Annette: The publisher is Trafford Publishing from Canada. Dennis
Subject: Re: Novel-like books for course
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2008 15:59:16 -0700 (PDT)
X-Message-Number: 8
Who is the publisher? Sounds very interesting; I'd like to get a desk copy for consideration.
Annette
Annette Kujawski Taylor, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology
University of San Diego
5998 Alcala Park
San Diego, CA 92110
619-260-4006
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
---- Original message ----
>Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2008 14:47:53 -0600 (MDT)
>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Subject: [tips] Novel-like books for course
>To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <[email protected]>
>
> One unusual book I would recommend is "Fables for
> Developing Skeptical and Critical Thinking in
> Psychology" by John Marton.
>
>
>
> This slim volume consists of a series of 10
> fictional but completely realistic vignettes which
> are geared to chapters of most intro psych
> texts. For example, chapter 1 involves critical
> thinking (a vignette about a student seeing a
> psychic-the episode is then deconstructed by another
> student applying hindsight bias, illusory
> correlation, confirmation bias, probability, etc) to
> the experience of the student who saw the psychic
> and initially felt the readings were useful
> predictions.
>
>
>
> Subsequent chapters are vignettes about
> consciousness, sensation, perception, learning,
> memory, etc. Each vignette is quite attention
> grabbing for students in that the vignettes
> (fables) involve typical situations that students
> might encounter (seeing the psychic, seeing an
> alternate health practitioner, male-female
> communication confusions, memory errors, typical
> attributions. In the learning chapter, students are
> asked to consider and deal with a tantrumming child
> through the window of operant conditioning and a
> phobic child through classical conditioning; in the
> personality chapter students read about and consider
> how dating and relationships of young couples with
> various configurations of the big 5 personality
> traits might work out and what issues might arise,
> there are also chapters about emotions,
> psychological conditions etc.
>
>
>
> What I really like and find useful about the book is
> that abstract concepts that some students often have
> real difficulty using are applied to typical,
> student-relevant and identifiable experiences. Each
> chapter is followed by a series of questions that
> closely follow the learning objectives of most intro
> psych courses for example, Myers' Psychology.
>
>
>
> I have used this book whenever I had classes of 35
> and fewer students for the last 4 years and have
> been pleased with the increased level of energy,
> involvement, and general liveliness and improved
> questioning/discussion in the classes.
>
>
>
> There has been so much more active learning.
> Students who are struggling have concepts clarified;
> the star students can stretch their understanding to
> new areas. I have used the book both as a basis
> for discussion and as a basis for brief written
> exercises to check comprehension (and to motivate
> students to keep up with the material-if they don't
> read the text and vignettes they are left out of an
> engaging discussion).
>
>
>
> Dennis Ueyama
>
>
>
> It ain't what you don't know that gets you into
> trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't
> so. -Mark Twain
>
---
To make changes to your subscription contact:
Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
