., Lowman, 1984) have further revealed that humans learn best through imagery as well as by building on preexisting cognitive structures (McKeachie, 1994). Visual metaphor incorporates both of these findings into a single educational exercise. 2) The poster will demonstrate the effective use of visual metaphor for a class in Introductory or Developmental Psychology. Using various aspects of the pictures, viewers will be able to determine which cognitive stage of development (in Piaget's model) the child is in. For instance, a child who draws a clear picture of people with limbs and head all out of proportion is in Piaget's preoperational stage, since he or she has not yet mastered simple mathematical concepts such as ratio. By using actual children's drawings as visual cues in this exercise, it improves the likelihood that students will "think psychology" outside the classroom as they come across these cues (i.e., artwork) in their daily lives.
Honorable Mention: DOUG BERNSTEIN AWARD
Helping Students Understand Psychology through "The Sims"
Eric K. Cooper
Seton Hill University
email: ecooper@setonhill.edu
I am constantly searching for ways to create fun and relevant assignments to excite students about the field of psychology. I typically offer several options for a final project in introductory psychology that students may choose from in order to match the assignment to their interests. A recent article in Psychology Today (2003) inspired me to add a new option for the final project based on a popular video game: The Sims.
The Sims, which allows players to create and control the lives of a virtual family and place them in a virtual environment to see how their lives unfold, is one of the most popular video games around. The game offers players a limited amount of points to distribute across personality characteristics, such as activity level, neatness, and extraversion, to establish basic personalities for characters. Then, 'life' begins and quickly starts taking some unexpected turns. Characters can date, get married, go to work, and raise children. Thompson (2003) highlights instances of infants being taken away from families by social workers, the emotional turmoil of characters, and the importance of Maslow's hierarchy.
This poster presentation highlights the details and implementation of the assignment. A summary of the results of the major psychological themes that students related to the experience and student ratings and responses to the assignment is provided. Information on The Sims 2, a more advanced update, and how it can be used to enhance the assignment is provided.
SOCIETY FOR THE TEACHING OF PSYCHOLOGY AWARD
Incorporating Online Hate Sites into Social Psychology Classes
Michael R. Hulsizer and Linda
M. Woolf
Webster University
One aspect of social psychology classes that makes them particularly appealing to undergraduates is the extent to which the material can be readily applied to their everyday lives. However, for many students, particularly those who spend significant time online, their everyday lives have been negatively impacted by the emergence of internet sites and chat rooms devoted to propagating hate and violence. In addition to serving as an obvious example of prejudice and discrimination, internet hate sites can serve to illustrate many important social psychological concepts. For example, instructors may wish to use these sites to explore the social psychological process at work in a hate site such as the just world hypothesis, belief perseverance, biased assimilation, confirmation bias, terror management, fundamental attribution error, judgmental heuristic processes, persuasion, social influence, group dynamics, and social relations. Additionally, these sites serve as vehicles to discuss the role that a culture of violence, a perceived threat orientation, and an ideology of superiority play in the formation and propagation of prejudice and discrimination.
The goal of introducing this material in a social psychology class is three-fold. First, these hate-related web sites can serve as examples of social psychological theories in action - albeit for destructive purposes. The poster outlines how to best use these sites to enhance social psychology lectures. The second goal of introducing this material into a classroom setting relates to the fact that a discussion of the social psychological concepts which underlie the promotion of hate can also be used to develop strategies designed to reduce the effectiveness of hate web sites. Consequently, the proposed poster will provide lecture and project suggestions designed to encourage intervention, prevention, and peace. Third, students can be taught valuable skills related to the critical evaluation of web sites. Unfortunately, hate sites such as www.martinlutherking.org often attempt to blend into the internet landscape. Thus, information relative to web site evaluation is provided. Finally, reference will be made to several useful books, articles, videos, DVDs, and web sites that can aid in the presentation or discussion of hate sites in social psychology classes. Handouts of all of these materials are also provided.
Awards January 2004
At the January 2004 NITOP, three participant posters were presented with awards. All awards were decided by Institute faculty and announced at the closing session on January 6, 2004. The Frank Costin Memorial Award for Excellence (including a certificate, a check for $250, and a complimentary registration at a future NITOP conference), for the poster judged by Institute faculty as best promoting quality teaching methods, was presented to Jennifer Meehan Brennom for her poster entitled "It's Game Day! Designing Developmentally Appropriate Games as a Developmental Psychology Project." The Doug Bernstein Award (a certificate, a check for $250, and a complimentary registration at a future NITOP conference), for the poster judged by Institute faculty as the most humorous, creative, or original poster, was presented to Brian L. Burke for his poster entitled "Abnormal Psychology in Saguaro Cacti: Seeing Is Believing." The Society for the Teaching of Psychology Award (a certificate, a check for $250, and a year's membership in STP), for the poster judged by Institute faculty as best incorporating new or innovative content into psychology courses, was presented to Linda M. Woolf for her poster entitled "Integrating the Psychology of Terrorism into the Curriculum." The abstracts of the three winning posters follow. Following them, the abstracts of two posters whose presenters received honorable mention recognition are also posted.
FRANK COSTIN MEMORIAL AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE:
It's Game Day! Designing Appropriate Games as a Developmental Psychology Project
Jennifer Meehan Brennom
Kirkwood College
email: jmeehan@kirkwood.edu
Students in my Developmental Psychology class are required to complete a group project in which, instead of playing an educational game, they make one! They are required to identify the specific developmental skills that the game is designed to enhance, and can involve skills from infancy to late adulthood. To encourage them to better understand psychological research articles and their application, they are required to find at least six empirical research articles that are relevant to some aspect of their game. The students use the research in a written report to support why they developed their games the way they did. They also physically develop the game with their own game boards, cards, playing pieces, etc. taking into account the developmental needs of the players for which the game is intended. We set aside some time in class to have a game day when students bring their games to class, explain the research used to support their game, and describe how it is played. After the presentations are made, students are able to play each other's games. This project allows students to develop skills in reading and understanding psychological research and the application of that research in a fun and interactive way. The poster will allow attendees to informally learn about and discuss information on the assignment itself, possible finished products, evaluation options, and ways to adapt for alternate modes of delivery such as interactive distance learning television classes.
DOUG BERNSTEIN AWARD:
Abnormal Psychology in Saguaro Cacti: Seeing Is Believing
Brian L. Burke
Fort Lewis College
email: burke_b@fortlewis.edu
This poster has two objectives: 1) to demonstrate how
visual metaphor can be effectively used to enhance student learning and why
it should be used, and 2) to illustrate how pictures of "The Abnormal Psychology
of Saguaro Cacti" can demonstrate a visual journey that creatively and
humorously links critical course concepts to nature, something in which many
of today's students are increasingly interested. Empirical research (e.g., Gedeon,
1998) points to the potential utility of visual metaphor in the classroom, indicating
that visual metaphor may encourage students to use a greater portion of their
brains (i.e., both halves!) in the learning process and that visual metaphor
may facilitate overall memory for the specific material taught. The importance
of visual metaphor may be most salient in the more "abstract" disciplines,
in which painting vivid pictures of key concepts may be essential for the promotion
of deep student learning (i.e., "I see" = "I understand").
Cognitive psychologists (e.g., Lowman, 1984) have further revealed that humans
learn best through imagery as well as by building on pre-existing cognitive
structures (McKeachie, 1994). Visual metaphor incorporates both of these findings
into a single educational exercise. Visual metaphor can be effectively used
for a class in Abnormal Psychology which focuses on the psychological exploration
of mental disorders. This naturalistic visual metaphor—using ubiquitous
cactus plants as visual cues—serves as a "hook" to draw students
into my class and has the additional advantage of increasing the likelihood
that students will "think psychology" outside the classroom as they
come across these visual cues in their daily lives. It also makes a didactic
point about the superficial nature of many psychological diagnoses.
THE SOCIETY FOR THE TEACHING OF PSYCHOLOGY AWARD:
Integrating the Psychology
of Terrorism into the Curriculum
Linda M. Woolf
Webster University
email: woolflm@webster.edu
With the war on terrorism and the status of the terrorism alert system ever changing, the issue of mass violence at the hand of terrorists remains in the forefront of American news sources as well as the minds of students. As the issue of terrorism integrates itself into the American landscape, it is important that information garnered from research be taught about terrorism. Without such education across many levels, a mythology regarding terrorism may develop that may serve to be more destructive than constructive to individuals as well as nations. Psychology has much to offer in the discussion of terrorism. This poster will address the means by which the psychology of terrorism can be integrated into the behavioral science curriculum. Lecture suggestions as well as a bibliography will be provided. Additionally, information concerning a course focused solely on the psychology of terrorism including course description and objectives will be presented.
HONORABLE MENTION, FRANK COSTIN MEMORIAL AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE:
Are Females at Risk of Failing Statistics?
Isabelle D. Cherney and Ramie
R. Cooney
Creighton University
Email: cherneyi@creighton.edu, cooneyr@creighton.edu
Students tend to have higher levels of anxiety for a statistics class than for other psychology classes. Because anxiety can impair the performance in a class, and ultimately the mastery of the subject matter, we designed the Statistic Anxiety and Assessment Scale (SAAS) to assess student's anxiety and attitudes about statistics. The 22-item scale with three sub-scales (math-based anxiety, statistics-based anxiety, and applicability) was used at the beginning and at the end of a statistics class to assess the overall anxiety levels of the students. We found that, over the course of a semester, students' math anxiety levels tended to decrease, statistics anxiety levels tended to remain stable, while the sense of applicability of statistics increased significantly. However, this pattern was different for males and females. As hypothesized, at the beginning of the semester, females reported significantly greater statistics anxiety than males, but they did not differ in their math anxiety and applicability. At the end of the semester, however, males and females had equivalent anxiety scores. Consistent with other findings, regression analyses showed that females' statistics anxiety scores were predictive of their performance in the class. These results suggest that females are at greater risk of poor performance in a statistics class. The poster will show ways in which the scale can assist instructors in their assessment of statistical anxiety and in particular, ways in which levels of anxiety can be reduced for females.
HONORABLE MENTION, SOCIETY FOR THE TEACHING OF PSYCHOLOGY AWARD:
Undergraduate Research Experiences in Psychology: A National Study
Lee McCann and Baron Perlman
University of Wisconsin Oshkosh
Email: mccann@uwosh.edu, perlman@uwosh.edu
Psychology has always valued having our undergraduate
students actually practicing psychological science. We surveyed departments
nationally to better understand the extent of students' scientific opportunities
and activities. Results show intradepartmental variability, but overall students
can expect seven courses that offer scientific work in the typical psychology
curricula. Nonetheless, research is often not the primary course goal, some
students must wait until their junior year to take such a course, and most such
courses are elective, not required. We conclude that curricula and quality courses
in which students do scientific work depend more on committed, master teachers
than type of institution, available resources, or departmental size. Implications
for departments' curricula and future research directions are discussed.
Awards January 2003
At the January 2003 NITOP, three participant posters were presented with awards. All awards were decided by Institute faculty and announced at the closing session on January 5, 2003. The Frank Costin Memorial Award for Excellence (including a certificate, a check for $250, and a complimentary registration at a future NITOP conference), for the poster judged by Institute faculty as best promoting quality teaching methods, was presented to Gary L. Bradshaw, Nancy McCarley, and B. Michael Thorne, for their poster entitled "ePsych: Free Web-Based Experiments and Demonstrations in Psychology." The Society for the Teaching of Psychology (APA Division Two) Award (a certificate and $500 toward expenses for attending the next APA Convention), for the poster judged by Institute faculty as best incorporating new or innovative content into psychology courses, was presented to Julie A. McGuire and Michelle R. Hebl, for their poster entitled "'The Grapefruit Race': Demonstrating Gender Differences in Same-Sex Intimacy." The new Doug Bernstein Award (a certificate, a check for $250, and a complimentary registration at a future NITOP conference), for the poster judged by Institute faculty as the most humorous, creative, or original poster, was presented to Esther Yoder Strahan for her poster entitled "Dead Psychologists Come to Dinner: A History of Psychology Dinner Party." The abstracts of the three winning posters follow.
ePsych: Free Web-Based Experiments
and Demonstrations in Psychology
Gary L. Bradshaw, Nancy McCarley, and B. Michael Thorne
Mississippi State University
email: glb2@ra.msstate.edu, ngm1@ra.msstate.edu,
bmt2@ra.msstate.edu
ePsych (http://epsych.msstate.edu) is a growing website that contains a number of interactive experiments and demonstrations in psychology. The site is geared toward an introductory-level treatment of topics, but it can be used in more advanced classes as well. Multimedia elements include interactive Java programs, video clips, and animated graphics. These elements are automatically accessed as visitors use their browsers to view web pages. The site features a "journey" metaphor through which visitors travel to different worlds of the mind. There they are greeted by various characters who help them both to navigate around the site and to understand the various topics. Currently four different worlds have been developed: the descriptive mind (sensation and perception), the deliberate mind (decision-making, planning, and problem-solving), the adaptive mind (learning), and the biological mind (physiological psychology). New worlds under development include the communicative mind (psycholinguistics) and the executive mind (attention). Each world features a visitor's center (to orient the student to the world), maps (for navigation), modules (brief coverage of specific topics), and guidebooks (extended coverage of more general topics). Currently, 23 modules, which have about 100 Mbytes of information, are available. The modules incorporate close to 500 different html files, 52 different Java applications, 1,600 image files, and 30 video clips. Active learning is encouraged by challenging students with puzzles and problems and providing the opportunity to "dig deeper" to learn more about the phenomena at hand. The site is free, and access is unrestricted.
"The Grapefruit Race": Demonstrating Gender Differences
in Same-Sex Intimacy
Julie A. McGuire
Stanford University
email: jmcg@psych.stanford.edu
and Michelle R. Hebl
Rice University
email: hebl@rice.edu
Numerous studies suggest that male same-sex friendships are less intimate than female same-sex friendships (Clark & Ayers, 1993; Foot, Chapman, & Smith, 1977; for a review, see Lips, 2001). For example, college males are significantly more reluctant than females to volunteer to sign up for studies about friendship requiring them to bring along a same-sex friend (Lewis, Winstead, & Derlega, 1989). One of the reasons there may be less physical contact among male same-sex friends is the fear of homosexuality that is stronger in men than women. For example, Wong & Csikszentmihalyi (1991) found that teenage boys who are highly affiliative report more negative emotional states than do teenage girls. In this classroom demonstration, students witness one effect of gender differences in comfort with physical intimacy in same-sex interactions. Two four-person teams (one all female and one all male) engage in a race. The race involves passing a grapefruit from one team member to the next—using only the neck. (In other words, the grapefruit is held between the chin and chest, and passed to the next person without the aid of other body parts.) This exercise requires close physical proximity to be successful. Despite the fact that males may excel at other competitions involving coordination and speed, they are worse at this task than females, and finish after the female team finishes. Quantitative data confirmed that students felt the demonstration was helpful and beneficial to learning and exploring gender differences on comfort with physical intimacy with same-sex members.
Dead Psychologists Come to Dinner: A History of Psychology
Dinner Party
Esther Yoder Strahan
Heidelberg College, Tiffin, Ohio
email: estrahan@heidelberg.edu
Teaching History of Psychology at the undergraduate level can be a challenge. Students have trouble simply keeping names like Köhler and Külpe straight. I have had good success at enhancing students' interest with a Dead Psychologists Convention that I hold in lieu of a final exam. Early in the semester, each student selects one psychologist from our history of psychology textbook (Schultz & Schultz, 2000). The student writes a term paper on that psychologist, and impersonates him/her at the dinner party. As part of the term paper, the student is required to discuss how the Zeitgeist shaped that individual's life or work. As the semester goes by, class discussion and additional writings enhance the student's understanding of that historical figure. For the final exam, each student brings to the dinner party the following: 1) a costume, whether literal or metaphorical, representing her/his psychologist. This requirement has been a key part of the fun and success of the experience. 2) a typed speech in which that psychologist describes his/her contributions to psychology in a way that would be "in character." 3) two written, thoughtful questions for each other psychologist present, also written "in character." Over dinner, the students make their speeches and pepper each other with their prepared questions. Grading is based primarily on the written work, with some points for costume and presentation. Students have been quite enthusiastic about the experience, some of them mentioning to me several years later that they really enjoyed that part of the course.
Award Summer 2002
At the June 2002 Summer NITOP, The Society for the Teaching
of Psychology (APA Division Two) Award (a certificate and $500 toward expenses
for attending the next APA Convention), for the poster judged by Institute faculty
as best incorporating new or innovative content into psychology courses, was
presented to Mary Bower Russa and Richard Paschke, of Grand Valley State University
in Allendale, Michigan, for their poster entitled "Teaching Psychology
of Physical Disabilities." Their abstract follows.
Teaching Psychology of Physical Disabilities
Mary Bower Russa and Richard
Paschke
Grand Valley State University
email: bowerm@gvsu.edu
Although the perception is often that disabilities happen to "someone else," data suggest that about half of the U.S. population has some sort of chronic condition, about two-thirds experience limitations in their abilities to perform some daily activities, and about 10 percent are significantly limited in an activity required for daily living (Riley & Nagi, l970). A survey of 2000 students at a major Midwestern university indicated that 90 percent of them reported that a family member with whom they were close had a major illness or disability (Wright, 1983). With the fastest growing segment of our population currently consisting of those over the age of 85, and with medical and technological advances that now allow those with even very serious disabilities (e.g., spinal cord injuries) to live into old age, understanding disabilities is becoming an increasingly important part of daily living. Before they experience such difficulties themselves, many persons will deal with disabilities in their roles as family members and/or caretakers for aging relatives. This poster is geared to instructors who are interested in incorporating coverage of issues related to physical disabilities into their traditional psychology courses. The poster will emphasize the importance of understanding the complex interplay between biomedical and psychosocial factors in dealing with disabilities. Basic psychological theories or models that can be used to attempt to understand the experience of disabilities and its impact on individuals and families will be presented, and examples of psychosocial issues that are particularly relevant to specific types of illnesses or injuries will be highlighted. Finally, data based on student ratings of various disability-related topics for interest of the topic and relevance to daily life will be presented.
Awards January 2002
At the January 2002 NITOP, two participant posters were presented with awards. Both awards were decided by Institute faculty and announced at the closing session on January 6, 2002. The Frank Costin Memorial Award for Excellence (including a certificate and a check for $250), for the poster judged by Institute faculty as best promoting quality teaching methods, was presented to Darren R. Ritzer, Kelly D. Chandler, and Merry J. Sleigh, for their poster entitled "Students' Perceptions and Expectations of the Job of a Professor." The Society for the Teaching of Psychology (APA Division Two) Award (a certificate and $500 toward expenses for attending the next APA Convention), for the poster judged by Institute faculty as best incorporating new or innovative content into psychology courses, was presented to Linda M. Woolf, for her poster entitled "Psyche Cattell Was Not James McKeen's Nickname!" The abstracts of both winning posters follow.
Students' Perceptions and Expectations of the Job of a Professor
Darren R. Ritzer, Kelly D. Chandler,
and Merry J. Sleigh
George Mason University
email: slyritz@erols.com, kdchand@aol.com,
msleigh@gmu.edu
People's expectations can powerfully influence the way they perceive a situation. As teachers, we have wondered, "What do the students expect out of us?" Thus, we surveyed 265 students about their perceptions of faculty members' day-to-day responsibilities. According to most students, the average faculty member works 35 hours/week and is underpaid at $48,400/year. When asked for the top three responsibilities, 99% of students responded with teaching-related statements. The most frequent answers were (1) to be knowledgeable, (2) encourage learning/motivate students, and (3) to be clear/organized/prepared. Only three students mentioned either service or research. Given the chance to list all of the responsibilities of a faculty member, the most common answers were to assist students (40%) and have a life (17%). Five percent of students included "meetings/administrative tasks," and 1% included "assisting with clubs/organizations." Older students reported that professors work longer hours and spend more time preparing for class. According to most students, every teacher should use email and some form of web-based technology. Teachers should be willing to share personal information, especially their educational background, during class time. Faculty should spend as much time with each student as needed during office hours, extending office hours when necessary. Teachers should return emails within 24 hours, and exams/papers within one week. Younger students expected more office hours and a quicker return of graded papers. Also, faculty should have increased availability around test time, providing study sessions before each test. The lower the students' GPA, the greater the expectation of this availability.
Psyche Cattell Was Not James McKeen's Nickname!
Linda M. Woolf
Webster University
email: woolflm@webster.edu
Women such as Christine Ladd-Franklin, Inez Beverly Prosser, Galina Starovoitova, and Psyche Cattell have often been omitted from the history of psychology. Yet psychology's history includes a vast array of women who made significant contributions both inside and outside of psychology. This poster is designed to provide information concerning a seminar created specifically to introduce students to the contributions of these foremothers as well as the contributions of more contemporary women psychologists. This seminar examines the lives of these women, their intellectual contributions, and the unique impact and special problems that being female had on their careers. In relation to the latter, issues such as the family claim, the exclusion of women from the academy, marriage vs. career, mentoring problems, the myth of meritocracy, and the effect of stereotyping and prejudice are discussed in relation to these women's lives and careers. Current research on these topics is also included. Additional emphasis is placed on highlighting the lives of women psychologists who are at special risk for being lost to the history of psychology such as women of color and international women psychologists. The lives of women in related disciplines such as anthropology and sociology are also discussed. Students learn a variety of library, cybrary, research, and investigative skills, as the information is often not accessible through the use of traditional literature search methods.
Award Summer 2001
At the July 2001 Summer NITOP, The Society for the Teaching of Psychology (APA Division Two) Award (a certificate and $500 toward expenses for attending the next APA Convention), for the poster judged by Institute faculty as best incorporating new or innovative content into psychology courses, was presented to Kim Ernst, of Loyola University, New Orleans, for her poster entitled "Using The Nun Study as a Means to Review Introductory Psychology Course Concepts." Her abstract follows.
Using The Nun Study as a Means to Review Introductory Psychology Course Concepts
Kim Ernst
Loyola University, New Orleans
email: kernst@loyno.edu
Course instructors of introduction to psychology have well-established routines for both the content and the mechanics for the first class meeting. The last class meeting, however, is usually defined less well. Instructor's manuals and psychology teaching handbooks offer few suggestions or teaching activities for the last class meeting, especially for instructors who want to help their students review for a comprehensive final exam. To this end, an activity that uses a single study, The Nun Study, as a means to review several major themes of the course and related concepts, was developed.
The poster describes how a last-class meeting activity was designed and implemented to help students review for an introduction to psychology comprehensive final exam. In brief, the activity requires the instructor to present an overview of The Nun Study. Students then take turns identifying and defining the psychological themes and related concepts. The course instructor facilitates the activity by connecting the concepts and illustrating their interrelationships across psychology's subfields. This activity is designed to help students review course material in preparation for a comprehensive final exam. The activity also provides flexibility for course instructors to expand and elaborate on the concepts and principles identified by the students. The poster also presents quantitative evidence of the effectiveness of the activity.
Awards January 2001
At the January 2001 NITOP, two participant posters were presented with awards. Both awards were decided by Institute faculty and announced at the closing session on January 6, 2001. The Frank Costin Memorial Award for Excellence (including a certificate and a check for $250), for the poster judged by Institute faculty as best promoting quality teaching methods, was presented to Michael R. Hulsizer, for his poster entitled "Incorporating International Human Rights Issues into Social Psychology Courses." The Society for the Teaching of Psychology (APA Division Two) Award (a certificate and $500 toward expenses for attending the next APA Convention), for the poster judged by Institute faculty as best incorporating new or innovative content into psychology courses, was presented to Christine McBride and Debra Hydorn, for their poster entitled "Statistics and Methods in the Field: The Integration of Service Learning into Research Based courses." The abstracts of both winning posters follow.
Incorporating International
Human Rights Issues into Social Psychology Courses
Michael R. Hulsizer
Webster University
email: hulsizer@webster.edu
Today's typical undergraduate has a wealth of opportunities on campus to become involved in international human rights (e.g., Amnesty International and Students for a Free Tibet). In fact, these clubs are often some of the most active and well-attended student groups on campus. It would stand to reason that students would respond positively to the inclusion of this subject matter in their academic coursework. A natural home for this topic is in the typical social psychology course. Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of social psychology textbooks do not even mention the term international human rights let alone discuss this issue in the context of various social psychological phenomena. The proposed poster will attempt to demonstrate the many links between the essential features, principles, facts, theories, and applications of international human rights and well established social psychological theories and phenomena (e.g., aggression, stereotyping, prejudice, discrimination, group dynamics, conformity, judgmental heuristics, and attribution theory). The poster will contain an annotated syllabus for a social psychology course. Reference will be made to several useful books, articles, websites, demonstrations, and discussion topics that may help bridge the gap between international human rights and social psychological theories. Handouts of all of these materials will also be provided.
Statistics and Methods in
the Field:
The Integration of Service Learning into Research Based Courses
Christine McBride and Debra Hydorn
Mary Washington College
email: cmcbride@mwc.edu
The proposed poster presentation will outline the process of integrating Service Learning into statistics and research methods courses. Service Learning is a teaching/learning method that connects meaningful community service with academic learning, personal growth, and civic responsibility. In designing the project to incorporate service learning into our statistics and methods courses we focused on five overarching goals:
During the summer of 2000, we asked directors of local nonprofit agencies if they would like assistance with program evaluation, survey development, and/or data analysis. We then incorporated the needs of agencies into student projects and assignments. The agencies, many of which do not have the knowledge and/or resources to evaluate the effectiveness of their work, gained valuable information that aided them in grant writing and program development. The students gained practical experience and community contacts that will be useful when applying for jobs and graduate programs. At the end of the fall semester, we will be assessing the project's impact on student learning. Students will respond to a survey that addresses interest in and value of the material presented.