Introduction: Psychology instructors face decisions about adopting new approaches to lectures, readings, and assessment in their courses. Statement of the Problem: These choices about course structure can be both intimidating and confusing in terms of the costs and benefits for different options. Literature Review: As framed by anecdotal and…

Established in 1945 as Division 2, one of the original divisions of the American Psychological Association, the Society for the Teaching of Psychology (STP) celebrates its 75th anniversary in 2020. On the occasion of STP's 50th anniversary, Wight and Davis published a history of the Division's first 50 years. Using that history, we summarize STP's…

As part of the exploration of the Society for the Teaching of Psychology (STP)'s history, subsets of STP leaders participated in panel discussions on various topics that represent areas of dramatic change and evolution over the last 25 years. This panel focused on conferences and programming and the role these topics played in advancing the…

As part of the updating of the Society for the Teaching of Psychology's (STP) history, STP leaders and past leaders participated in discussions of topics concerning change and evolution of STP during the last 25 years. This panel consisted of STP Past Presidents and focused on the changes they have seen in STP.

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.)

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…

Dr. Henry L. (Roddy) Roediger is the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor in the Psychology Department at Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) and a scholar of human memory. He graduated from Washington & Lee University in 1969 and received his PhD in psychology from Yale University. He served as chair of the Psychology…

This exercise aims to provide a hands-on, role-playing activity that requires students to evaluate the strengths and limitations of standardized tests in making admission decisions. Small groups pretend to be an admissions committee and review fictitious student applications containing both standardized test scores and other information admissions…

This article presents an interview with Philip Zimbardo, emeritus professor of psychology at Stanford University, who is internationally recognized as the voice and face of contemporary American psychology. He earned his PhD in social psychology from Yale University in 1959 and has since received seven honorary doctorates for his contributions to…

Students in research methods courses, especially those taught in an intense format, might be hard pressed to actually conduct research studies due to logistics and time constraints. I describe the use of single-case research design and a personalized behavior project as an alternative research project for students in an undergraduate psychology…

Internal and external validity are key concepts in understanding the scientific method and fostering critical thinking. This article describes a class demonstration of a "botched" experiment to teach validity to undergraduates. Psychology students (N = 75) completed assessments at the beginning of the semester, prior to and immediately following…

Discipline-based learning communities have become a popular strategy for improving student performance and satisfaction. This article describes the goals and features of a university-based, first-year psychology learning community (PLC) implemented in Fall 2003. We also report the results of a longitudinal assessment of the impact of the PLC on…

Although American Psychological Association (APA) Ethical Standards make it clear that instructors cannot require students to disclose personal information in class-related activities, an APA learning goal for undergraduate psychology students is that they reflect on their experiences to develop insight into their behavior and mental processes.…

Scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) demands greater empirical rigor on the part of authors and the editorial process than ever before. Although admirable and important, I worry that this increasing rigor will limit opportunities and outlets for a form of pedagogical vigor--the publication of simple, experiential, but empirically…

Many members of the academy have tried to broaden the construct of scholarship to include activities that investigate pedagogy and student learning, the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). Halpern et al. (1998) first established such a definition for the field of psychology. This article reports on a Society for the Teaching of Psychology…