Introduction: Assessing teaching effectiveness is relevant for improving one's teaching and for moving through the tenure process; however, the validity of assessment methods, such as Student Evaluations of Teaching (SET), have been heavily criticized. Statement of the Problem: Using a one-group pretest-posttest design and assessing learning over…

Goal 3 of the "APA Goals for Undergraduate Major in Psychology" specifies three dimensions of character development deemed central to the major. The purpose of this article is to review the current state of practice that addresses how we measure student learning in ethical reasoning, interpersonal relationship-building, and…

In this article the authors argue that distinguishing between rationality and intelligence helps explain how people can be, at the same time, intelligent and irrational (Stanovich, 2009). As such, researchers need to study separately the individual differences in cognitive skills that underlie intelligence and the individual differences in…

This is a personalized review of programs designed to assess student learning outcomes (SLOs) in higher education. In the last 30+ years, there have been few changes in the basic principles and premises. We assess SLOs for the purpose of improving teaching and learning. Although content area knowledge is important, other goals such as enhancing…

The scoring instrument described in this article is based on a deconstruction of the seven sections of an American Psychological Association (APA)-style empirical research report into a set of learning outcomes divided into content-, expression-, and format-related categories. A double-weighting scheme used to score the report yields a final grade…

Assessment of student learning outcomes can be a powerful tool for improvement of instruction when a scientific approach is taken; unfortunately, many educators do not take full advantage of this approach. This article examines benefits of taking a scientific approach to critical thinking assessment and proposes guidelines for planning,…

To deter cheating, teachers commonly use exams printed on differently colored paper or with varied question orders. Previous studies, however, reported that paper color and question order affect exam performance and suggested that teachers should adjust students' scores accordingly and discontinue the use of alternate exam forms. We conducted 2…

Our study compared the quantitative and qualitative outcomes associated with course evaluations collected over the Internet with those collected using a paper-and-pencil method. We randomly assigned students to 1 of the 2 different formats. There was no significant difference in quantitative student responses based on administration method, but…

We analyzed students' ratings and comments of their psychology instructors that were posted on RateMyProfessors.com and RateMyProfessors.ca to determine which features of a course and an instructor evoked the most positive and negative reactions. A content analysis of students' comments showed that instructors' characteristics(e.g., enthusiastic,…

To evaluate students' skills acquired in an interdisciplinary college course in consultation, each student was videotaped in a consultative exchange at the beginning and at the end of the academic semester. The three academic disciplines involved were school psychology, counselor education, and instructional design and technology. (RM)

Thirty-four undergraduates used Web-based self- and peer-assessment procedures for evaluating proposals in experimental psychology courses. Students presented their proposals and commented on the proposals of others on the Web. Results indicated that proposal observation and peer interaction enhanced the quality of students' proposals. These…

Discusses a study undertaken to assess the effect of graduate student teaching assistants on undergraduate students' attitudes toward psychology in an introductory psychology laboratory course. Findings indicated that good TAs convey more positive feelings about the labs than do poorer TAs. (DB)

For a class project students in an industrial/organizational psychology course had to construct a performance appraisal instrument for assessing the instructor's performance. Evaluations revealed that students found the exercise useful. (RM)