Background: The course on cognitive assessment is mandatory for all school psychology programs. However, there have been no published studies that have explored learning objectives for this course. Objective: The purpose of this study is to examine content covered and complexity of learning objectives in the cognitive assessment course. Method:…

Case studies have become a popular vehicle for pre-service teachers to be introduced to the challenges of classroom teaching and participate in hypothetical classroom decision-making. Because of the similarity of case study instruction to those classroom structures proven to influence a student's adoption of mastery-approach goals, we expected…

To identify where ethics is presented to undergraduate psychology students, this study reviewed a national sample of 706 syllabi for required mandatory psychology courses. The results indicated that 6 syllabi were designated as ethics courses and 65 syllabi did not mention ethics at all. Even though 641 syllabi mentioned ethics, the most frequent…

Undergraduate psychology majors (n = 277) completed a survey assessing their rationale for pursuing either a Bachelor of Arts (BA) or Bachelor of Science (BS) degree. Only 52.9% correctly identified the differences in degree requirements. Of those, BA students indicated greater science anxiety and avoidance than those pursuing a BS. BS students…

Psychology prioritizes students' professional or career development by including it as one of the five undergraduate learning goals. Faculty advisors are critical to that development but likely feel less prepared for the role. Departments face challenges assessing associated student learning outcomes. We introduce an instrument programs can use to…

The Pairing Game is a popular classroom demonstration that illustrates how people select romantic partners who approximate their own desirability. However, this game produces matching correlations that greatly exceed the correlations that characterize actual romantic pairings, perhaps because the game does not incorporate the social relations…

Refutation-style texts have been considered a viable strategy for changing psychological misconceptions. The current study aims to integrate refutation-style texts into a classroom-based method of learning. Psychology students were administered a true/false misconception survey and then viewed several refutation-style poster presentations…

Introductory psychology is one of the most popular undergraduate courses and often serves as the gateway to choosing psychology as an academic major. However, little research has examined the typical structure of introductory psychology courses. The current study examined student learning objectives (SLOs) and course content in introductory…

The goal of this study was to investigate which common instructional methods (active vs. direct) best promote higher level thinking in a psychology course. Over a 5-week period, 71 undergraduates were taught psychology using both active learning and direct instruction. Pre- and post-course assessments were coded as either higher or lower level…

In this study, the authors assessed the psychometric properties of the Professor-Student Rapport Scale, the first scale to measure professor-student rapport. The scale was found to have adequate test-retest and internal-consistency reliability. In addition to these findings, measures used to determine convergent validity included the Working…

We conducted a national survey of psychology department chairs, and, based on their responses, we concluded that psychology programs differ in the number of students enrolled in various types of classes; the degree of focus on each of the goals recommended by the "American Psychological Association (APA) Guidelines for an Undergraduate…

Research methods and statistics courses constitute a core undergraduate psychology requirement. We analyzed course syllabi and faculty self-reported coverage of both research methods and statistics course learning objectives to assess the concordance with APA's learning objectives (American Psychological Association, 2007). We obtained a sample of…

A major function of instruction in psychology is to convey complex phenomena in a manner accessible to students. Instructors using well-designed teaching activities can help to make complex material accessible. We content analyzed teaching activities reported in the first 33 years of "Teaching of Psychology." We identified 15 general teaching…

Bloom (1956) pioneered the measurement of learning outcomes with a taxonomy of educational objectives, but educators often ignore affective learning objectives and focus on attaining cognitive objectives. This study examined student journals as a way to correct the overemphasis on cognitive objectives. Results suggested that course expectations…

Summarizes the results of a survey that revealed several dichotomies between what instructors felt introductory psychology courses delivered and what students wanted. Students desired a knowledge of people and relationships while the instructors felt the courses provided a broad overview of the discipline. Includes statistical data and analysis.…