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…

This study assesses the effectiveness of critical thinking drills (CTDs), a repetitious classroom activity designed to improve methodological and statistical thinking in relation to psychological claims embedded in popular press articles. In each of four separate CTDs, students critically analyzed a brief article reporting a recent psychological…

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,…

Reviews the recent suggestion (by McGown and Spencer) that construction of tests for introductory statistics is facilitated if data sets have means and standard deviations that are integers. Maintains that it is fairly easy to devise data sets with integer means and standard deviations for larger samples. Explains advantages and describes…

Describes a paper-and-pencil method for producing reaction-time data suitable for group situations. The technique was constructed to contrast the two traditional theoretical approaches to semantic memory but can be applied to other questions of cognitive psychology. (Author/CK)

Questions the validity of a multiple-choice evaluation in which university students evaluated a lecture which had been cancelled. Comparison of this evaluation with evaluation of a film on sex and communication, which had been viewed by approximately 50 percent of the students, is offered. (Author/DB)

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)

A workshop designed to teach participants how to use microcomputers for practice management, psychological testing, word processing, peripheral interface, and data analysis was found to meet the interests and needs of both academic and practicing psychologists. (RM)

Describes the use of DATAGEN, a BASIC computer program which generates independent and correlated data samples from population parameters specified by the instructor. Maintains that DATAGEN facilitates the demonstration of some fundamental statistical concepts and encourages students to work independently. (Author/JDH)

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)