We examined how writing cover letters to the instructor influenced final papers in research methods courses. After receiving instructor feedback on drafts of each section of an American Psychological Association style research paper throughout the semester, students in two classes wrote cover letters to the instructor explaining how the instructor…

The present article describes four free or inexpensive Internet-based activities that can be used to supplement statistics/research methods/general psychology classes. Each activity and subsequent homework assessment is described, as well as homework performance outcome and student opinion data for each activity. (Contains 1 table.)

A multifaceted approach to teaching five experimental designs in a research methodology course was tested. Participants included 70 students enrolled in an experimental research methods course in the semester both before and after the implementation of instructional change. When using a multifaceted approach to teaching research methods that…

Previous research demonstrates that psychology courses have the potential to reduce students' biases (e.g., biases against women). In the current research, we hypothesized that taking a seminar-style course on the self (as compared to a research methods course) could reduce students' typically biased views of the self (i.e.,…

Introductory psychology is one of the most popular undergraduate courses and often serves as the gateway to choosing psychology as an academic major. However, little research has examined the typical structure of introductory psychology courses. The current study examined student learning objectives (SLOs) and course content in introductory…

Studies of the effects of class attendance on class performance typically are quasi-experimental because students choose whether or not to attend class; that is, the samples are self-selecting. The lack of random assignment prevents one from establishing a causal relationship between attendance and performance. Relating attendance to performance…

Incorporating realistic data and research examples into quantitative (e.g., statistics and research methods) courses has been widely recommended for enhancing student engagement and comprehension. One way to achieve these ends is to use a data generator to emulate the data in published research articles. "MorseGen" is a free data generator that…

This study tested the effectiveness of video game use for instruction of factorial designs in a research methods course. Students designed and conducted a mini study, playing "Dance, Dance, Revolution", using video game scores as the dependent variable. A mixed-design analysis of variance revealed a significantly greater increase from pretest to…

Over 5 semesters and 10 sections, students in a 300-level research methods course used clickers to respond to knowledge-based and opinion/attitude questions about clicker use, the effectiveness of assignments, self-confidence regarding skills and abilities, and more. Changes during the semester and student answers to questions about pedagogy and…

A review of prior research on the role of attendance policies in large lecture classes (including psychology) is presented. This research showed that although students often did not attend class, various policies were effective in getting students to the classroom. Moreover, some research showed that an attendance policy did not lower instructor…

Developing students who can apply their knowledge of empirical research is a key outcome of the undergraduate psychology major. This learning outcome was assessed in two research methods courses by having students read and analyze a condensed empirical journal article. At the start and end of the semester, students in multiple sections of an…

Comprehension of statistics and research methods is crucial to understanding psychology as a science (APA, 2007). However, psychology majors sometimes approach methodology courses with derision or anxiety (Onwuegbuzie & Wilson, 2003; Rajecki, Appleby, Williams, Johnson, & Jeschke, 2005); consequently, students may postpone enrollment…

To address the issue of plagiarism, students in two undergraduate Research Methods and Analysis courses conducted, analyzed, and wrote up original research on the topic of plagiarism. Students in an otherwise identical course completed the same assignments but examined a different research topic. At the start and end of the semester, all students…

Undergraduate psychology majors (N = 51) at a mid-sized private university took a statistics examination on the first day of the research methods course, a course for which a grade of "C" or higher in statistics is a prerequisite. Students who had taken a problem-based learning (PBL) section of the statistics course (n = 15) were compared to those…

To determine whether a classroom experiment improved the learning of experimental method, at the start of the semester 2 introductory psychology classes took a 10-question multiple-choice pretest on experimental method. Two days later, before the instructor covered the relevant material in the course, 1 class took part in a classroom experiment on…