This book compiles several essays about effective evaluation of teaching. Contents of this publication include: (1) Conducting Research on Student Evaluations of Teaching (William E. Addison and Jeffrey R. Stowell); (2) Choosing an Instrument for Student Evaluation of Instruction (Jared W. Keeley); (3) Formative Teaching Evaluations: Is Student…

"Faculty Virtues and Character Strengths: Reflective Exercises for Sustained Renewal" is a transdisciplinary faculty handbook to enhance the quality of learning and teaching. The author applies six multicultural virtues and 24 character strengths from Positive Psychology research to the tasks of course design, managing critical incidents, and…

This book follows in the footsteps of the first three volumes in the "Handbook for Teaching Introductory Psychology" series. In the prefaces to these volumes, the various editors all stressed two major points relevant to the development of this series. These comments also apply to this book. First, introductory psychology is one of the most…

The purpose of the book is to provide teachers of psychology access to teaching techniques that epitomize "happy tact and ingenuity." The principle influence that teachers have on student behavior occurs in the classroom since, as noted by Erickson and Strommer, (1991), today's students spend relatively little time studying outside of class. When…

To promote student engagement, professors must actively seek to create the conditions that foster engagement. Chickering and Gamson (1987) suggest that good practices in undergraduate education are ones that: encourage student-faculty contact, develop reciprocity and cooperation among students, encourage active learning, provide students with…

Whereas grading systems based on tacit knowledge may be the norm in practice, the recent trend toward educational accountability--from granting organizations, accreditation boards, journals on the teaching of psychology, and even tenure/promotion committees--suggests a real need for reliable, validated assessment measures that can be used to…

The purpose of this guide is to help lower barriers for instructors who are interested in using student response systems, or "clickers," but are intimidated by the technology or the time investment. This guide is a step-by-step overview of the process of adopting clickers based on the author's experiences as a professor who recently took the…

The Traveling Psychology Fair is designed to bridge the gap between secondary and college psychology education, encourage enthusiasm for the study of psychology, enhance teaching resources for high school psychology instructors, and promote a deeper understanding of psychological principles for psychology majors. Consisting of 24 outreach…

Many instructors are concerned with creating a community in the classroom. Although there are numerous published "ice-breakers," many of these techniques are not specific to psychology courses or have been used so much that the students see them as redundant and cliche. Icebreakers are better if they have relevance to a specific class, are…