This study examined teaching assistant's immediacy in lecture/laboratory and self-contained classes. Two hundred fifty-six students responded to instruments measuring teachers' immediacy behavior frequency, perceptions of instruction quality, and cognitive learning. No significant difference was identified when comparing…

The present study investigates the frequency and confidence with which college students endorse popular psychological myths, contrasting introductory psychology students (at the beginning and end of the course) with upper-level psychology majors and students who have never taken Introduction to Psychology. This study builds on the existing…

The objectives of this study were to evaluate the perceived student value of topics taught in Butler University's Introduction to Experiential Rotations (RX500) course, implement course revisions to address any perceived weaknesses, and to reassess the course following implementation of those course revisions. Advanced Pharmacy Practice…

Both adult and traditional students at Indiana Wesleyan University take an introductory New Testament course in conventional, compressed, and accelerated formats and through online and onsite settings. This wide variety of demographics and modalities raises the issues of if and how the various incarnations of this course facilitate the achievement…

Comprehension of geologic time does not come easily, especially for students who are studying the earth sciences for the first time. This project investigated the potential success of two teaching interventions that were designed to help non-science majors enrolled in an introductory geology class gain a richer conceptual understanding of the…

This paper presents a case study in which the principles of scholarship were applied to designing an approach to learning suitable for large classes. While this case study describes an Australian first year Business Law unit, the findings presented in this paper would be relevant to a wide range of teachers faced with large enrollments in first…

Standards-based grading (SBG) is an approach to assessment and reporting in which scores are attached to the specific learning objectives of a course, rather than to assignments or tests. Each score represents a student's mastery of that learning objective, and may change over time in response to evidence that her level of understanding has…

University administrators and educators continue to explore and implement new approaches for delivering coursework. Ultimately, they are attempting to achieve the same goal; increasing the level of student engagement and retention of knowledge while maintaining educational quality. Various contemporary learning approaches can provide a…

Misconceptions about psychology are prevalent among introductory students. Just how prevalent and what can be done to change these misconceptions depends on valid methods of assessment. The most common method of assessment, the true/false questionnaire, is problematic. The present study compared true/false with forced choice formats to determine…

Academic success in first-year college science coursework can strongly influence future career paths and usually includes a solid performance in introductory biology. We wanted to know whether factors affecting biology student performance might include learning style preferences and one's ability and confidence in self-assessing those learning…

Although research suggests that active learning is associated with positive outcomes (e.g., memory, test performance), use of such techniques can be difficult to implement in large lecture-based classes. In the current study, 1,091 students completed out-of-class group exercises to complement course material in an Introductory Psychology class.…

We assessed the effectiveness of refutational readings and lecture on decreasing psychological misconceptions for students of high versus low levels of achievement. During the course of a semester we addressed introductory psychology students' misconceptions with refutational readings, refutational lecture, or not at all. From pre- and post-test…

This paper describes a case study of the impact of the introductory psychology course on students' understanding of their life experiences and course-related ideas. Student responses to a final essay assignment were analyzed to construct composites for areas of applied and transformed understanding. Results are important for psychology teachers…

Observed differences between Associate and Bachelor students are often justified by citing the comparative poorer performance of 2-year students that continue into 4-year programs. This research offers a different approach by investigating introductory-level management courses taught as a combined class at a regional campus of a state university.…

What is the best advice to give students regarding how to study? We provide preliminary results on the utility of a 35-item Study Behaviors Checklist that is adaptable for any course. We assessed 125 introductory psychology students' use of different study techniques and correlated their responses with their exam scores. Attendance, study guide…