Mnemonic strategies, such as acronyms, effectively increase student retention of course material. We present an acronym based on a popular television character to help students remember the basic steps in the scientific method. Our empirical evaluation of the acronym revealed that students found it to be enjoyable, useful, and worthy of use in…

This article describes an in-class exercise that illustrates the advantage of semantic over nonsemantic study habits. The exercise includes a survey of students' current study strategies, followed by the presentation of an abbreviated version of Craik and Tulving's(1975) classic levels-of-processing experiment. We observed significant benefits of…

Wilbert J. McKeachie has been the president of the American Psychological Association (APA), the American Association of Higher Education, the American Psychological Foundation, the Division of Educational and School Psychology of the International Association of Applied Psychology, and APA's Divisions 2 and 15. He received his PhD at the…

Many members of the academy have tried to broaden the construct of scholarship to include activities that investigate pedagogy and student learning, the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). Halpern et al. (1998) first established such a definition for the field of psychology. This article reports on a Society for the Teaching of Psychology…

Advocates the performance of live drama by teachers in the classroom as a method of promoting immediacy and involvement. Describes one such performance and student responses to the experience. (Author/DH)

This article describes how "Psychology Today" articles were used to increase the relevance of an introductory psychology course. The articles were selected to match the interests of various academic majors and career areas. Includes a sample list of articles and information on where to obtain the complete bibliography. (DH)

This article describes four components of an approach used to teach interviewing skills to first-year graduate students. The components are: (1) the "no questions asked" approach, (2) self-reflection and self-correction, (3) feedback, and (4) obtaining analogue clients. The effects of the interviews on the subjects, acquired from an introductory…

A classroom exercise for teaching students how to examine aspects of their own impression-formation processes is described. The data generated can be used to stimulate discussion about the origins of implicit personality theories, person prototypes, and the accuracy of first impressions. (Author/DH)

Describes an instructional model labeled "connected teaching" used in a college developmental psychology course. Employs teaching techniques identified by women as being the type of instruction they desired. Concludes that the overall goal is to convince students that they can actively construct knowledge. (CFR)

Describes a demonstration to illustrate the importance of knowing what is supposed to be learned before studying begins. Suggests that the exercise may be used to show the basic elements of a scientific experiment. Explains that attention's effect upon memory is shown by students' tendency to remember best what they are told to remember. (DK)

Describes a college psychology course titled "The Power of Myth," which is interdisciplinary and uses collaborative learning techniques. Maintains that students reported increased curiosity about the world and improved abilities to work in groups. (CFR)

Maintains that preparing graphs is an essential part of data analysis and representation. Asserts that, although psychologists use graphs extensively, most textbooks provide limited techniques for designing graphs. Reviews research on graphical techniques and includes recommended articles on the topic. (CFR)

Recommends using mnemonics as an introduction to the study of human memory and cognitive processes. Students generally have some familiarity with mnemonics and the device lends itself to a number of interesting games and experiments. Includes suggested activities using mnemonics and the Monopoly board game. (MJP)

Maintains that undergraduate psychology curricula almost always include one or more required experimental courses. Describes the use of the human subjects review process as a method of stimulating critical thinking. Discusses questions posed by the review process and classroom applications of the approach. (CFR)

Describes an undergraduate Psychology of Social Problems course. The course focuses on the psychological aspects of legal abortion for adolescents and women, the consequences of denied abortions on unwanted children, and psychological ramifications of alternatives to abortion. Summarizes student evaluations of the course. (CFR)