Guidance for Teachers: A Review of Facets of an Academic’s Life: A Memoir

Introduction This paper reviews Facets of an Academic’s Life: A Memoir by Michael Wertheimer, with an eye toward practical guidance for teachers of psychology. Teaching Implications Wertheimer provides a rich review of his experiences, intermixed with important lessons for teachers of psychology alongside the foundational scientific and pedagogical values of curiosity, skepticism, and humility. Practical lessons include recommendations for shaping the teaching of psychology through service and leadership as well as through scholarship and teaching. Additionally, Wertheimer’s detailed descriptions of people and events can provide otherwise-inaccessible content for teachers who examine the history of psychology or who incorporate the historical foundations of psychology into their topical classes. Conclusions Wertheimer’s memoir has much to offer teachers of psychology. He provides practical recommendations as well as guidance about the foundations of science and teaching. The most important recommendations come from his rich life alongside academia and the balance between his wide-ranging professional and personal lives, particularly the importance of relationships, too often ignored in academic biographies.

Extending the Reach of the STARs (Students Tackling Advanced Research)

Background Participating in research opportunities during undergraduate education is met with myriad benefits. Students learn the scientific research process, how to think critically, develop transferable skills, refine public speaking, build a professional network, and gain confidence. Despite the numerous benefits of undergraduate research participation, underrepresented and minority (URM) students (e.g., first-generation, low-income, and historically underrepresented students) often do not engage in these valuable undergraduate research opportunities. Objective To begin breaking down some of these historical barriers to participation, we developed the Students Tackling Advanced Research (STAR) Scholars Program. Method A holistic educational outreach program was designed to facilitate underrepresented undergraduate students’ involvement in research and help them understand why research is important in a greater context. Conclusion Students who participated in STAR Scholars self-report positive impacts on understanding what research is, ways to seek out research opportunities, and what steps to take toward future educational and professional goals. Teaching Implications It is imperative to explicitly target barriers that underrepresented students face to allow for equity and inclusion in research and academia. Workshops and activities designed to demystify research, build networking and professional skills, and provide mentorship to students are successful in breaking down these barriers and increase student confidence and competence.

Integrating Critical Thinking Into Instruction, Assignments, and Discussions Improves Students’ Critical Analysis and Evaluation Skills in an Online Course

Background Critical thinking is an important student learning outcome in all psychology courses and included in the American Psychological Association’s (APA’s) goals for the undergraduate major. Objective The purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of integrating a general model of critical thinking into the instruction, assignments, and discussions in an online course on students’ development of critical analysis and evaluation skills. Method Two raters scored 34 students’ written responses on a critical thinking test administered at the beginning and end of the semester that had students analyze psychological studies as reported in media reports and evaluate position statements on a controversial issue. During the term, students completed assignments on identifying the parts of a scientific study and discussions on identifying weaknesses in thinking. Results Students showed large gains in critical analysis and critical evaluation scores from pretest to posttest. Specific comparisons revealed that students significantly improved their abilities to identify the theoretical point of view of a study, relevant psychological concepts, assumptions, and implications. Conclusion Integrating critical thinking in a direct way into a course can lead to substantial improvements in critical thinking over the span of a single semester. Teaching Implications The conceptualization of critical thinking used is broadly applicable to any psychology course at any level of education.

Persuasion Wars as a Useful Tool for Teaching Social Influence: A Replication With Direct Measure of Pedagogical Effectiveness

Background Persuasion Wars are exercises for teaching social influence that have not been directly assessed with the use of students’ knowledge gain as an indicator. Objective This study aimed to establish the extent to which these exercises led to students’ knowledge increase in comparison to traditional teaching method. Method In a between subject design, 142 undergraduate students participated in two exercises: Persuasion Wars or Article Analysis. Pre-test and post-test measurements of students’ knowledge were collected to compute knowledge gain scores. At the end of the study, an exercise evaluation survey was distributed among students. Results Both teaching methods increased students’ knowledge about social influence. Regardless of the topic, students from Persuasion War group gained more knowledge when compared to students from Article Analysis group. Students assessed both teaching methods to a similar extent. Conclusion Persuasion Wars may serve as a useful teaching method in familiarizing students with the basic concepts of social influence despite being rated similarly to a more traditional activity. Teaching implications To improve the teaching outcomes of classes concerning basic topics of social influence, teachers should consider the use of Persuasion Wars exercises as well as should incorporate the use of a direct assessment of pedagogical effectiveness to avoid misleading predictions.

Transforming the Online Learning Experience

Background College instruction has experienced a significant movement toward increased online learning course options. Without appropriate supports, students in virtual learning environments often face greater challenges with self-regulation, motivation, and recognizing the personal relevance of course content. Objective The current study focuses on the prevalence of personal relevance and its associated impact on cognitive and motivational variables including achievement emotion, intrinsic value, self-efficacy, test anxiety, cognitive strategy use, self-regulation, and metacognition in a virtual learning environment. Method Students in two online graduate level human development courses completed a series of questionnaires ( N = 73) for course credit. Results Results show the high transformative experience (TE) group reported significantly higher positive emotions, interest, intrinsic value, self-efficacy, cognitive strategy use, test anxiety, and self-regulation, giving them more cognitive and motivational benefits than those who experienced low levels. They also show no relationship between TE and course grade. Conclusion Future research in this area may benefit from focus on ways to intentionally increase TEs from online contexts to real-life contexts. Teaching Implications Such research would allow instructors intentionality in pedagogical endeavors while allowing students to integrate course information into their daily lives.

Debiasing Causal Inferences: Over and Beyond Suboptimal Sampling

Background We have previously presented two educational interventions aimed to diminish causal illusions and promote critical thinking. In both cases, these interventions reduced causal illusions developed in response to active contingency learning tasks, in which participants were able to decide whether to introduce the potential cause in each of the learning trials. The reduction of causal judgments appeared to be influenced by differences in the frequency with which the participants decided to apply the potential cause, hence indicating that the intervention affected their information sampling strategies. Objective In the present study, we investigated whether one of these interventions also reduces causal illusions when covariation information is acquired passively. Method Forty-one psychology undergraduates received our debiasing intervention, while 31 students were assigned to a control condition. All participants completed a passive contingency learning task. Results We found weaker causal illusions in students that participated in the debiasing intervention, compared to the control group. Conclusion The intervention affects not only the way the participants look for new evidence, but also the way they interpret given information. Teaching implications Our data extending previous results regarding evidence-based educational interventions aimed to promote critical thinking to situations in which we act as mere observers.

Aprender HaciendO: Undergraduate Curriculum Development for a Latinx Mental Health Service-Learning Course

Service-learning provides an experientially-based pedagogical approach that can increase student engagement in the learning environment and promote the development of cultural competency when working with diverse populations. This article reports on the curriculum development of a Latinx mental health undergraduate service-learning course that discussed disparities in Latinx access and utilization of mental health services and used service-learning as a teaching method to increase students’ cultural awareness and skills by putting their knowledge into practice in community-based settings. We provide an overview of the course including specific guidelines for readings, assignments, and group facilitation for future application of this course in Latinx mental health. Students of this course have developed critical awareness of their identities as it relates to their work with Latinxs, and a continued commitment to meet community needs. We briefly discuss challenges in implementing similar ethnically-rooted and service-learning multicultural psychology curriculum.

Impact of COVID-19 Campus Closure on Undergraduates

Background The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in an abrupt transition from in-person to online learning in Spring 2020. Objective The purpose of this study was to identify the impact of the transition on undergraduates during the period following the campus closure. Method 131 psychology undergraduate students completed an online survey of how the COVID-19 closure had impacted their academics, online learning environment, and traumatic stress symptoms (using the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist for the DSM-5). Results Most participants reported increased academic difficulty compared to before closure. Approximately 30% reported elevated traumatic stress symptoms. Greater traumatic stress was associated with greater difficulty completing assignments, more limited access to the internet and quiet places to study, and greater sibling-care responsibilities. Conclusions The acute transition to online instruction posed academic and emotional challenges to many students, especially those from environments with competing demands or less access to academic supports. Follow-up evaluation is needed to determine whether these difficulties have persisted in subsequent semesters of online instruction. Teaching Implication Instructors should anticipate the emotional and academic needs of students who are relatively unfamiliar with online instruction and consider ways to minimize negative environmental impacts and increase access to mental health resources.

A Replication and Extension of the Use of On-Line Discussion Boards: Teaching Chronic Pain to Health Psychology Students

Background Case studies are often used to supplement lecture material to students of psychology. Recent research on the use of online support forums has been shown to be more effective in increasing student attainment of course learning objectives than the use of case studies. Objective The current research replicated two studies on the use of online support forums and extended this work to chronic pain and compared midterm exam scores from two different semesters when case studies and online support forums were used as a supplementary learning exercise. Method Following a lecture on chronic pain students were randomly assigned to either the case study or online support forum condition and asked to rate their experience based on four learning objectives. Results Students who took part in the online support forum learning exercise rated the four learning objectives higher and obtained higher marks on a midterm exam than students in the case study exercise. Conclusion Reading people’s personal accounts of their experience with chronic pain through online support forums is more effective in increasing student understanding of the effects of chronic pain than the traditional case study. Teaching Implications Implications for teaching material that is highly emotional are discussed.