In this collaborative professor-student contribution, an experiential nature-based university psychology course is described and discussed. Existing scholarship on experiential environmental education informed the course, with the overall aim of educating the "whole student". Experiential environmental education has been identified as…

Research methods course(s), a standard in psychology programs, often use multiple textbooks to address conceptual and data-analytic information. This study involved transitioning from traditional textbooks to open educational resources in a research methods course. Two psychology instructors, each offering course sections, identified open-access…

The author, a psychology instructor at an American university, describes the internationalization of his course in Human Growth and Development. The author argues that human development cannot be easily summarized by nature (i.e., biological and evolutionary predisposition) or nurture (i.e., learning through environment and experience).…

In this study the relationship between intended course objectives and teaching effectiveness was investigated. Teaching effectiveness was indexed through student evaluations of teaching (SETs) and lecturer self-evaluations (LSEs), with a focus on course evaluation. Rated learning of intended course objectives was derived by two parallel…

What is "General Psychology?" Is it just one course that could be an elective, part of a minor, or part of a student's major? Or could "General Psychology" literally be the "corner stone" or "foundation block" upon which all the other psychology courses, taken afterwards, add to like bricks upon a "foundation block?" This paper will seek to…

We obtained data from pre- and postcourse questionnaires given in an Introduction to the Psychology Major course taught for 10 semesters and compared these data with institutional outcomes concerning the students' last known major and their graduation status. We found the questionnaire reliably measured (a) vocational identity, (b) knowledge of…

The article describes a report stemming from the development and application of a Suicide Opinion Questionnaire (SOQ)--a 100 item attitudinal and factual instrument designed to cover a wide range of suicidal concerns. Subjects of the study were 17 college students drawn at random from 89 students enrolled in an abnormal psychology course. Results…

Although a history and systems course in psychology should provide a valuable forum for organizing the discipline, no current texts consistently provide enough coverage of the context in which the discipline emerged to anchor developments throughout the history of psychology. To test the validity of this observation, 10 undergraduate history and…

The project of developing, demonstrating, and evaluating a systems approach for general college chemistry, general psychology, and developmental English was undertaken by Meramec Community College (Missouri). This report includes a chapter on the project philosophy, which hypothesizes that the maximization of instructional methods increases the…

Explores the issue of whether psychology is a science and introduces some findings of scientific psychology. Topics discussed include psychology as an experimental science, and the relationship between psychology and free will. (Author/DB)

Identification of objectives, review of texts, assessment of outcomes, and consideration of students are suggested procedures for effective textbook adoption. (Author)

A model is described for teaching about death and dying with emphasis on mental health aspects. The author relates personal observations from her experience as a death educator and suggests precautions for individuals organizing thanatology courses for the first time. (AV)

Explores the merits of using a combined cognitive and experiential approach to the teaching of psychology. Findings indicate that expanding a traditional course to include vivid personal experiences integrated with cognitive growth is an effective modification and enhances concept learning. (Author/DB)

Describes teaching methods that promote reflexivity, a practice of observing and locating one's self as a knower within certain cultural and sociohistorical contexts, in order to open up the classroom for all students. Provides seven strategies that each incorporate reflexivity within a course, such as modeling and inviting speakers. (CMK)

As a result of the development of two computer statistics laboratories in the psychology department at New York's Brooklyn College, a project was undertaken to develop and implement computer program modules in undergraduate and graduate statistics courses. Rather than use the technology to merely make course presentations more exciting, the…