Rod Hetzel wrote:

> I came across a new book yesterday on the APA website that is relevant to
this conversation.  The book is entitled The Professor's Guide to
> Teaching : Psychological Principles and Practices and was written by
Donelson R. Forsyth, PhD, a psychologist at Virginia Commonwealth
> University.  The text was published by APA Press in November 2002.  Anyone
on this list have a review for us?  I’ve ordered it but have yet to >
receive it.

This from the Chronicle, 12/31:
=======================
A Psychology Professor Gets Into the Heads of Students and Their Instructors
By DANA SOBYRA

The Professor's Guide to Teaching: Psychological Principles and Practices
(American Psychological Association, 2003), by Donelson R. Forsyth. $39.95.
What insights does psychology have to offer the instructor in the classroom?
Some thought-provoking answers show up in the process of breaking down
college-level teaching into its behavioral components. Psychological theory
and research, it turns out, can enhance a variety of classroom tasks,
including course preparation, lecturing, testing, and evaluating and
improving teaching itself.

While this book is a pedagogical resource for almost any discipline, Mr.
Forsyth, a psychology professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, directs
it mainly at teaching psychologists -- "professors who promote the field's
stock of knowledge, skills, and outlook to other professionals, students,
and the lay community."

In each chapter, a key aspect of the teaching process is identified and
elaborated upon with current psychological thinking. For example, in the
chapter on lecturing, he writes that research on persuasion methods can show
professors how to help their students get as much as possible out of
lectures. Similarly, in the chapter devoted to testing, the author
encourages an approach much the same as that for psychological assessment.
Teaching psychologists have "far more expertise in testing" than professors
in other subjects do, he argues. "The skills and methods needed to construct
a good classroom test are the same skills and methods needed to develop a
measure of personality or a survey of opinions."

"Because teaching psychologists command a profound understanding of the
causes of human thought, emotion, and action, their instructional methods,
their examinations, their one-on-one tutorials, and even the support they
give their students should be the envy of professors in other academic
disciplines," writes Mr. Forsyth. Yet "in too many cases, psychologists do
not exploit their discipline's resources when they teach."

A useful response, he suggests, is to remember to look at students not only
through the eyes of a teacher, but through the eyes of a psychologist.
=======================
Paul Smith
Alverno College
Milwaukee


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