Crissa Levin (Utah State )

Distance learning is becoming increasingly common, both in response to the pandemic and in normal years (Seaman et al., 2018). This modality brings additional challenges, particularly with retention and engagement (Bart, 2012). Research on distance learning provides clues, however it can also be useful to look also at the related field of computerized psychoeducation interventions, as these are ultimately a different form of teaching online. This form of distance teaching receives far more research attention (including funding), and therefore can be useful in decoding the mystery of student engagement. 

Below I will present a model for engagement in online teaching based on research and experience that is broken down into three overlapping areas: Micro-Studies, which are ultimately the student’s assignments; Micro-coaching, which is basically how you can build motivation enhancement into the communications that you’re having with your students already; and Information itself, which in this brief version of the model will refer to lectures and how this necessary aspect can still be essential even though they can feel unengaging in online modalities. 

Micro-Studies 

Assignments can be conceptualized as little studies, where the outcome is like the dependent variable (and construct validity matters). The independent variable is what you are teaching, and it’s worth thinking about – is the course content lined up with the course assessments in such a way that you can really differentiate the learning from the course? So far, all of this is entirely relevant in both in-person and online classes, and is not an original idea (Masland, 2019). However, what is particularly relevant for the web-based environment is communicating this thinking to students. Student motivation is increased by letting students know why exactly they are doing this assignment and what it is trying to measure (Tyler-Smith, 2006). So the first step of importance here is to think through every step of a micro-study, and the second step is to include this information in simple terms as part of the instructions to students. 

One example of where this is particularly important in online teaching is the regular use of discussions. We know that it is useful to have regular interaction between peers in online classrooms (Mbukusa, 2017; Akcaoglu & Lee 2016), but it is common to see discussions lead to a sea of responses stating some form or another of “I agree,” which really is the prototypical example of a lack of online engagement. An alternative might be to instead start with the outcome and work backwards. What would you like the students to prove they are able to do?  

In one of my courses, I described the setup for a behavioral problem, and asked each student to describe how they would use the current chapter to develop an intervention. The catch was, they only had 4 sentences for their intervention, which meant the intervention would be definitively incomplete. Students were required to respond with more information to another student’s post, ultimately adding on to another student’s intervention. Because they were being trained in various behavioral interventions (IV) the outcome was how effective they were at applying these interventions (DV). This also met the goal of student interaction online, but did so in a meaningful way, and students got to know each other and interact weekly while still actively applying content. 

Micro-Coaching  

Among the most important things to keep students engaged and motivated in an online course, both in my experience and based on a variety of studies, is to bring oneself to the online class (Dennen, et al., 2007). This can mean anything from being genuine about your own self and life in your announcements, to not trying to cover imperfections, to ensuring that there is a person and voice in your feedback and, as regularly as is feasible, for your own instructor role. This has great meaning for students and is particularly important to helping students stay connected with the content and the course.  

Reviewing the literature, it starts to feel like engagement interventions for online teaching (and web-based psychological interventions) center around the same tenants as those of Person-Centered Therapy. Beyond genuineness lies positive regard and empathy. It is beyond the scope of the current writing to detail how and why these skills play well within an online context, but one simplification is that students who take online classes are demographically different than students who take in-person classes. Two primary differences between the groups are age and working status – our online students tend to be working adults who are juggling full lives and fit school in between the cracks (Johnson, 2015; Ortangus, 2017). Through this lens, it becomes much simpler to have respect, warmth, and empathy for our students even when on the surface it might in other contexts seem they are not trying. This change in how we relate to our students when we are already spending time giving feedback and providing information can make a substantial difference with regards to which students tend to stay and engage. 

In one example of how I use micro-coaching in my courses, I have created a jingle (song) to go with my weekly video announcements. I give my weekly announcements off-the-cuff, with only an outline of notes to guide what I will be discussing. I do not edit the content, and instead poke fun at my own mistakes. This is not only because it is familiar to many students to see raw and genuine video, and is not at all actually because of the time savings; this is to help students connect, and to see me as a real person who is really telling them about the week. And while the course data does suggest that some people do not watch regularly, or some people skip around, there are other reports of people who watch with their spouses every week or notice when the announcements are late.  

Information  

It has become common to hear online lectures get a bad reputation, with many comedians joking during the pandemic that online teaching is simply no better than watching YouTube or Ted Talks. That does not match with either the data or with my experience. There is evidence that students do tend to lose attention after a certain amount of time, however I have yet to see a comparison regarding this group-level attention check in online lectures and in-person lectures. An alternate interpretation of this evidence can simply be: many students do zone out during lectures, and this might be even worse online – especially in longer videos. What’s missing from the discussion that shorter lecture videos are essential is how incredibly essential it is for the genuine presence of the instructor to break down the material in the context of the course, in lecture format (Brown et al., 2016). In a far less-scientific way, I have also consistently found through internal surveys that students select lectures as the first or second most useful assignment in each online class I’ve taught over the last seven years. That said, everyone who worked during 2020 had our fair share of zoom burnout and became familiar with how hard it would be to consume information if it was delivered in the same format as in-person lectures. So what becomes important then may be to recognize that while lectures are essential, to be successful online, they ought to be made into micro-studies and ought to use some micro-coaching to combat the increasing problems with engagement.  

To use micro-coaching and micro-studies in my lectures, I first am sure to be genuine, and to “bring myself” to my lectures. I often tell stories about my own life at times that I’m trying to convey examples. To make these lectures into micro-studies, I started with the outcome, and determined that simple attention to the content (simple reiteration) was the DV, with an added goal of reinforcing “showing up” if possible. So, I focus on the outcome of attention and memory to what was just said. To do this, I pause the lectures at key times using lecture interaction software (I use Kaltura, but many are available), and it asks a question that is meant only to ask how to re-state content that was said at some time over the last several minutes. The questions are spaced out and intentionally simple, which focuses on attention but also helps to reinforce “showing up” as opposed to punishing drifting off (that which naturally occurs). This slight change in focus shifts students out of multiple patterns, including zoning out after a few minutes. This occurs because of playing to the modality of the online medium. By helping students to keep their attention between questions, because they don’t know which part of the lecture will be important for the simple question coming up, this helps to keep students attending. By bringing myself – by being genuine and showing up in each lecture of the semester, there’s a steady and stable presence throughout the semester that allows for connection in the course, and keeps students connected not only to the content, but to the instructor. 

Conclusion 

Ultimately, it is much more time-intensive to teach online courses than in-person courses. This is due to the editing time that is avoided by just showing up in-person, due to the motivational coaching needed for the different modality itself, but also for the different types of students that find their way to online courses. This time comes from putting a lot of yourself into the course as well – to adding to your feedback the little comments that let your students know you’re a person, maybe one who laughs and sees good in people and their work. This all can be quite time intensive. And because of this differential time impact, matched with the loss of smiling faces and interactions unless something is wrong. It might not be for everyone, but I find it useful to remember that we are reaching a different set of students, in a more challenging environment, and providing the same promise of education. It’s a tall order and a meaningful one, and that challenge can be rewarding.Page Break 

References 

Akcaoglu, M., & Lee, E. (2016). Increasing social presence in online learning through small group discussions. The international review of research in open and distributed learning, 17(3). https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v17i3.2293 

Bart, M. (2012). Online student engagement tools and strategies. Faculty Focus. Retrieved from http://www.facultyfocus.com/ free-reports/online-student-engagement-tools-and-strategies/ 

Brown, G., Leonard, C., & Arthur-Kelly, M. (2016). Writing SMARTER goals for professional learning and improving classroom practices. Reflective Practice, 17(5), 621-635. 

Dennen, V. P., Aubteen Darabi, A., & Smith, L. J. (2007). Instructor–learner interaction in online courses: The relative perceived importance of particular instructor actions on performance and satisfaction. Distance Education, 28(1), 65-79. 

Johnson, J. M. (2015). On-Campus and Fully-Online University Students: Comparing Demographics, Digital Technology Use and Learning Characteristics. Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice, 12 (1), 11-13. 

Masland, L. (2019, October). You were trained as a scientist. Isn't it time to start teaching like one? [Keynote Address] The 19th Annual Conference on Teaching in Denver, CO, United States. 

Mbukusa, N. R., Kibuule, D., Lates, J. (2017). Overcoming barriers of isolation in distance learning: Building a collaborative community in learning. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 4(17). 34-42. 

Ortagus, J. C. (2017). From the periphery to prominence: An examination of the changing profile of online students in American higher education. The Internet and Higher Education, 32, 47-57. 

Seaman, J. E., Allen, I. E., & Seaman, J. (2018). Grade Increase: Tracking Distance Education in the United States. Babson Survey Research Group. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED580852.pdf 

Tyler-Smith, K. (2006). Early attrition among first time eLearners: A review of factors that contribute to drop-out, withdrawal and non-completion rates of adult learners undertaking eLearning programmes. Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 2, 73-85. 

 

Clemente I. Diaz, M.A. 

Baruch College, City University of New York 

Roni Reiter-Palmon, PhD 

University of Nebraska at Omaha 

Psychology is an extremely diverse field. Its diversity can be seen in its various subfields as well as the numerous career paths one can pursue. Consider the fact that individuals with a bachelor’s degree in psychology were employed in 92 different occupation categories, individuals with a master’s degree in 74 occupation categories, and those with a doctoral degree in 61 occupation categories (American Psychological Association Center for Workforce Studies, 2018).  While the field of psychology is diverse, there is one constant regardless of which career path one takes or which subfield one pursues, we will be working for most of our lives. Yet despite this, most introductory psychology courses don’t cover Industrial-Organizational (I-O) psychology (i.e., the psychology of work). 

Why I-O Psychology should be included in Introductory Psychology 

There are various reasons to include I-O psychology in introductory psychology courses, the most basic being that working is a fundamental aspect of human life and behavior. In fact, estimates show that we spend roughly one-third of our lives at work. It’s no surprise that under its guidelines for the undergraduate major the American Psychological Association (APA) has specifically included professional development as a key goal (APA, 2013). Additionally, whether one agrees or not, the vast majority of students pursue higher education in hopes of increasing their employment outcomes (Eagan et. al, 2016, p. 70). Undergraduate psychology majors are not exempt from this trend given that over 56 percent of 2018 psychology graduates were either employed full-time or seeking employment (National Association of Colleges and Employers, 2019). Interestingly, and contrary to what most of us believe or would like to believe, the majority (56 percent) of psychology majors don’t pursue graduate studies of any kind (American Psychological Association Center for Workforce Studies, 2018). Although the inclusion of I-O psychology in introductory psychology won’t serve as a magic wand in preparing students for the workplace, it’s a good start.   

 

Tips for incorporating I-O Psychology 

I-O psychology isn’t usually included in introductory psychology for many reasons, but generally revolve around the following themes (in descending order): not in designated curriculum/textbook, not enough time, and lack of subject matter knowledge (Diaz, 2018). This section will provide tips and resources targeting each of these themes. 

 Not in designated curriculum/textbook 

According to data collected from the Open Syllabus Project, the most frequently used introductory psychology textbooks don’t cover I-O psychology (Butina, 2019). The lack of coverage is a topic that the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) has made a concerted effort in tackling through the creation of the Getting I-O into Intro Textbooks (GIT SIOP) taskforce (https://www.siop.org/GIT-Blog). In addition to reaching out to publishers, GIT SIOP has developed a vast array of free educator resources (sample syllabi, one-page I-O content summaries, PowerPoints, a stand-alone I-O psychology chapter, and other supplemental material). These resources can be accessed via the following website - www.teachiopsych.com. In addition to SIOP’s educator resources, open source publishers such as OpenStax (https://openstax.org/) and the NOBA Project (https://nobaproject.com/) each have a stand-alone I-O psychology chapter along with a PowerPoint and test bank. 

Lack of time 

Unlike more specialized, or upper level, psychology courses, introductory psychology tends to cover an exorbitant amount of content which can often overwhelm instructors. It is not surprising that some instructors have difficulty incorporating additional content. When time is a primary factor, the best solution is to integrate new material into already existing content.  

Using the table of contents from Myers and DeWall’s (2021) introductory psychology textbook (according to the Open Syllabus Project David G. Myers authors the most frequently assigned introductory textbooks), we highlight I-O psychology topics which can be discussed at varying points in the semester. I-O psychology draws from many other areas of psychology therefore it is not too difficult to integrate content into already used material.  

 1. Thinking Critically With Psychological Science - Cursory glance of the psychology of work 

2. The Biology of Mind - Neuroleadership, Organizational Neuroscience, Neuroscience of trust 

3. Consciousness and the Two-Track Mind - Drug use in the workplace, presenteeism 

4. Nature, Nurture, and Human Diversity - Workplace diversity (e.g., training, recruiting, discrimination) 

5. Developing Through the Life Span - Career transitions (e.g., entering the world of work, aging and work ability) 

6. Sensation and Perception - Managing workplace perceptions (e.g., attitudes, interests, work setting) 

7. Learning - Training and development, training transfer 

8. Memory - Impact of memory loss at work, working memory and task completion 

9. Thinking and Language - Judgement and decision making (e.g., evidence-based management); creativity and innovation in the workplace 

10. Intelligence - Individual differences and their assessments in the workplace (e.g., cognitive abilities vs. emotional intelligence, relationship between cognitive abilities and performance) 

11. What Drives Us: Hunger, Sex, Friendship, and Achievement - Application of motivational theories to work setting 

12. Emotions, Stress, and Health - Emotional labor, burnout, workplace stress, occupational health and safety, impact of Covid-19 on workers, work-life balance, occupational health psychology 

13. Social Psychology - Group dynamics, teamwork, leadership, power and authority 

14. Personality: Individual differences and their assessments in the workplace (e.g., relationship between personality traits and performance, how and why is personality assessed), personality traits associated with different types of leaders (e.g., charismatic, situational) 

15. Psychological Disorders - Mental health stigma in the workplace, work-induced disorders 

16. Therapy - Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) and other workplace interventions 

Since the integration of I-O psychology content into current material only provides a surface level view of the field (versus having a unit specifically devoted to I-O psychology), instructors should also consider giving assignments that allow students to gain a more in-depth understanding of the subject (e.g., informational interviews, job analysis). One possible assignment is Department 12’s free I-O psychology mini-course. This 30-minute SIOP material-based course provides an overview of the field and culminates in a certificate of completion for anyone who obtains a 70 percent or higher on the end-of-course quiz. Department 12’s mini-course, in addition to other valuable information (e.g., articles, podcast episodes) can be accessed via the following link - https://department12.com/introduction-to-industrial-organizational-psychology-mini-course/.  

 

Lack of subject matter knowledge 

Not feeling well-versed on a subject can result in any instructor not incorporating said topic. But where should one start in hopes of better familiarizing oneself with I-O psychology? In addition to the educator resources mentioned earlier, SIOP publishes a free quarterly publication titled The Industrial Psychologist (TIP) which covers a variety of topics. Current and back issues can be accessed on the SIOP website (https://www.siop.org/Research-Publications/TIP). Other great resources include, ScienceForWork (https://scienceforwork.com/) and IOAtWork (https://www.ioatwork.com/) both of which provide research summaries.  

Podcasts more to your liking? There are numerous I-O psychology related podcasts out there. Some well-regarded podcasts, in no particular order, include:  

·        Department 12 (https://department12.com/)  

·        The Indigo Podcast (https://www.indigotogether.com/indigopodcast)  

·        Mind Your Work (https://mindyourwork.io/)  

·        Midnight Student (https://open.spotify.com/show/5FoIus9RDw6JuIH3ifHsQJ)  

·        The World of Work (https://worldofwork.io/)  

·        Workr Beeing (https://workrbeeing.com/)  

·        Worklife with Adam Grant (https://www.ted.com/podcasts/worklife)   

Still don’t feel comfortable speaking about I-O psychology? SIOP has you covered once again. Consider reaching out to an I-O psychology professional for a guest lecture via SIOP’s Advocacy Registry (https://www.siop.org/Membership/Registries/Advocacy).  

Conclusion 

In this article we have made the case for the importance of adding I-O psychology to the curriculum of introductory psychology. The concerns expressed by faculty members teaching introductory psychology courses have been noted, and we have attempted to provide solutions to each one. Specifically, resources are available via the national organization (SIOP) that allow for either a full unit on I-O psychology or integration of specific I-O topics into existing course materials. Further, expert resources such as speakers and podcasts are also available. 

References 

American Psychological Association. (2013). APA guidelines for the undergraduate psychology major: Version 2.0. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/ed/precollege/undergrad/index.aspx    

American Psychological Association Center for Workforce Studies (2018). CWS data tool: Careers in psychology. Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/workforce/data-tools/careers-psychology   

Butina, B. (2019, July 25). The most assigned psych textbooks. Retrieved from https://department12.com/the-most-assigned-psych-textbooks/  

Diaz, C.I. (2018). Incorporating I-O Psychology into Introductory Psychology. Psych Learning Curve: Where Psychology and Education Connect. Retrieved from http://psychlearningcurve.org/incorporating-i-o-psychology-into-introductory-psychology/  

Eagan, K., Stolzenber, E.B., Ramierz, J.J., Aragon, M.C., Suchard, M.R., Rios-Aguilar, C. (2016). The American freshman: fifty-year trends, 1966-2015.  Los Angeles: Higher Education Research Institute, UCLA. Retrieved from https://www.heri.ucla.edu/monographs/50YearTrendsMonograph2016.pdf  

Myers, D.G., DeWalls, N.C. (2021). Psychology (13th ed.). Worth Publishers. 

National Association of Colleges and Employers (2019). First destinations for the college class of 2018: Findings and analysis. Retrieved from https://www.naceweb.org/job-market/graduate-outcomes/first-destination/class-of-2018/  

 

 

 

 

Shlomit Flaisher-Grinberg, PhD

Saint Francis University

My secret mission, as a college psychology professor, is to bring as many animals as possible into my classroom. Of course, I strive to improve my teaching effectiveness, maintain my scholarship productivity, and expand my service activities, but what I really want is to have cats sitting on my students’ laps, or dogs sitting at my students’ feet, during lectures. My college is a pet-free institution, and thus, animals can only be a part of it if integrated into the curriculum. Students in my undergraduate “Learning” course train rats to ride tiny scooters, play bowling, or shoot hoops. Students in my “Animal Minds” course receive numerous visits from ferrets, chickens, rabbits, cats, and their humans. But this is not enough. Millions of dogs annually enter animal shelters around the US. Some lack training or socialization, and many display problematic behaviors which can hinder their adoption (Protopopova et al., 2018). The integration of shelter dogs’ training into our lessons enables my students and myself to target this issue, make an impact on dogs and humans alike, and welcome shelter dogs into our campus environment.

Purpose and Goal:

In the spring of 2015, I taught the “Canine Learning & Behavior” undergraduate psychology course for the first time. The course was designed to allow students to foster shelter dogs for an entire academic semester, bring them to class, and train them using “learning” methodologies. It was hypothesized that the course will improve students’ ability to translate theoretical concepts to real-world, skill-based practices, apply their knowledge towards their personal and professional development, while improving the behavioral repertoire of shelter dogs and facilitating their adoption.

Course Set Up: I teach psychology, but I am not a dog trainer. I know the theories, but I also know that shelter dogs don’t bother reading the textbook. To prepare for the teaching of the course; I teamed-up with an experienced dog trainer, to later become the course adjunct instructor, set up a partnership with a local animal shelter, secured dog-appropriate classrooms and animal-approved housing units, submitted IACUC (Institutional Animal Care & Use) protocols and assured safety and liability regulations. The course was defined as an upper-level course, with a size limit of 12-15 students.

Course Content: If you teach “learning” concepts, for your freshman (e.g., Introduction to psychology) or advanced courses, you probably know the struggle. Students find it hard to differentiate CS from a US, UR from a CR. They tussle with the combination of ‘positive’, ‘negative’, ‘reinforcement’ and ‘punishments’ into meaningful units. They do not always “see” the application of these terms to their lives, the lives of people around them, or to their future professional occupation. Shelter dogs can bridge the gap.

We start the semester with a visit to the animal shelter. Interacting with, and selecting, dogs in need to join our classroom is an opportunity for students to practice behavioral observation and analysis. Assessing the dogs’ behavioral deficits and excesses (e.g., jumping, barking, nibbling, pawing, humping, leash-pulling, fear, house-soiling) allows students to align the dogs’ needs with their interests and capabilities. Once the dogs are chosen (one dog per 3-4 students, a total of 3-4 dogs per semester) they are transported to campus to live with preselected course students.

During the first few weeks after their arrival, students receive the opportunity to practice habituation, gradually and carefully exposing the dogs to the campus environment, and to new unfamiliar people. Discovering stimuli that stress/frighten the dogs (e.g., certain individual characteristics, moving cars), they learn to apply and de-sensitization and counterconditioning techniques (e.g., combining the exposure to a fear-producing stimulus with the dogs’ favorite treats). Later in the semester we expand the training to obedience and agility training. Grounding our work in the American Kennel Club’s “Canine Good Citizen” program, students train the dogs to calmly react to the approach/touch of a “friendly stranger”, to tolerate unexpected/distracting stimuli, to behave politely in public places or around other dogs, to sit at the students’ sides for an entire class session, to respond to the basic commands “sit”, “down”, “stay” and “come”, and to walk nicely on a loose leash. Depending on the interests of the students, the dogs are then taught different tricks, such as “paw-shake/high-five”, “roll-over”, “sit nicely”, “speak” or “army crawl”, and are trained using various agility courses. The work to extinguish maladaptive behaviors (e.g., jumping) and allow the acquisition of new adaptive behaviors (e.g., “nice” leash-walking) offers students with the opportunity to practice the application of classical and operant conditioning techniques. For instance, clicker-training requires the conversion of a “click” from a neutral stimulus to a conditioned stimulus, via its repetitive association with a treat, an unconditioned stimulus. Later, it can be used to mark the appropriate response in operant conditioning training, or to regain the dog’s attention if a distraction arises during practice. Training a dog to eliminate jumping or leash-pulling calls for the use of positive reinforcement (providing a treat/toy/other reinforcer when the dog does not jump, or for appropriate leash-walking), as well as negative punishment (withholding attention while the dog is jumping or pausing the walk for leash-pulling). Agility courses provide an opportunity to apply shaping (e.g., progressively training a dog to jump through a hoop), fixed/varied ratio schedules of reinforcement (starching the ratio by adding more hoops/waving-poles to the course), as well as forward/backward chaining (chaining various components within the course). Training dogs to sit quietly and calmly by their sides for an entire class session allows students to practice fixed/varied interval schedules of reinforcement (progressively requiring the dogs to sit “nicely” for 5, 10 and even 15 minutes before a reinforcer is provided). Training dogs for these tasks in various campus locations (including a hospital-like learning-environment comprised of wheelchairs and patient’s beds), enables the practice of generalization techniques. Finally, completing “research projects” focusing on the training of dogs for students-selected tasks (e.g., scent discrimination, responding to commands provided in sign language, pressing pre-recorded buttons for “verbal” communication) allow students to experience with all stages of the scientific methodology: literature search, hypothesis formation, methodological design, data collection and analysis, scientific writing, APA citation, and occasionally, conference presentation or the preparation of a manuscript for peer-reviewed publication.

Benefits: The end of the semester is marked with a “Puppy Graduation” celebration. During the event, the dogs receive paw-shakes, “graduation” diplomas, dog-cakes, and transition into the care of their adoptive families. In addition to its benefits to the dogs, there are benefits to animal shelters, enrolled students, campus community and me, the teaching faculty. Since 2015, 17 dogs were trained by our students. All were successfully adopted. In addition, staff and volunteers at the animal shelter often comment that the course reduces shelter crowding, lighten the time-burden on shelter personnel, increase the shelter’s visibility in the local community, and is perceived as a genuine contribution to the shelter’s efforts to improve the well-being of sheltered dogs. Importantly, the assessment of course effects on students’ learning outcomes suggest that the impact on students may be multidimensional (MS under review). First, the opportunity to “practice what they learn” in this course has been found to improve students’ comprehension of course materials and to enhance their appreciation of psychology. Students believe that it has enabled them to acquire employable skills (applicable towards the work with various animal species or with humans), solidified their future goals and enhanced their graduate school/workforce preparation. These findings are aligned with literature, demonstrating that hands-on learning (especially when involving live animals) increase students’ preference, enjoyment and understanding of class concepts (Elcoro & Trundle, 2013; Hunt & Macaskill, 2017). Second, students believe that learning to balance their schedules to accommodate the training of a shelter dog and learning to share training responsibilities with other students has enhanced their interpersonal awareness, effective communication, teamwork, leadership, and time-management skills. Third, students comment that pursuing activities that aligns with their values (e.g., animal advocacy) has provided them with a sense of self-efficacy and allowed them to become engaged members of their community. Fourth, walking a dog on its daily outing and spending time with it during the day has been suggested to improve the student’s physical and mental health via exercise and stress-reduction. In fact, students state that it allowed them to get to know more individuals on campus and generate new friendships, centered around the love of dogs. This is not surprising, given the joy brought to campus by our four-legged companions. Various individuals on campus stop to greet the dogs on their way to class, and many comments that after meeting the dogs their day got much better. Finally, the benefits to myself, as the teaching faculty, spans all 3 pillars of academic duties. The opportunity to design and teach the course has been a constant drive to improve my teaching pedagogy, and the assessment of the course’s effects on students, dogs, and our community-partners has yielded new research projects and publications (Flaisher-Grinberg, 20202a, 2020b). In addition, teaching the course has enabled me to connect with my local non-academic community, to better understand the needs of my community, and to make meaningful connections with individuals who share my passion for dogs. As such, the course has promoted both my personal and professional development, not to mention the attainment of my ultimate goal – bringing more animals into my classroom!

Important Consideration: There are a few important factors to consider if one wishes to develop a similar course. Working with shelter dogs may require adequate hands-on experience, a constant supply of “dog-necessities” (food, kennels, etc.) and veterinary supervision. The generation of a collaborating with an experienced dog trainer in the community and the cooperation with a local animal shelter may be of benefit. In this respect, it is advised that the roles and responsibilities of each ally in this partnership be clearly defined. Working with shelter dogs in an academic institution generates potential risks and obstacles. The investment of time and effort into the creation of IACUC protocols, preparation of safety/precaution procedures, elucidation of liability regulations and attainment of adequate permissions from all involved academic offices is advised. It is also recommended that the possibility of allergies/phobias in campus residents is evaluated.

Possible Alternatives: There are alternative ways to integrate shelter dogs (or shelter cats) into “learning” (or other) psychology courses. One can organize visitations of shelter animals to the classroom, or arrange for students to visit animal shelters, allowing students to practice supervised, yet time-restricted animal-training sessions. These may be included within the course’s syllabus or extend the curriculum, offering extra credit opportunities to invested students (McDonald, Caso, & Dee, 2005). These may involve observation, documentation and analysis, instructor-led training demonstration, or individual/group-led animal training. Seeking opportunities to engage students in independent research projects, community service or internships – one may consider supervising their work with, or at an animal shelter. If the institution holds pet-friendly policies, or allow animal residency in campus housing, these options can be extended to include the fostering of animals in need by responsible and experienced students. At any point, attention should be dedicated to institutional guidelines, safety of students and animals, and the pursuit of fun, interactive and impactful learning/teaching opportunities!

References

Elcoro, M., & Trundle, M. (2013). Student Preferences for Live Versus Virtual Rats in a Learning Course. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 7(1), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.20429/ijsotl.2013.070116

Flaisher-Grinberg, S. (2020a) Old Dogs Can Learn New Tricks: Using the Academic Classroom to Improve the Adoption Outcomes of 10 Shelter Dogs. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science. 28:1-15. doi:10.1080/10888705.2020.1717339

Flaisher-Grinberg, S. (2020b) For the Love of Dogs! Creating an Academia-Community Partnership to Target a Mutual Goal. Impact: The Journal of the Center for Interdisciplinary Teaching & Learning, 9(1) 8-15 2020. http://sites.bu.edu/impact/previous-issues/impact-winter-2020/for-the-love-of-dogs/

Hunt, M. J., & Macaskill, A. C. (2017). Student Responses to Active Learning Activities with Live and Virtual Rats in Psychology Teaching Laboratories. Teaching of Psychology, 44(2), 160–164. https://doi.org/10.1177/0098628317692632

McDonald, T. W., Caso. R., & Dee F. (2005). Teaching and Learning Operant Principles in Animal Shelters: Perspectives from Faculty, Students, and Shelter Staff. Journal of Instructional Psychology, 32(4) 310-321.

Protopopova, A., Hauser, H., Goldman, K. J., & Wynne, C. (2018). The effects of exercise and calm interactions on in-kennel behavior of shelter dogs. Behavioural processes, 146, 54–60. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2017.11.013

By Deborah Miller, PhD, HSPP

Assistant Professor of Psychology

Indiana University East

I like having fun with my students. It’s one of my favorite things about teaching. Getting to know about them and their personalities, senses of humor, pets, jobs, families and how they interact in a group of their peers is so rewarding. But beyond being enjoyable for me (and hopefully the students!) the sense of engagement and classroom community engendered by a positive classroom environment is beneficial to overall student success (Kuh, 2001).

Personalized interactions can be tough to cultivate in an online environment. I’m sure many of us have found out just how tough it can be as we’ve pivoted to online instruction during the COVID pandemic. And it’s likely that online learning is only becoming more prevalent with time – in 2019, about 65% of students had participated in an online course (Sellers, 2019) and that number will likely be closer to 100% by the time the pandemic comes to its conclusion. It will be essential in the coming semesters and years to find innovative ways to engage students in the online learning environment and create a sense of community that allows for relationships between faculty, students, and their peers to grow.

One way to do that is through new technology that is popular among younger generations and allows for glimpses into our students’ lives and personalities. A few studies have explored the use of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook as tools to increase engagement and community (e.g. Heiberger & Harper, 2008; Junco et al., 2011), but we certainly find that new technologies are springing up and gaining popularity at rates that make it difficult for researchers (and instructors!) to keep up.

TikTok is one such technology that is incredibly popular and also provides ample opportunity for students to engage with class material, faculty, and peers in creative, highly personalized ways. If you’re like many faculty members, you’ve perhaps peripherally heard of TikTok but may not have ventured to use it yourself. But, if there was ever a time to put yourself out there and learn something new for the sake of your students, now is that time.

What is TikTok?

TikTok is a smartphone app that allows users to create short video and photo projects that can be edited to include music, filters, effects, text captions, and more. TikTok-ers use the app in many ways, including creating lip sync videos and viral dances to their favorite songs, brief comedy videos, and other incredibly creative, engaging content styles. The allure of TikTok is that the videos are short, engaging, and creative. Once you get the hang of it, TikTok is very easy to use and videos can be created anywhere in a short amount of time.

Why would I use TikTok in my classes?

TikTok can provide a unique way for students to engage with the course material, their instructor, and their peers. It offers a chance that goes beyond ordinary assignments, papers, and discussion posts for students to inject their personality, sense of humor, and snippets of their personal lives into the classroom in ways they might typically do in seated courses. When creating their videos, students turn to their environment for inspiration – whatever is nearby gets used as the cast and crew. For some students, this means allowing their peers and instructor to meet their pets, family members, roommates, significant others, etc. while creating their videos. For others, it is an opportunity to display an artistic skill or a behind the scenes look at an aspect of their lives that would not normally be presented in an online course. This sharing of themselves can increase a student’s sense of belonging and community with their online peers and faculty.

How can I use TikTok in my classes?

While there are endless uses of TikTok depending on your own level of creativity, there are two ways I typically use this in my course to promote engagement and community. First, I want to promote engagement with the material in a creative way, so the TikTok assignments always require students to create a video explaining a concept from the week’s materials according to their own understanding of it. They can complete this in any way they want, whether it is ultra-creative or just meeting the basic requirements. Second, I want the students to engage with each other, so the TikTok video creation assignments are embedded within a discussion post. Students are divided into small groups of about 5-6 and must post their own video to the discussion, view each small group member’s video, then vote for their favorite video of the week by “liking” their favorite video’s discussion post (a feature that can be enabled in the Canvas LMS, but I’m unsure about the features of other LMS platforms). This creates a slight sense of competition for some students and for those who enjoy competition, it motivates them to do their best work to impress their peers. However, I ensure that the environment is not so competitive that it intimidates the students who are less competitive in nature.

This model of discussion board TikTok assignments is very effective at increasing students’ engagement with material and each other, but one final factor requires instructor attention throughout the course so that student-instructor engagement is increased. I make sure to watch and make personalized comments on every student’s video in each discussion. Students are putting themselves out there in a somewhat vulnerable manner for their peers and instructors – showing parts of their personal lives that they may not be accustomed to sharing with online peers and instructors (or even in seated classrooms if they are more introverted). It can be an intimidating and vulnerable process for some – but I have certainly found that the students who were willing to step out of their comfort zones to fully engage with this assignment had incredibly positive experiences when they were met with encouraging responses to their videos, not only from peers but especially from the instructor. I take great pains to make an encouraging comment about a personalized aspect of the video (e.g. I love your dog! You certainly used him to effectively explain the concept of operant conditioning.)

An additional way that I actively use TikTok is to make my own videos that use my own personal life and environment. This is a great way to let students get a feel for who you are as an instructor and just regular person behind your instructor persona, which can highly contribute to students’ perception that you are accessible, approachable, and authentic – three factors that are important to students forming a personal connection with their instructors, which is a predictor of student engagement and sense of community (Mandernach, 2009). I not only create TikTok videos as examples of what students could do for their discussion assignment videos, but also to embed into course materials as a quick way to illustrate a variety of course concepts. This way, students get “behind the scenes” engagement with me throughout the semester, just as they would if we were chatting before or after class or if I told an interesting personal story that related to the lecture material.

Are there any downsides to TikTok?

If students are unfamiliar with TikTok, it can feel intimidating or vulnerable. Nontraditional students may feel especially nervous to leave their comfort zone and learn a new technology that is typically associated with younger people. That is why it is important to design all TikTok assignments with transparency in mind – students need to know that there is a pedagogical purpose behind the activity. You’re not just trying to be a “cool parent” who knows the latest trends – you’re using this app for real purposes that will help them succeed and as an added benefit, hopefully have fun at the same time. This is one assignment that can benefit especially from the Transparent Teaching framework by Winkelmes (2016), so students fully understand the goals and rationale for the assignments at the outset.

Another important factor is that students will need plenty of time to learn how to use TikTok before the first assignment is due. Provide some tutorial materials (easily found on YouTube) and plenty of examples of the types of videos you are expecting. Make the first TikTok assignment a complete/incomplete grade to allow students some wiggle room as they are learning a new skill. Give them a wide range of acceptable types of videos for the assignment.

Finally, you will have students that for whatever reason, students just feel a lot of anxiety about creating a video of themselves. It is important to be clear to those students that personal information is NOT required. TikTok allows users to create photo slideshows and text-based videos that do not require the students to video themselves or their surroundings if they want to retain their privacy. I have had students create a slideshow using a series of memes they found on the internet and did not contain any private information at all. Other students have used tools within TikTok to create text-based explanations of their chosen course concept accompanied by a song – again, no personal disclosures required. It can also be helpful to let students turn in video using ANY app they wish, even just the video recording app on their phone, if they have a particular aversion to TikTok. Students can also create private videos in TikTok, download them to their computer or phone, and re-upload them to the discussion board so that they do not have to use the public sharing feature of TikTok or link their peers and instructors to their personal TikTok account if they have one for personal use. For students who are extremely averse to this assignment, I allow them to create more traditional presentations in PowerPoint or Prezi, if they meet the minimum standard for explaining course concepts.

Conclusion

Using new technologies to engage students and create a sense of classroom community should be a strategy in addition to what has already been found to work. However, popular technologies like TikTok can provide unique opportunities to engage students in ways that are not possible with traditional strategies. While it can be challenging to learn something new, it can also be highly rewarding. Whatever strategies you end up using to create engagement and community, you can be confident that you are doing your students a service and contributing to their success.

References

Heiberger, G. & Harper, R. (2008). Have you Facebooked Astin lately? Using technology to increase student involvement. In R. Junco & D. M. Timm (Eds), Using emerging technologies to enhance student engagement. New directions for student services issue #124 (pp. 19–35). San Francisco, CA: Jossey‐Bass.

Junco, R., Heiberger, G. & Loken, E. (2011). The effect of Twitter on college student engagement and grades. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 27, 2, 119–132. doi:10.1111/j.1365‐2729.2010.00387.x.

Kuh, G. D. (2001). The National Survey of Student Engagement: Conceptual framework and overview of psychometric properties. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/2022/24268/The%20National%20Survey%20of%20Student%20Engagement%20Conceptual%20framework%20and%20overview%20of%20psychometric%20properties.pdf

Mandernach, B. J. (2009). Effect of instructor-personalized multimedia in the online classroom. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 10(3).

Sellers, E. (2019). Poor time management in online education. Seattle PI. https://education.seattlepi.com/poor-time-management-online-learning-1435.html

Winkelmes, M. A., Bernacki, M., Butler, J., Zochowski, M., Golanics, J., & Weavil, K. H. (2016). A teaching intervention that increases underserved college students’ success. Peer Review, 18(1/2), 31-36.

Brian D. Bergstrom, Shirley A. Ashauer, and Dustin R. Nadler

Maryville University

Psychology majors are often attracted to the discipline by a deep and authentic desire to help improve the lives of others through the application of psychological science. Yet, as students encounter unexpected challenges or setbacks in courses such as Statistics or Research Methods, they sometimes become disenchanted, thinking they lack the ability to be successful in the field. After their first “C” on a Statistics exam, for example, they throw up their hands and despair that they no longer “have what it takes” to make it in psychology. A rather narrow and specific disappointment gives way to a fretful concern that their performance reflects a lack of ability, and some students surrender to the conclusion that they are not be “cut out” for psychology if they can’t compute a MANOVA (on their first attempt!).

In short, they implicitly believe that statistical ability is a fixed, innate trait that some lucky students possess, while others (like them) lack the “right stuff.” Even students who have learned the concept of growth mindset - the belief that ability can be developed - may not be able to implement that belief in the face of their own academic struggles. This dilemma raises two questions: what factors stymie the productive application of a growth mindset among students, and how can we intervene to bolster psychology students’ resilience when they encounter such setbacks in challenging psychology courses?

In a recent study, we addressed this question with an entire first-year cohort of college students that was part of a broader longitudinal assessment on college student development and success (Ashauer et al., 2020). Research on growth mindset has received much attention for its relevance to academic performance (Paunesku et al., 2015; Robins & Pals, 2002; Walton, 2014; Yeager et al., 2016). But, we asked, is having a growth mindset enough? Or are there individual differences that support (or undermine) its application? To address this, we considered two major themes in college student development that are critical aspects of becoming a mature, fully functioning adult: (1) intrapersonal development, toward becoming an autonomous individual, and (2) interpersonal development, as social relationships undergo considerable change (Allen & Land, 1999; Erikson, 1961). Specifically, we examined whether attachment theory (relationship functioning) and self-determination theory (autonomous functioning) might inform the trajectory of student success, and whether these constructs might contribute to our understanding of why some students are better able to mobilize a growth mindset when they encounter academic struggle.

Attachment and Autonomous Functioning

Attachment relationships are those in which another person serves, in some measure, as a “secure base” and a “safe haven” for the student. The attachment system is often conceptualized as including a pair of unconscious mental models—one of self, one of others—that are “tuned” to different degrees of anxiety and avoidance and provide default expectations for social relationships (Ainsworth et al, 1978; Bowlby, 1982). Anxiety is associated with concerns about self-worth, the dependability of others, and a high need for reassurance, while avoidance is associated with a strong desire for independence, a reluctant stance toward intimacy and disclosure, and a tendency to pull away when their autonomy is challenged (Crowell et al., 2016). Previous studies have found that greater attachment security is associated with better adjustment to college, higher academic performance, and higher self-esteem (Mikulincer & Shaver, 2016).

We believe that the cognitive and emotional volatility of insecure attachment can disrupt the application of cognitive and emotional resources needed to implement a growth mindset. When the attachment system is activated by a perceived threat, the cognitive, emotional, and motivational resources consumed by attachment processes might make it hard to redirect those resources in the service of academic goals. In this way (and others), a growth mindset may lie impotent in the mind of an otherwise capable student, as attachment dynamics co-opt attention and subvert the executive resources needed to drive a growth mindset into action.

The transition to college is also an important time in development during which a major task is becoming an autonomous individual (Allen & Land, 1999; Erikson, 1961). Thus, we also examined autonomous functioning (self-governance) in students (Deci & Ryan, 1985; Ryan & Deci, 2000), and more specifically, authorship, which involves being primarily guided by one’s own personal values (Weinstein et al., 2012). Authorship has been positively associated with persistence and confidence (Deci & Ryan, 2000; Nix et al., 1999); greater self-esteem (Deci & Ryan, 1995); and heightened vitality and academic performance (Ryan & Frederick, 1997; Vansteenkiste et al., 2008). We believe that authored students will be less vulnerable to the slings and arrows of academic challenge as well attachment distress, and thereby could translate a growth mindset into concrete, constructive action because they have more cognitive and emotional resources to invest in academic tasks and are less likely to engage in off-task cogitation related to attachment concerns (Bernier et al., 2004).

In our study of a first-year cohort of college students, we found precisely that (Ashauer et al., 2020). Students with more of a growth mindset had higher end-of-semester GPAs, but insecure attachment completely dissolved that link. Concurrently, authorship buffered this inverse relationship such that authored students maintained higher GPAs than less authored students. Because attachment anxiety played a significant role in compromising the growth mindset-performance relationship in our study, we focus our teaching recommendations on mitigating attachment anxiety and bolstering attachment security. Based on our findings as well as the extant literature, we propose three strategies from the growth mindset, self-determination, and attachment literature that could be applied in psychology courses: 1) short-term strategies to create a “safe haven,” (2) process versus person feedback strategies, and (3) long-term strategies to promote autonomous functioning through security-enhancement.

Strategies

Short-Term Strategies to Create a “Safe Haven”

Attachment theory has shown that relationship partners, including instructors, can provide a safe haven for students during moments of challenge and distress, as well as a secure base from which to explore and make mistakes that are an inevitable part of learning new concepts (Mikulciner & Shaver, 2016). Yet, when anxiously attached students become distressed, they exhibit hyperactivating strategies to attain reassurance that the instructor will still respect them. These strategies can preoccupy them such that their performance is compromised, prompting the question: what strategies can instructors use in the moment to create a safe haven and mitigate momentary anxiety for such students?

Caprariello and Reis (2011) found that when an anxiously attached student perceives a relationship partner as responsive (that the instructor understands, respects, and values the student), the student becomes less defensive after receiving failure feedback because they feel they are valued for who they are (rather than how they perform). With the increased social isolation of the current pandemic (possibly exacerbated in anxiously attached students), the social connection and support created by perceived instructor responsiveness may be even more critical to the learning process. When students feel valued and respected, they experience fewer concerns about perceived worth and diminished social value (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). Instructors can support anxiously attached students by calming them when they encounter challenge, helping them to acknowledge the issue, discussing ways in which the issue can be solved, and providing the reassurance they need to remain constructively focused (Arriaga et al., 2018).

Process Versus Person Feedback Strategies

Moreover, instructors can play crucial roles in helping anxious students mitigate their sense of contingent self-worth (the belief that their worth is contingent on performance) by helping them attribute their successes to their own efforts (Caprariello & Reis, 2011). When instructors bolster students’ internalized beliefs that they are capable and worthy, they decrease an overdependence on instructors to affirm their self-worth. What concrete practices can instructors enact in the classroom to do so?

By providing students with effort-oriented feedback (“You worked hard to troubleshoot what went wrong in SPSS when you ran the MANOVA!”), instructors focus student attention on process (problem solving strategies) and their own effort, which fosters better self-regulatory skills and ultimately autonomy. Moreover, process feedback, whether it is praise or criticism, encourages mastery-oriented responses to setbacks (Kamins & Dweck, 1999). For example, attributing failure to effort or strategy (“you didn’t read the chapter on MANOVA before completing the assignment”), rather than a fixed trait (“statistics just comes easier to some students”) mobilizes student persistence, their willingness to use error as diagnostic information on how to improve, and improves academic performance (Kamins & Dweck, 1999).

On the other hand, when instructors provide students with person or trait-oriented feedback (“you are so talented in statistics!”), students learn to measure their self-worth by their performance and innate ability (Kamins & Dweck, 1999). Instructors may be unwittingly teaching students that their competence or self-worth is determined by their performance when they use person-oriented feedback, leading to a student’s belief that “I must not be cut out for psychology!” and a helpless response pattern of anxiety, lowered persistence, and decreased performance (Burhans & Dweck, 1995). By providing students with process feedback, instructors can help anxious students mitigate the hyperactivating strategies that often compromise their performance when they experience distress during setbacks.

Long-term Strategies to Promote Autonomous Functioning through Security-Enhancement

Although the aforementioned strategies can assuage students’ momentary anxieties of self-worth triggered by setbacks, these short-term strategies may unintentionally lead to students’ overreliance on instructors for reassurance, and an overdependence on them to boost their sense of self-worth (Arriaga et al., 2018). As a result, students’ maturation into autonomous individuals with secure relationship functioning can be stunted. According to the Attachment Security Enhancement Model (ASEM; Arriaga et al., 2018), instructors can implement long-term developmental strategies to shift students’ dependency on them in the direction of greater independence and autonomous functioning by enhancing their secure model of self and others.

In the short term, instructors can employ autonomy-supportive teaching behaviors by making connections on the relevance of a topic to students’ lives and engage students in learning for its intrinsic value (Black & Deci, 2000). In the long-term, however, instructors might employ strategies that encourage students to pursue their own personal learning goals and the activities associated with those goals, thereby building students’ self-esteem and autonomy (Feeney, 2004). As anxious students begin to internalize the belief that their instructor views them as capable and worthy, their self-confidence should increase, and their overdependence on instructors for reassurance and approval should decrease (Mikulciner & Shaver, 2016). Finally, instructors can both challenge and support students’ development of autonomous functioning by increasing students’ self-awareness and endorsement of their own actions (Sheldon et al., 2018). Rather than telling students what to do, instructors can ask them questions like “What do you think? What do you want to do?” and then problem-solve together to build confidence in their skill and ability to autonomously self-regulate.

Implications

In sum, our findings showed a more complex, nuanced relationship in the growth mindset – academic performance relationship. Our results suggest that a promising future direction for promoting and predicting success among psychology students may involve a “hearts and minds” approach: that is, seeing students as whole persons may improve the teaching and learning process. The relationship an instructor develops with their students – the social connection they create, the type of feedback they provide, and supporting students’ development of self-awareness and endorsement of their own internalized actions - may play an important role in bolstering students’ resilience and academic performance in the face of challenge throughout their college experience.

References

Ainsworth, M.S. (1989). Attachments beyond infancy. American Psychologist, 44(4), 709-716.

Aninsworth, M.S., Blehar, M.C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the strange situation. Oxford: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Allen, J., & Land, D. (1999). Attachment in adolescence. In J. Cassidy & P.R. Shaver (Eds.), Handbook of attachment: Theory, research, and clinical applications (pp. 319-335). New York, New York: Guilford.

Arriaga, X.B., Kumashiro, M., Simpson, J.A., & Overall, N.C. (2018). Revising working models across time: Relationship situations that enhance attachment security. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 22(1), 71-96.

Ashauer, S.A., Nadler, D.R., & Bergstrom, B.D. (2020, June 1-September 1). Attachment and growth mindset: Future directions for promoting and predicting academic success among first-year college students [Poster presentation]. 32nd Association for Psychological Science Annual Convention, Virtual Poster Showcase. www.psychologicalscience.org/conventions/annual

Baumeister, R.F., & Leary, M.R. (1995). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 20, 1175- 1181.

Bernier, A., Larose, S., & Whipple, N. (2005). Leaving home for college: A potentially stressful event for adolescents with preoccupied attachment patterns. Attachment & Human Development, 72(2), 171-185. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616730500147565

Black, A.E., & Deci, E. L. (2000). The effects of instructors’ autonomy support and students’ autonomous motivation on learning organic chemistry: A self-determination theory perspective. Science Education, 84, 740-756.

Bowlby, J. (1982). Attachment and loss (Vol.1: Attachment). 2nd ed. New York, New York: Basic Books.

Burhans, K.K., & Dweck, C.S. (1995). Helplessness in early childhood: The role of contingent self-worth. Child Development, 66, 1719–1738.

Caprariello, P.A., & Reis, H.T. (2010). Perceived partner responsiveness minimizes defensive reactions to failure. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 2, 365-372.

Crowell, J.A., Fraley, R.C., & Roisman, G.I. (2016). Measurement of individual differences in adolescence in adult attachment. In J. Cassidy & P.R. Shaver (Eds.), Handbook of attachment: Theory, research, and clinical applications, 3rd ed, (pp. 599-634). New York, New York: Guilford Press.

Deci, E.L, & Ryan, R.M. (1985). Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior. New York, New York: Plenum.

Deci, E.L., & Ryan, R.M. (1995). Human autonomy: The basis for true self-esteem. In M. Kernis (Ed.), Efficacy, agency, and self-esteem (pp. 31-49). New York, New York: Plenum.

Deci, E.L., & Ryan, R.M. (2000). The “what” and “why” of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychological Inquiry, 4, 227-268.

Erikson, E.H. (1961). Youth: Fidelity and diversity. In E.H. Erikson (Ed.), Youth: Change and challenge (pp. 1-23). New York, New York: Basic Books.

Feeney, B.C. (2004). A secure base: Responsive support of goal strivings and exploration in adult intimate relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87, 631-648.

Kamins, M.L., & Dweck, C.S. (1999). Person versus process praise and criticism: Implications for contingent self-worth and coping. Developmental Psychology, 35(3), 835–847.

Mikulciner, M., & Shaver, P. R. (2016). Attachment in adulthood: Structure, dynamics, and change, 2nd ed. New York, New York: Guilford Press.

Nix, G., Ryan, $. Manley, J.B., & Deci, E.L. (1999). Revitalization through self-regulation: The effects of autonomous and controlled motivation on happiness and vitality. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 35, 266-284.

Paunesku, D., Walton, G.M., Romero, C., Smith, E.N., Yeager, D.S., & Dweck, C.S. (2015). Mind-set interventions are a scalable treatment for academic underachievement. Psychological Science, 26(6), 784-93. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797615571017

Robins, R.W., & Pals, J.L. (2002). Implicit self-theories in the academic domain: Implications for goal orientation, attributions, affect, and self-esteem change. Self and Identity, 1(4), 313-336. https://doi.org/10.1080/15298860290106805

Ryan, R.M., & Deci, E.L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55(1), 68-78. doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.55.1.68

Ryan, R.M., & Frederick, C.M. (1997). On energy, personality, and health: Subjective vitality as a dynamic reflection of well-being. American Psychologist, 55(1), 68-78. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.55.1.68

Sheldon, K.M., Gordeeva, T., Leontiev, D., Lynch, M.F., Osin, E., Rasskazova, E., & Dementiy, L. (2018). Freedom and responsibility go together: Personality, experimental, and cultural demonstrations. Journal of Research in Personality, 73, 63-74.

Vansteennkiste, M., Ryan, R.M., & Deci, E.L. (2008). Self-determination theory and the explanatory role of psychological needs in human well-being. In L. Bruni, F. Comim, & M. Pugno (Eds.), Capabilities and happiness (pp.187-223). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Walton, G.M. (2014). The new science of wise psychological interventions. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 23(1), 73-82. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721413512856

Weinstein, N., Przybylski, A., & Ryan, R.M. (2012). The index of autonomous functioning: Development of a scale of human autonomy. Journal of Research in Personality, 46, 397-413. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2012.03.007

Yeager, D.S., & Dweck, C.S. (2012). Mindsets that promote resilience: When students believe that personal characteristics can be developed. Educational Psychologist, 47(4), 302 -314. https://doi.org/10.1080/00461520.2012.7228

  Kevin J. O’Connor (Providence College)

Introduction

Most schools and their disability services office require students with disabilities to hand deliver accommodation notification letters to their professors. This is done with purpose. The exchange of the letter invites a conversation about the accommodation and learning needs of the student in relation to course requirements and delivery.

This essay grew from a question about how often a meaningful discussion regarding accommodations is had. Findings from a brief study I conducted on the topic indicate the accommodation process may have become commonplace resulting in only a cursory interaction between students and professors before or after class when the accommodation letter is submitted (O’Connor, 2020). I view this as a lost opportunity to help students maximize their experience in a course. In response, I share with you some thoughts and suggestions on how to communicate with students regarding academic accommodations with the hope that I may pursued interest in doing so.

The Accommodation Letter

The accommodation letter is a notification (not a request) that identifies the student as having registered with the campus disability services office and identifies the accommodations the student is to receive in your class. The letter forces disclosure of disability status on the part of the student in order to receive accommodations; however, the specifics of the disability itself are not disclosed. The process is backed by federal civil rights statutes supportive of equal educational opportunity – the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act (ADAAA, 2008; formerly ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (1973).

Delivering the Accommodation Letter

A core value of disability services on campus is the promotion of self-determination in the students who access services (Gelbar et al., 2020). The Association on Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD, n.d.) calls on disability service programs and specialists to “use a service delivery model that encourages students with disabilities to develop independence” (Section 5. Counseling and Self-Determination). This includes educating and assisting students to function independently and to develop a program mission that promotes student self-determination. So it is quite intentional when schools put students in the position of having to deliver the news of their accommodation needs to their professors.

Discussing Accommodations with Students

You do not have to be a disability specialist or service provider to talk with students about their accommodation needs. The expertise you bring to the conversation is in knowing how you conduct your course. Here is an approach and some suggestions on how to have this conversation with students:

Syllabus and First Class Meeting

Students with disabilities often look for signs from their professors that they will be supported if they disclose their disability status through the accommodation process (Quinlan et al., 2012). You can let students know that you will be supportive by having a statement in your syllabus that speaks to your openness to work with students needing academic accommodations and referring to it during an early class meeting. This goes beyond simply stating that students needing accommodations should contact the disability services office. It is a statement that lets students know it is important to you personally as their instructor.

Invitation to Meet

When handed an accommodation letter ask the student to schedule a meeting with you to discuss what is in the letter. I phrase this as an invitation to discuss how an accommodation will be provided and an opportunity for me to share in more detail information about the course and how it is delivered.

Preparing to Meet

Ask the student to prepare for the meeting by looking over the course syllabus. I ask students to think about accommodation needs and themselves as learners in relation to what is seen from their review. For your part, you should prepare for the meeting by gathering materials that represent the course and what the requirements will entail. In addition, it is helpful to have a description in mind of the teaching approaches you plan to use (lectures, group work, write on the board, show slides, expect class participation, and so on).

Conducting the Meeting

Let the syllabus be your template for the meeting and keep the accommodation letter at hand. Use gathered additional course materials as needed. I usually guide the discussion as follows: 1) review the obvious alignments that exist between the accommodations listed in the letter and course assignments (e.g., there are tests-student needs extended time-how will we do this?), 2) review other course requirements of a less obvious nature for the same (e.g., there are also weekly quizzes-student needs extended time-will extra time be needed for the quizzes and if so how will we do this?), 3) discuss the student’s accommodations in relation to teaching approaches (e.g., often call on students-is the rationale behind needing extended test time going to hold any relation to being called on in class and if so what will we do about it?), and 4) notify that you will be checking in with the student a few times to see how it is all working.

After the Meeting

Send an e-mail thanking the student for meeting with you and note anything of importance that may have been discussed. Following a first milestone in the course where an accommodation may have been used (e.g., first exam, paper) check in with the student to see how it went. You will discover all kinds of things at this point (e.g., student with fine-motor impairment couldn’t finish open-response items; student finished exam in half the required time; the quiet testing environment wasn’t quite at all; the student had a few questions during the test but couldn’t ask because it wasn’t taken in the classroom; there was so much information on the exam the student couldn’t remember it all). Each of these examples comes from students I have had. In each case adjustments were made that contributed to a more accurate demonstration of learning on the part of the student. Without an open conversation about accommodations and learning needs this would not have occurred.

Additional Considerations

Here are some additional suggestions to keep in mind when interacting with students regarding their academic accommodations:

It would be pollyannaish to assume that students will always have a favorable experience discussing accommodations with professors. Documentation of the contrary has been shared (Lyman et al., 2016, Toutain, 2019). Be mindful that some students may be guarded about discussing accommodation needs as a result of past experiences.

Avoid asking students what their disability is. Students are obligated to disclose that they have a disability in order to receive accommodations but they are not required to disclose specifics. In my experience students will be open about their disability and share how it impacts them as learners if they know you have their best interests in mind.

Prior to college, students with disabilities receive a tremendous amount of support from others and may not have had the opportunity to develop the skills required to discuss their learning needs (i.e., self-knowledge, awareness). Receive students where they are at and be patient if they do not have insight when you meet. This is particularly so for students new to the college setting.

Remember to hold information about the disability status of students in confidence. Students are often comfortable sharing their disability letters in the presence of classmates but this is for them to do, not you.

If you don’t agree with an accommodation, and it happens sometimes, don’t put students in the position of having to defend or negotiate the request. Start with the disability support services office or person who handles accommodations and then work backward to the student. Have this discussion with the disability services office before you meet with the student.

You are not obligated to go beyond what is in the accommodation letter. This said, accommodation letters are often general in nature and do not take into account all of the idiosyncrasies of a particular course. There may be some adjustments needed or additional accommodations that may be beneficial to the student – to the extent you are comfortable offering these.

Final Thoughts

Students with disabilities make up a good amount of the undergraduate population (in 2015-2016, 19 percent according to estimates of the U.S. Department of Education, 2016). An important predictor of their college success is the extent to which course accommodations are provided. The process of obtaining accommodations is complex but it can be made easier when faculty are supportive and open to engaging in a meaningful dialogue with students about their learning needs.

References

Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act, Pub. L. No. 110-325 § 3406 (2008).

Association on Higher Education and Disability (n.d.). Program standards and performance indicators.

https://www.ahead.org/professional-resources/information-services-portal/data-collection-and-management/performance-indicators

Gelbar, N., Madaus, J. W., Dukes, L., Faggella-Luby, M., Volk, D., & Monahan, J. (2020) Self-determination and college students with disabilities: Research trends and construct measurement. Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice, 57(2), 163-181. https://doi.org/10.1080/19496591.2019.1631835

Lyman, M., Beecher, M. E., & Griner, D. (2016). What keeps students with disabilities from using accommodations in postsecondary education? A qualitative review. Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability, 29(2), 123-140.

O’Connor, K. J. (2020, June 1–September 1). “Here’s my accommodation letter”: Student perspectives on interacting with faculty about accommodation requests [Poster presentation]. Association for Psychological Science/Society for the Teaching of Psychology Teaching Institute Virtual Poster Showcase.

Quinlan, M. M., Bates, B. R., & Angell, M. E. (2012). ‘What can I do to help?’: Postsecondary students with learning disabilities’ perceptions of instructors’ classroom accommodations. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs, 12(4), 224–233. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-3802.2011.01225.x

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, Pub. L. No. 93-112, 87 § 394 (1973).

Toutain, C. (2019). Barriers to accommodations for students with disabilities in higher education: A literature review. Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability, 32(3), 297-310.

U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2016). Digest of Education Statistics, 2015 (2016-014). Retrieved from https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=60

Melissa Maffeo Masicampo, PhD 

Wake Forest University 

 

I’m a mean teacher, its true. I trick my students all the time. I’ve given my students PTC paper to demonstrate bitter taste (I do warn them first, though). Once I encouraged a Pepsi vs. Coke taste-test and debate and got the students really riled up. The thing was, unbeknownst to them, both of the sodas they tasted were Coke. My biggest trick, though, is teaching students to use metacognitive strategies without them even knowing it. And I do it with zombie brains.  

Zombies are the perfect model organism for studying neuroscience. In neuroscience, researchers will often manipulate the brain of a model organism like a rat or mouse, and then observe the behaviors through carefully planned testing. Zombie brains are already altered, and these alterations result in some very specific behaviors. Since we can’t get our hands on a real zombie to examine the actual underlying neural damage, we have to infer the damage through careful observations of their behavior. To provide one example, Voytek and Verstynen (2014) argue that, based on characteristics of movement, there are two subtypes of zombies. Type 1 zombies are the prototypical stiff-moving zombie with the slow, lumbering gait and wide-legged stance. And yet, they appear to have little to no trouble initiating or executing goal-directed movement. These zombies very likely have damage to regions of the cerebellum, leaving basal ganglia and cortical motor pathways largely intact.  Conversely, Type II zombies can move very quickly and very little difficulty moving from victim to victim. From this motor behavior, we can infer that Type II zombies probably have little, if any, damage to motor areas of their brains. Voytek and Verstynen point out that any motor impairment of Type II zombies is probably more likely due to the fact that their arms and legs are rotting, rather than a specific neural deficit. Type II zombies, however, might lack attentional control, as they appear to move quickly from victim to victim, hardly devouring the first victim before shifting attention to the next.  

Using zombie brains and behavior as a backdrop, my goal is to design engaging assignments that help students develop skills to become more efficient learners. Research shows that students who engage in metacognitive strategies, that is, students who learn how to learn, are much more poised to achieve learning outcomes for their courses (for review, see Brown, Roediger & McDaniel, 2014 and Lai, 2011). In this essay, I’d like to share some of these assignments that I’ve used in my classes. But first, I’d like you to imagine you are a student, sitting in your first biopsychology class. Your worst nightmare has come true – your university is now overrun with the flesh hungry undead. You know in your heart that you and your peers must not only learn biopsychology, but also master it, in order to find a cure for this awful affliction and save your campus. To do so, your professor unleashes her plan for training, practice, and ultimate mastery of both biopsychology and the apocalypse:  

 Strategic Planning Exercises. These weekly reflections are intended to be low stakes formative assignments that help students engage in metacognitive strategies. In this way, students can “strategically plan” for both the zombie apocalypse and for larger stakes assignments. In most semesters, there are four ways a student can complete their strategic planning:  

Conduct a necropsy: Students had to find a zombie kill it, and bring it back to their lab for necropsy. After examining the brain, students should write a blog post about their observations. The blog post should describe a brain area or system, the role of that area/system in human behavior, and how it because dysregulated in the zombie brain to produce aberrant zombie behavior.  

Video lab notebook: In a video lab notebook, students could video record themselves teaching a topic to me – but that catch is that they must do it with no notes.  

Reflection: In this Strategic Planning, students could submit a journal reflection to me, following the prompt, ““Something I learned recently that I found particularly interesting is _____. I think this topic is super cool because _____, and it relates to my life because _____. I was also a bit confused by ____, but one thing I did to help myself understand the content was ____.” 

Demonstration: To demonstrate knowledge, students have the opportunity to work either solo or in small groups to create a skit, screenplay, or other artifact reflecting course content – the sillier, the better!  

Target Practice. In every good apocalypse, its important to test our aim to make sure we’re actually doing what we should be doing. It would not be a good idea to go into a zombie battle without any target practice, and nor would it be a good idea to begin a high stakes assignment without practice! In this class, Target Practices are low-stakes, progressively cumulative quizzes that students take outside of class time through the learning management system.  

Battles. These are the highest-stakes assignments, and this is what students prepare for with the strategic planning and target practice. This is where we take everything we know and go fight those zombies. Students typically have four Battles over the course of the semester. The first Battle asks students to write a short story or narrative where the characters of the story are either brain areas or cells of the nervous system. The functions of the area or cell must be evident from the behavior of the character. Battles two and three ask students to respond to a primary research article in a ‘summarize-connect-apply’ format. The final Battle is a group project. Each group asks a question about aberrant zombie behavior (e.g., as a zombie is ruthlessly devouring your flesh, can it recognize you?”). Each group presents their answer to the class and submits a short written summary of their findings.  

By doing these regular assignments, students are less likely to fall behind because procrastination is less of an option. All too often, students sit in classes with unit exams, and don’t begin studying for that exam until a day or two prior (at best!). The student might make a high grade on the exam, but they will likely not retain the material they were tested on. At the start of the semester, I ask students if they’ve ever had experiences like what I just described, and invariably, most hands go up. I take the opportunity to explain to my students that my primary course objective is to help them learn biopsychology and think about it in their everyday lives. To do this, I tell them, I encourage them to start thinking about their own thinking, and start engaging in evidence-informed good learning practices. Using these practices will not only help them in this class, but also in other classes and even outside the classroom. I’ve received good anecdotal feedback from students, saying that they have used strategies like these in their other classes, with good results. I’ve also had students say things like, “The assignments are bad, because they force you to stay on top of the material, but they’re also good, because they force you to stay on top of the material.” I’ll take that as a win.  

By taking this class, students are gaining exposure to techniques that should help them think about their own thinking, and experience learning as a process, not as a destination. When students learn to reflect on the course content, it encourages engagement with the course content, as well as engagement with the instructor and their peers. In this way, students start making connections between aspects of their lives and aspects of the course, which further solidifies learning. And, by the way, my students can learn biopsychology in the midst of a zombie apocalypse as they fight to save their campus. Can yours?  

 

References 

Brown, P., Roediger, H., & McDaniel, M. (2014) Making it stick: The science of successful learning. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.  

Lai, E. (2011) Metacognition: A literature review. Retrieved from http://images.pearsonassessments.com/images/tmrs/metacognition_literature_review_final.pdf 

Verstynen, T. & Voytek, B (2014) Do zombies dream of undead sheep? A neuroscientific view of the zombie brain. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. 

 

David E. Copeland 

University of Nevada, Las Vegas  

The psychology major is unique in that there are a wide variety of paths that students can pursue. While having many options can be great, it can also lead to students being unsure about their future. In addition, those that are confident in a path that requires more schooling may not know how to properly prepare for graduate programs. I can relate to this because during my undergraduate years I was initially lost as to what I wanted to do -- and if that was not bad enough, once I thought about what I might do, I was not sure how to prepare! 

I designed an Introduction to the Psychology Major course to address these issues, so that students can start planning for their future while in college by getting the most out of the major (Copeland & Houska, 2020). Importantly, I try to set students up for success so that they continue to prepare for careers and graduate school after they finish working with me in my course. In the sections below I first explain why it is important for students to plan their future path, and then I follow that with how I help them with the process and why more programs should offer this course (Norcross et al., 2016).  

Why Should Students Plan Out Their Future? 

Students should plan their future so they can tailor their college experience to help prepare them for their goals. Those who need to pursue a Ph.D. for their career goals will want to take advantage of opportunities to get involved with research. Students with interests outside of psychology may want to add a minor or a second major – for example, students interested in marketing might want to minor in business or take part in a summer internship. 

Another reason is that it can help to take action early. If students want to dive into graduate school after commencement, then they should be applying to programs during their senior year. If students want to start a job right away, they may want to submit applications while wrapping up their courses -- this will improve the odds of having a job lined up. Failing to take these actions early enough in college may lead to an unwanted gap of time after graduation. 

Explore the Possibilities 

Over the years, I have encountered students at different levels of certainty (or uncertainty) about their career path -- some have one selected, some have no idea, and others fall in between. For example, students in this last group might want to do something related to mental health treatment but may not have thought much about the details. If students do not have a passion about what they want to pursue, make sure that students know that this is okay. Passion can be developed by learning about a field and getting more immersed in it. 

Regardless of students’ confidence, I start by presenting them with a list of career possibilities to explore. I also have them fill out career interest/personality tests that are available online or through a campus career center -- however, I warn them that the results are merely suggestions they might consider. Because I know that not every psychology student wants to pursue a career in psychology, I have put together materials about ways that psychology can help prepare students for careers in other areas (e.g., business, medicine, law). A final approach is to encourage students to think about careers that they have noticed in the world around them, but they should know that some careers are not always portrayed accurately in television shows or movies (Smith et al., 2011). 

Learn More about Possible Choices 

At this stage, I encourage students to learn as much as they can about their possibilities. This includes learning about the career itself, pros and cons of that path, and the skills and degrees that are needed. I find that some students are surprised when they dig more deeply -- for example, some students who originally say that they want to pursue clinical psychology later find that therapy or counseling are better fits for them. 

Students can easily find career websites online, but two of the best are O*Net and the U.S. Department of Labor’s CareerOneStop. Students can also access some excellent books about psychology careers. There are some great books that cover mental health paths such as clinical psychology, counseling, therapy, or social work (e.g., Metz, 2016), and there are others that provide perspectives about a variety of careers in psychology (e.g., Sternberg, 2017). 

Students can also schedule a meeting with their campus career center to discuss their interests and to learn about resources. Students should be encouraged to utilize their career center regularly -- they should not think about it as a one-time visit. Not only can career centers help them think through career possibilities, but most can help with other preparation such as improving a resume or practicing common interview scenarios. 

I have students take things further by building and utilizing a network. One approach is to connect them with fellow students who have similar interests so that they can share information and ask questions (a classroom or online discussion can work for this). In addition, I push students to talk with other high achievers at Psi Chi events. Students should also expand their networks into the professional world by conducting at least one informational interview. Ideally these can be done in person, but with more technological tools available, students have options for communicating with others. To help them out, I provide a set of starter questions that they can use. 

Map Out Helpful Experiences and Accomplishments 

After students have settled on a small number of career possibilities, they should map out their plans to get there. Students can think about the necessary degrees, skills, and experiences. In addition, I also tell them to identify possible obstacles in their path (e.g., finances, competitive graduate programs) and whether or not they can overcome them. 

Mapping out their path serves two big goals. First, students can learn whether a career path is possible -- if not, they should consider other options. Second, it allows students to explicitly plot out what they need to accomplish as they move forward. For example, if they know that they need volunteer or internship experience, they can start making plans now. If they need to earn a Ph.D., they can look for research opportunities. If leadership is important, then they might get involved as a student club officer. I also encourage non-traditional students and those who are working while in school to look at ways in which they are developing skills and building accomplishments in their work environment.  

If graduate school is needed, students can reach out to current graduate students. This is helpful because students can hear directly what graduate school is like and whether it would be a good fit for them. Current graduate students can also inform them about what an undergraduate needs to accomplish in order to be an attractive applicant. Some students mistakenly think that a solid grade point average is all that they need to get into graduate school -- it is important that they learn what else graduate school admission committees’ value. 

Topics and Assignments 

I help them with this entire process by discussing resources and experiences that are related to the psychology major and teaching them the basics about graduate school preparation (Copeland & Houska, 2020). For the former, I teach them about student groups, professional organizations, research opportunities, internship or volunteer positions, and psychology courses. For the latter, I let students know about what graduate programs value, including the importance of letters of recommendation. 

An assignment that helps to reinforce the mapping process is to have my students create a Superstar CV -- this also teaches them how to document their accomplishments too. Students start by listing their current accomplishments but take it a step further by adding experiences and achievements that they want to have when they graduate. To distinguish this from their actual CV, I have them use the title “Superstar Curriculum Vitae” at the top and I also have them write their goals in a different font color (to signify that these are not actual achievements. . . yet). 

I require some of the activities I described in this article (e.g., Superstar Activity, mapping out their career paths) in my course. However, because not everyone is following the same path and not everyone is at the same stage in their career preparation process, I also create a menu of activities and students choose which of those they want to complete (e.g., visit the career center, attend a Psi Chi event, conduct an informational interview). This way students can take actions that fit their goals. 

Continue to Seek Out Information and Refine the Plan 

One of my big goals is to encourage students to strive for continuous improvement by learning and acting after they finish my course. I push them to regularly visit the career center for different types of career preparation. I also let them know that their career choices do not have to be etched in stone -- it is okay for them to change their mind. For example, students might complete a summer internship in their desired field only to learn that the field does not seem to be the right fit for them -- I tell them that this is perfectly fine as it is better to learn that now rather than years down the road. 

 

Conclusion 

I am a big believer in the idea that we need to be helping students prepare for their futures. Some students might already have career ideas or help from parents, but many first generation students are unaware of the importance of planning for their future path. I have lost track of how many times students have finished my course and told me “I really did not know what to expect from a class like this, but this course was the most impactful class that I have taken -- I now have an idea of what I want to do and what I need to do to get there!” I strongly encourage faculty to develop an Introduction to the Psychology Major course to help prepare their students for the future! 

References 

Copeland, D. E., & Houska, J. A. (2020). Success as a psychology major. Sage. 

Metz, K. (2016). Careers in mental health: Opportunities in psychology, counseling, and social work. John Wiley & Sons. 

Norcross, J. C., Hailstorks, R., Aiken, L. S., Pfund, R. A., Stamm, K. E., & Christidis, P. (2016). Undergraduate study in psychology: Curriculum and assessment. American Psychologist, 71, 89-101. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0040095  

Smith, S. M., Stinson, V., & Patry, M. W. (2011). Fact or fiction? The myth and reality of the CSI effect. Court Review: The Journal of the American Judges Association, 47, 4-7. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/ajacourtreview/355 

Sternberg, R. J. (2017). Career paths in psychology: Where your degree can take you. American Psychological Association. 

John M. Malouff and Ashley J. Emmerton (University of New England, Australia)

Abstract

Some psychology teachers develop innovative teaching methods that could benefit other teachers. There are many options for psychology teachers who want to disseminate as widely as possible information about a new teaching method. This article describes a range of dissemination methods psychology teachers can use, including Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, blogs, podcasts, psychology magazines, ERIC, teaching conferences, and teacher training courses. The authors suggest using a cost-benefit analysis to choose dissemination methods.

How Psychology Teachers Can Widely Disseminate Their Innovative Teaching Methods

Using teaching innovations to deliver psychology topics can help improve education by leading to more learning and to more interest in learning (Savelsbergh et al., 2016). Using teaching innovations can also help increase the work satisfaction of teachers (Gordy, Jones, & Bailey. 2018).

Recent teaching innovations involve different types of assignments for students, such as recording a video presentation explaining how to do something relevant to a course and uploading it to YouTube (Malouff & Shearer, 2016). Using an escape room to teach is another innovative method (LaPaglia, 2020). Because teaching is both an art and a science, the possibilities for innovation are great.

Innovation sometimes is forced on teachers by circumstances such as pandemics or wars. Usually, though, teachers innovate to try to find more effective, more efficient, more engaging, or more long-lasting ways to help students learn. The students helped by an innovation can be a subset, such as gifted students (Prochaska & Prochaska, 1983) or non-traditional students (Naz & Murad, 2017), who may face barriers to benefitting from traditional teaching and learning methods. Sometimes we innovate to satisfy our own curiosity or to make our work more interesting.

When these new methods seem to work, teachers often try to share them broadly so that others may benefit from the innovation. To help the most teachers and students, a new teaching method needs to escape the confines of a single classroom and a single school. Other teachers must become aware of the method and its potential value (Smith, 2012).

What modes of dissemination are available?

We identified and evaluated different methods of disseminating information about new teaching methods. The following is a summary of possible dissemination methods, with information on their potential effectiveness based on access statistics (numbers of views, participants, subscribers, or downloads) and engagement level (frequency of comments or interactions between audience and idea developer), along with guides on how to use each method successfully.

Twitter

Twitter has about 330 million users each month (Lin, 2019). Teach Psychology (@getRAPT; n.d.) has used the social media platform Twitter since July 2013 to disseminate innovative teaching ideas, resources and articles for psychology teachers. This Twitter handle has 1,146 followers (at the time of writing) and has posted 1,279 tweets since the handle’s creation. A tweet can have a maximum of 280 characters, allowing only brief descriptions of new methods, unless one posts multiple tweets on a topic or includes links to further resources and articles. The Twitter Guide for Teachers (Pappas, 2013) offers advice for teachers on how to use Twitter effectively.

Facebook

Facebook has a wide reach, with over 2.4 billion monthly users in 2019 (Wolfe, 2019). Teachers can create their own Facebook group about innovative teaching, or they can post their ideas on the page of any of a number of existing groups. We created a Facebook group called Innovative Teaching Methods (2020) to disseminate new teaching ideas. Over 3,000 members have joined in the past 15 months; members come from over 100 different countries and include school teachers and university professors. Members post links to teaching materials they have made and describe their novel teaching ideas. Pappas (2015) offered tips for educators using Facebook for teaching, as does the Facebook Guide for Educators (The Education Foundation & Facebook, 2013).

YouTube

YouTube is a widely used platform, with over two billion monthly users generating a billion hours of viewing daily (YouTube, 2020). Channels focusing on innovative teaching methods such as the Edutopia (2020) channel, which has 125,000 subscribers, can reach a large audience. YouTube allows teachers to demonstrate innovative teaching methods. Users can give responses to new teaching methods using the comments function. For example, an Edutopia video titled Keeping Students Engaged in Digital Learning, published one week ago at the time of writing, attracted 86,553 views and seven user comments. Some comments offered additional strategies beyond those presented in the video. While YouTube tends to be more unidirectional in design than other social media platforms (with the focus on the video itself rather than the comments), the ability to easily share YouTube videos on other platforms such as Facebook and Twitter increases its reach. The Teach Thought (2016) website offers tips for using YouTube for sharing teaching ideas. Teachers can create their own video that they upload, or they can ask to be part of an established video series.

Blogs

A blog is an online journal or information site. Teachers can start a blog on teaching or ask to post an article on an existing blog. E-xcellence in teaching (Society for the Teaching of Psychology, 2020) is a popular teaching blog which allows psychology educators to write about innovative ideas they have used. Obtaining permission to post a guest entry on an existing teaching blog can be much faster and easier than building up readership of a new blog. Blogs can be set up so that readers can request an email when the next entry is posted. Blogs typically allow comments from readers, creating a possibility of interaction with the author. Start Your Teaching Blog (Davis, 2014) offers resources and advice on how to blog effectively.

Podcasts

A podcast is an audio recording that can be downloaded from the Internet. Podcasts discussing innovative teaching methods, such as the Cult of Pedagogy podcast produced by Jennifer Gonzales, can be effective ways of disseminating ideas. This podcast is released twice monthly and averages over 100,000 downloads per month (23,000-30,000 unique downloads per episode; Gonzalez, 2020). The PsychSessions: Conversations about Teaching N' Stuff (Neufeld & Landrum, 2020) podcast consists of 140 episodes focusing on the teaching of psychology and interviews of top psychology educators. The podcast is available over multiple providers making it easily accessible. It might be possible to obtain a guest appearance on a popular teaching podcast. The alternative is to create your own podcast. Like YouTube videos, podcasts are largely unidirectional with limited opportunities for discussion and engagement. The New York Times (Daniels & Schulten, 2020) and Edutopia (Ramirez, 2016) offer advice on how to make a professional podcast.

Magazines

There are online psychology magazines such as Monitor on Psychology (American Psychological Association, 2020) that feature, among other things, articles on teaching methods, lesson plans, and ideas for educators. This magazine is available in print and online, with the online version being free to access. Teaching magazines typically have lower standards for publication than teaching journals. There is advice online, e.g., from Freelance Writing (n.d.), on how to write effective magazine articles.

ERIC

ERIC, the Educational Resources Information Center (2020), puts online published and unpublished articles relating to teaching, with free viewing. ERIC reviews unpublished articles before accepting them, but the acceptance standards are lower than for education journals. We have documents in ERIC, e.g., on how to teach problem solving to college students. Most search engines include ERIC, which has video guides giving advice on submission and writing (ERIC, 2016).

Teaching conferences

National and international psychology teaching conferences and general teaching conferences provide opportunities for disseminating innovative teaching methods. The conferences may focus on teaching in psychology or teaching in general. Keynote speakers can reach hundreds of teachers; other presenters may reach only a handful of attendees. The standard for getting a proposal accepted for presentation can be relatively low, while keynote addresses are by invitation. For tips on giving conference presentations, see online articles such as that of Golash-Boza (2018).

Online MOOCs

Another option for disseminating innovative teaching methods is through massive online open courses (MOOCs). Education providers such as Future Learn and Coursera provide MOOCs to millions of users (Shah, 2016). Students engage with instructors through discussion forums. Some MOOCs are free for students. Tips for delivering MOOCs are available online (Morrison, 2014; Richer 2013).

Things to consider when choosing an outlet

We have described several ways of disseminating innovative teaching methods. When choosing one or more potential outlets, use a cost-benefit analysis. Consider how much time you need to devote to use or try to use the outlet, how likely your idea is to become available on the outlet, how many teachers and teachers in training are likely to learn of your method, and how persuasive the outlet is as a carrier of your idea.

We recommend using multiple outlets for disseminating new teaching ideas in order to reach the most teachers and future teachers. It is possible to provide a link to one type of outlet when using a different type. We suggest trying to use at least one free-online outlet in order to help maximize the number of teachers who become aware of the new method. Finally, we suggest using at least one interactive outlet so that educators can comment and make suggestions. That interaction can help improve a new teaching idea (Lewis, 2003).

References

American Psychological Association. (2020). Monitor on psychology. https://www.apa.org/monitor/

Daniels, N., & Schulten, K. (2020, April 22). Making a Podcast That Matters: A Guide With Examples From 23 Students. New York Times: The Learning Network. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/22/learning/making-a-podcast-that-matters-a-guide-with-examples-from-23-students.html?campaign_id=55&emc=edit_ln_20200424&instance_id=17889&nl=the-learning-network®i_id=107746693&segment_id=25876&te=1&user_id=2dc49c9f83df8e2ab6a37ac38d0209ea

Davis, M. (2014, June 18). Start your teaching blog: Resources, advice, and examples. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/blog/start-teacher-blog-tips-resources-matt-davis

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Genevieve Condon, MS Forensic Psychology and Legal Studies 

Senior Lead Faculty Psychology, Bay Path University, TAWC 

It is no surprise that online learning is becoming more popular as time goes on. As of 2019, 65% of students have participated in an online course (Sellers, 2019). With this comes the need to ensure that online education is as dynamic and engaging as its traditional counterpart. While this may seem like tough undertaking, with technology, dynamic staff, and various activities sprinkled throughout the course ensuring that the online learner remains engaged is possible. 

Faculty:   

When looking at the online learning environment, we want to ensure that we are hiring instructors that are well versed not only in their area of teaching, but in how the online classroom works. This does not simply mean how to navigate Canvas or Blackboard, but rather, being able to anticipate what the students may need. Part of this is going to be real time interaction and various modes of communication (Peterson, 2016). The real-time interaction and various modes of communication can go hand in hand. Students long for interaction so offering a phone call, a live webinar or Skype/Google chat is ideal. Also, posting weekly announcements in video format is useful and adds a personal touch. Students are then able to see the instructors face, and listen to their voice. This may seem small but it adds a visual approach to learning and makes the classroom seem more dynamic. 

From a personal perspective, it is also vital to set time aside to “breath”.  Technology is flexible and makes individuals easily accessible across different countries and time zones. However, many of us working in education are constantly connected. I know that personally, all my emails go to my phone so I am available even when I am not sitting at my computer.  Often, I will find myself out to eat with friends, and replying to an email or sitting at my daughter’s school function doing the same. However, this can get exhausting. Setting expectations are important within the classroom. What are your office hours? Do you typically respond quickly to all emails? I respond quickly, even on weekends and evenings, however, there are evenings I reserve for myself and family, and when the university is closed for breaks, I set this expectation within the classroom. It is important that we take time for ourselves to prevent burnout and ensure that we are at our best for our students. 

Another option is to set days for certain tasks. You can reserve Monday’s for grading, Tuesday’s for lesson planning etc. (Sellers, 2019). While this approach may not work for everyone, it can help with time management and enforce a strict schedule for students and help with their expectations. This can aid us in being task oriented and lessen the overwhelming sensation that can come when teaching, especially multiple courses. 

Curriculum Design: 

When building curriculum and lesson planning, learning to learn is a phrase that is essential to success (Gulati, 2014). Learning to learn can be defined as the ability to create learning goals, motivate oneself to learn, apply learning strategies, and self-reflect to guide future efforts (Gulati, 2014). To ensure that these abilities are met, as an instructor we plan. This requires that we do the following: 

• Explore: Understand and define what is required. Here, being able to have specific goals for the course will be helpful. These are generally referred to as course competencies. 

• Plan: After it is understood what is required to learn, identifying the necessary steps and coming up with an action plan is essential. What skills must the students know? How will be assess these skills? 

• Implement: We must put each step into motion.  

• Assess: This is where course evaluations and the course requirements are essential. Requiring discussion posts, assignments in the form of papers, videos, etc. to examine what the students have learned and whether the course competencies are met. 

Be sure when planning curriculum to step outside of the box. It may be easy to simply require that a paper is written each week, think about how this will keep students engaged if week after week it is the same requirement. There is group work (yes, it is challenging to complete this online but doable), videos they can make, interviews and reflections etc. The sky really is the limit. Make your classroom and curriculum something that students are eager to engage in and leave them looking forward to the next week. 

Feedback: 

Lastly, asking for feedback is essential. When ensuring that as instructors we are engaged, available and build a dynamic classroom, we must provide a way to assess ourselves, just like we do the students. Typically, the most-straight forward way to do this is by having a survey at the end of each course. To ensure participation, this can be a requirement for the course, otherwise there might not be many participates. 

Keeping students engaged is a difficult task. By ensuring as faculty we are using various resources, building dynamic curriculum, and assessing progress, it is an attainable goal. It is crucial to remember that education is an everchanging field and many ideas, tips and tricks will change with time and the ever-changing demographic of online learners. 

 

References 

Gulati, R (2014). The importance of goal setting for curriculum design. Medium.  

https://medium.com/entelechy/the-importance-of-goal-setting-for-curriculum-design-607618f25cfe 

Peterson, A (2016). Five ways to make your classroom more interactive. Faculty Focus. 

https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/five-ways-make-online-classrooms-interactive/ 

Sellers, E (2019) Poor time management in online education. Seattle PI. 

https://education.seattlepi.com/poor-time-management-online-learning-1435.html