Background: Acquisition and generalization of data analysis skills are perennial challenges for psychology students. Teaching advanced data analysis in a psychology-specific context might improve students' learning. Objective: At a mid-sized public university, we evaluated student outcomes after a new quantitative psychology course taught in the…

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…

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…

Teaching of psychology courses trains graduate students in pedagogy, but little is known about how diversity is addressed in these courses. A survey of instructors in teaching of psychology courses assessed their coverage of diversity and classroom bias, as well as the instructional methods used to cover them. Results indicated that 87% of…

Classroom demonstrations help students better understand challenging concepts. This article introduces an activity that demonstrates the basic concepts involved in analysis of variance (ANOVA). Students who physically participated in the activity had a better understanding of ANOVA concepts (i.e., higher scores on an exam question answered 2…

As universities increase expectations for evidence of student learning, journals like "Teaching of Psychology (ToP)" have come to expect outcome data from authors describing teaching techniques. Our comparison of ToP articles published in 1996 and 2006 showed a significant decrease in reliance on student opinion and an increase in the use of more…

We examined the effectiveness of several techniques for enhancing student learning from educational videos. Introductory psychology students (N = 113) watched a video about intelligence and testing while taking notes, not taking notes, writing answers to guiding questions, or thinking about guiding questions without writing answers. Afterward,…

Describes a procedure for teaching experimental design to students in the social sciences. Argues that by replicating Solomon Asch's and H. Kelley's classic studies on impression formation, students learn how to conduct experiments, analyze data, and evaluate the significance of research. Provides instructions for implementing the strategy. (DSK)

Uses a meta-analysis approach of findings on instructional technology in college teaching. Data are derived from more than 300 studies reported since 1955. The technique of meta-analysis refers to a set of methods for statistically analyzing a large collection of results from individual studies for the purpose of integrating findings. (Author/DB)

Understanding the concept of interaction is vital to understanding the relationships of dimensions of phenomena under study. Use of multivariate analysis of variance is described as a useful approach for discovering the extent to which events may be complexly interaffecting. (Author/AV)

A study was undertaken among 595 students in a college psychology course to determine the relationship of test performance to competing academic assignments. Findings indicate that, in spite of a high anxiety level, college students are able to deal with the usual variations in workload that characterize academia. (Author/DB)

Discusses a study undertaken to determine variables influencing student ratings of college level courses in psychology. Findings indicated that student ratings reflect many variables other than teacher ability, including class size and student major. Suggests that the sole use of student ratings to evaluate teaching effectiveness is questionable,…

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)

Describes the use of a student-designed questionnaire to generate data for teaching statistical procedures and concepts. Maintains that students learn firsthand that data analysis is an integral part of the research process. Concludes that students find real data more interesting. (CFR)