On Sun, 25 Nov 2001, David Epstein wrote: > I would normally attempt not to waste bandwidth on a "me too"-style > post, but I want to voice the strongest possible agreement with the > following statements from Edward Pollak about teaching biopsych:
Heavily trimming what David actually said, I quote him as follows: > > The bottom line is that physiological psych requires a great deal of > > memorization. In the face of such impressive unanimity, and as a devoted contrarian, I'm forced to demur "not me". True, some memorizing is necessary. But what I try to arrange is that my students understand functions, not primarily the names of things. For example, instead of asking what tinnitus is, I'll ask that they describe a treatment for it, or tell me what causes it. Instead of memorizing names along the visual system pathway, I'll ask what effect damage at various points will have on vision. These questions do require memorizing, I admit, but on a different level. The kinds of questions I like best (but the hardest to produce) are those where the student has to figure something out based on an understanding of the principles. An example would be an explanation I gave them of the Mach band phenomenon involving a black-white rectangle producing a particular pattern of neural response. For a question, I reversed the figure, so it was white-black. If they understood the principle, they could figure out how the firing rate changed. And for the chapter on neuroanatomy, I always tell them "no heavy memorizing". I can't remember the darn stuff myself, anyway. -Stephen ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Stephen Black, Ph.D. tel: (819) 822-9600 ext 2470 Department of Psychology fax: (819) 822-9661 Bishop's University e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Lennoxville, QC J1M 1Z7 Canada Department web page at http://www.ubishops.ca/ccc/div/soc/psy Check out TIPS listserv for teachers of psychology at: http://www.frostburg.edu/dept/psyc/southerly/tips/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
