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…

This article presents an interview with William Buskist, the Distinguished Professor in the Teaching of Psychology at Auburn University and a Faculty Fellow at Auburn's Biggio Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning. At Auburn, he directs the Psychology Department's Teaching Fellows program, which prepares graduate students for…

Students' course evaluations often play an important role in career advancement for faculty. The authors examined the association between attachment representations of parents and course evaluations in a sample of 230 undergraduate students. They found a significant negative association between attachment anxiety with parents and course…

The goal of this study was to investigate which common instructional methods (active vs. direct) best promote higher level thinking in a psychology course. Over a 5-week period, 71 undergraduates were taught psychology using both active learning and direct instruction. Pre- and post-course assessments were coded as either higher or lower level…

The authors experimentally investigated the effect of crib cards on exam performance and student learning. Fifty-one students expected to use their prepared crib cards during an exam. However, they first completed an unexpected pretest without their crib card. Students performed significantly worse on the pretest than on identical questions when…

Previous research revealed that introductory psychology textbooks included limited information about psychology ethics. This study reviewed 48 current introductory psychology textbooks for research and other APA ethics content. These textbooks included slightly more total ethics content and were more thorough in their review of research ethics…

Students often use PowerPoint for presentations. Pecha Kucha was introduced as an alternative type of PowerPoint presentation. Pecha Kucha is a fast-paced presentation style that forces students to focus on their message with automated, 20-second slides. Three studies, including a pilot, examined whether Pecha Kucha enhanced the quality of student…

As the burgeoning field of evolutionary psychology continues to gain exposure and acceptance throughout the psychological community, it is important to explain this field clearly and accurately to students. This article discusses some recent findings and trends in evolutionary psychological research to aid instructors in their efforts to provide…

Learning communities have become an integral part of the educational reform movement of the past two decades and have been heralded as a promising strategy for restructuring undergraduate education. This study used a matched control group design to examine the impact of participation in a psychology learning community (PLC) on a range of student…

Evidence of student learning has increasingly become the focus of external constituents, yet methods of documenting student learning outcomes are considered expensive, onerous, or both. This article provides a brief review of the limitations associated with traditional student opinions or course evaluations as evidence of teaching effectiveness,…

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…

Teaching of psychology courses trains graduate students in pedagogy, but little is known about how diversity is addressed in these courses. A survey of instructors in teaching of psychology courses assessed their coverage of diversity and classroom bias, as well as the instructional methods used to cover them. Results indicated that 87% of…

At the end of each lecture in a statistics for psychology course, students answered a small set of questions that required them to retrieve information from the same day's lecture. These exercises constituted retrieval practice for lecture material subsequently tested on four exams throughout the course. This technique is called the PUREMEM…

The authors investigated whether practice (or graded) quizzes, with or without provision of correct answers, would be more beneficial for introductory psychology exam performance. In six sections (N = 249) of an introductory psychology class, taught by the same professor, different approaches to quizzes were applied across sections to measure…

This study used a national sample of PhD students in clinical psychology (N = 1,034) to explore when students decided to pursue their graduate degree, reasons for their decisions, and associated satisfaction. Results indicated that immediately after completing their undergraduate degree, 57% of current graduate students reported postponing…