Background: Cognitive psychology is challenging for both teachers and learners due to the abstract and complex nature of mental processes and variation in student motivation. Objective: To test the effectiveness of an approach that seeks to motivate students to engage and successfully complete a cognitive psychology course by highlighting…

Background: Higher education institutions and universities aim to provide students with a range of transferable skills that enable them to become more thoughtful and effective employees, citizens, and consumers. One of these skills is critical thinking. Objective: The aim of the present research was to examine whether taking a psychology degree is…

Promoting undergraduate engagement is an important and challenging obstacle at large research-focused universities. Thus, the current study evaluated whether a peer-led program of student-geared events could improve engagement among a diverse group of psychology students early on in their degrees. We randomly assigned interested second-year…

We examined first-year psychology majors' (N = 195) beliefs about the relevance of two types of university assignments (individual essay and group wiki) and their connection to the development of career-related skills. Students reported that assignments were only somewhat relevant to their career goals, and relevance ratings were typically…

Presents an interview with Claudio S. Hutz, who is dean of Instituto de Psicologia at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre, Brazil, where he has been teaching psychology since 1977. Discusses topics such as teaching psychology in Brazil and developing critical thinking skills. (CMK)