Background: Psychology students can and sometimes do develop skills and career readiness in their courses, but these outcomes are rarely made explicit. Objective: This research jointly examines how two potential factors may improve student skills and career readiness: explicit instruction on skill development in an advanced laboratory course,…

Background: Research shows distributed practice enhances learning and skill development, but less is known about the effect on perceptions and attitudes toward the material being learned. Objective: This study examined whether distributed practice could improve performance and attitudes in statistics, a subject that students report finding…

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…

Background: Although undergraduate psychology curriculum should cultivate performance-based skills to prepare students for helping professions, little work to date has addressed this standard. Objective: This research replicates the methods used in a previous study by examining pre-post changes in empathic communication skills and perceived…

Multiple studies have demonstrated the efficacy of various psychological critical thinking interventions. The current study tests a novel technique for improving introductory psychology students' ability to identify and evaluate methodological concepts in real-life media by prompting them to analyze secondary source news and blog articles.…

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…

Critical thinking is a valued educational outcome; however, little is known about whether psychology courses, especially ones such as research methods courses that might be expected to promote critical thinking skills, actually improve them. We compared the acquisition of critical thinking skills for analyzing psychological arguments in 3 groups…

I describe a classroom exercise that demonstrates people's inability to detect deception better than chance. In the exercise, students worked in pairs and took turns asking each other a series of questions. Students lied to their partners some of the time, and they in turn attempted to determine when their partners lied to them. Students also…

Reviews ideas and techniques to help college level psychology teachers teach writing in their courses. The literature on the psychology of writing is examined. Sources providing technical advice on writing are described. Books, texts, and readings on writing for direct use by students are also discussed. (RM)

We describe the development and evolution of an interdisciplinary introductory course in psychology and sociology. Such a course benefits students by encouraging a wider view of the social sciences and interdisciplinary critical thinking. The challenges of a combined course include reduced content for each discipline, the selection of appropriate…

Describes a teaching method in which undergraduate psychology students carry out simulated research studies. In response to model problem situations, students develop a research design and then are given data which might have been obtained if the design were carried out. The condensed experience clarifies aspects of the research process which…

Described is an innovative teaching method for developing student psychological literature search skills. The method involves empirical analysis of cliches and writing abstracts of psychological studies used in support or rejection of cliche hypotheses. (Author/DB)

A comparative analysis was made of academically experienced and inexperienced students in a college level counseling education program to determine the influence of practical experience in counseling. Findings indicated that most students in both groups benefited by receiving counseling skills training. (Author/DB)

Discusses teaching techniques, course content, strategies, and problems of teaching a behavior modification course to university students. Course target areas include subjects such as anxiety control, fear elimination, weight control, smoking reduction, interpersonal interaction, assertiveness, and exercise maintenance. (Author/DB)

Explains that in order for students to understand statistics, they must develop their spatial and visual skills for manipulating numerical data. Describes the use of an inexpensive, low-tech teaching device that is constructed of modeling clay and cardboard in order to overcome this visual barrier when teaching a blind student statistical…