On Fri, 2 Nov 2001, Stephen W Tuholski wrote:
> There may be another reason for our student's performance that no one has > brought up yet. The students that I see often believe something like "you > can't do anything with a BA/BS in psychology..." If that is really the way > students think, particularly those that do not want to go to grad school, > maybe it is not surprising that they don't spend extra time in office > hours, study groups, etc. According to their logic, it is adaptive to NOT > put forth the extra effort... that effort comes with a cost (if nothing > else, time), with no real tangible benefit. > A very good point, Stephen. Also, many of the lower-level psych classes are taken by non-majors. I think focusing too much--or, arguably, at all--on APA style requirements in a freshman- or sophomore-level class is a mistake. Why should students attend to this, unless they're psych majors who intend to go to graduate school? APA style isn't even standard in most academic fields--I think the Chicago Manual of Style is the preferred reference for the humanities and many other social sciences. This isn't to say that students shouldn't be taught to write well and synthesize material intelligently. But there are many ways of doing that. I taught a developmental psych course in which I gave students "applied writing" assignments. The students wrote public health brochures, grant proposals, and the like. I worked with them to figure out what their personal and professional interests were, and how they could write materials for me that both engaged psychological topics seriously *and* were meaningful in the context of the rest of their lives. It was a lot of fun for them, and for me as well. (Beat hell out of grading 100 5-page papers comparing and contrasting Freud and Piaget, I'll tell you that.) Got them out of the rut of "writing for the teacher" and made them take complex concepts and put them into simple language. It gave a lot of them a project that they could keep, add to a portfolio, give to a relative (some wrote children's books, along with a precis of why, according to developmental theories, this book would be appropriate for the targeted age group.) I did a poster on this for APA a few years back--if anyone would like a copy, e-mail me and I'll send you an attachment. Robin ******************************************************************************* Robin Pearce "When did ignorance become a point of view?" Boston University [EMAIL PROTECTED] --Scott Adams ******************************************************************************* --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
