I was surprised when this issue came up on an earlier thread since I had
noticed an apparent increase in these types of requests also. There are
lots of possible explanations but I observed several years ago that many
psychology classes (and textbooks) eschewed the use of math and
quantitative reasoning (with the exception of statistical tests).
I am in a campaign to show students that real psychologists do math. So
I do simple quantitative reasoning exercises in class with the
Rescorla-Wagner model, the matching equation, Weber's law, Stevens Power
law, etc. The emphasis is on being able to do simple numerical
calculations to understand the predictions of the law. Students are
responsible for being able to use the equations on a test. Students
often panic when I put the first equation on the board but we work with
the equation long enough that most people feel comfortable and are able
to use the equation to make predictions.
Ken
PS - Most students are comfortable. I had a small clump of people in
one perception class that could not understand logarithms. They swore
they had never heard of them before and couldn't understand why/how you
could transform one number into another number.
PPS - Marty, it must be a big change in going from Wyoming to Florida.
Martin Bourgeois wrote:
I'm teaching intro for the first time in eight years, and I'm observing
an interesting phenomenon: I have an optional final that would replace
their lowest exam grade, and just about every student in the class is
emailing me, asking me to calculate their final grade if they don't take
the final. I feel that since I give them their score on every exam and
paper, and the syllabus explains how much each assignment is worth, it's
their responsibility to figure that out. Is my expectation
old-fashioned? This has never happened before, but I'm at a new
institution, so I don't know if it's a cultural difference or an
age-related trend. I'd be curious to hear if others have dealt with the
same issue.
Marty Bourgeois
Florida Gulf Coast University
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Kenneth M. Steele, Ph.D. [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Department of Psychology http://www.psych.appstate.edu
Appalachian State University
Boone, NC 28608
USA
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