In this article, the author shares his response to James Hartley's "Reflections on 50 years of teaching psychology". The author finds it very interesting to read James Hartley's reflections on the teaching of psychology and he thought it would be worth adding a rather different perspective, while agreeing with Hartley's main conclusions about the…

In this article, the author shares his response to James Hartley's "Reflections on 50 years of teaching psychology". Hartley concludes that the teaching of psychology has changed relatively little over the past several decades. The author states that his way of teaching now is very different from his way of 1975. This essay is about the…

In responding to Hartley (2011), this paper considers his concluding remarks as recommendations for the future of teaching undergraduate psychology and challenges the position that the teaching of psychology hasn't altered vastly during the last 50 years. In doing so, it is acknowledged that the content and delivery of higher education psychology…

In responding to Jim Hartley, with whom I very largely agree, I first reflect on my own experience of teaching Psychology in an institution which was successively college of technology, polytechnic and university. In the second a new and fruitful method of assessing higher education essentially by peer review was developed, only to be destroyed in…

This article presents the author's response to peer commentary on his article entitled "Reflections on 50 years of teaching psychology." The author is pleased that most of them share some of his concerns about the lack of progress in the teaching of psychology over the last 50 years, and he welcomes the fact that they then go on to raise…

Teaching and assessing large classes can be reframed from focusing on overcoming difficulties with large classes, to seeking the unique educational opportunities provided by such learning environments. We discuss data and examples illustrating how active learning and formative assessment can be successfully embedded into the teaching of large…

The legacy and sustainability of a university education requires student independence and ownership of learning. Adopting a student-centred constructivist approach to teaching and learning allows students to develop a web of self-constructed, interconnected understanding, and supports their development into lifelong learners. The efficacy of this…

Feedback from students on a Level 1 Research Methods and Statistics module, studied as a core part of a BSc Psychology programme, highlighted demand for additional tutorials to help them to understand basic concepts. Students in their final year of study commonly request work experience to enhance their employability. All students on the Level 1…

A series of tutorials was re-designed to further engage students in spiral learning and highlight development of transferable skills. The tutorials focused on self-directed and enquiry-based learning, both of which provided particular challenges to students and staff. The students were randomly allocated a media article related to psychology as a…

This study aimed to examine the concept of critical thinking, and implement and evaluate seminars to teach undergraduates critical appraisal skills. Participants were 140 undergraduate students on a Behavioural Medicine module. Four seminars were designed to teach and reinforce critical thinking with source material including research proposals…

Within undergraduate psychology courses, students often have significant levels of anxiety and negative attitudes toward the statistical element. This has been attributed to poor interaction with teachers, fears about mathematical abilities, and simply being unaware of that portion of the course or its relevance to psychology. To address this, 196…

The aim of the study was to look at the effectiveness of combining a variety of teaching and learning methods in an attempt to facilitate students' understanding of assessment criteria. Fifty-three psychology students were asked to complete the mismatch exercise (Norton et al., 2002), and a booklet entitled "Your Assignment results and how to…

This article describes the development of assessment criteria for specific aspects of examination answers and coursework essays in psychology. The criteria specified the standards expected for seven aspects of students' work: addressing the question, covering the area, understanding the material, evaluating the material, developing arguments,…

The value of increasing student input to learning opportunity design issues was explored through an action research project. In response to student-identified learning needs, a learning session on a first-year undergraduate research methods module was re-designed. The learning outcomes of two parallel student groups (one experiencing the original…

Previous research has shown that university students, when asked to rank different methods of learning and assessment tend to rate student presentations unfavorably. There are though, sound reasons for constructing learning situations around student presentations, resulting in presentations being an integral part of our psychology degree over the…