I always give a comprehensive take-home final that is quite lengthy but really encourages students to go beyond the text. For example, relative to the unit on the nervous system, I have them review case studies of people with Parkinson's, MS as well as some of Sacks' case studies. On the unit on Child Psychology I ask them to review articles on positive parenting and brain plasticity. For the unit on memory, I ask them to review the youtubes on Clive as well as Sacks article about Clive that was in the New Yorker as well as work by Loftus on false memories. For extra credit, they can view both "Memento" and "Regarding Henry" to compare/contrast retrograde amnesia as demonstrated in Regarding Henry to anterograde amnesia as demonstrated in Memento. For Social Psychology, they are asked to review and summarize the Zimbardo Prison Experiment that demonstrates the impact of social roles as well as view the recent replications of Milgram's Obedience experiment that demonstrates the power of the situation. I also ask them to review how group think functions as demonstrated by the NASA managers and engineers in both the Challenger and Columbia shuttle disasters. I give them this take home a few weeks before the end of the semester. Students usually will comment/complain at how much time it takes to complete but almost also always report that the review of the concepts in the course as they apply to the "real world" was extremely valuable in gaining a deeper appreciation of the value of field of psychology.
Joan [email protected] > Like Karl, I have given those same alternatives to classes and they ALWAYS > choose the open text format and they ALWAYS do worse when they act on > that. My guess, like Karl's, is that they think they don't have to study > and come into the exam expecting to look up the answers in the text. The > exam is, of course, the kind of exam that I would give as a take-home. > When I give them the alternative of a take-home exam in opposition to an > exam where they are allowed to bring notes to class for an in-class final > they ALWAYS choose the take home exam and they ALWAYS complain about how > hard the take-home exam is. The following is a complaint I just now > received about a take-home exam that the class voted to have instead of an > in-class exam with notes. "I don't know if you meant it to be lots of > outside work, but I think it took everyone a really long time." Oh my... > > Bill Scott > >>>> "Wuensch, Karl L" <[email protected]> 05/12/09 5:07 PM >>> > A few years back I gave an Intro General class three options > regarding the last examination: > 1. I give them ahead of time 20% of the actual questions that > would be on the exam. > 2. I let them bring and use five sheets of paper on which > they have written anything they wish. > 3. I let them bring and use the text book. > > I told them I would go for option 2, but they went for option > 3. Then they just did not even read the chapters or do any > studying. They performed worse on this exam than on any > other, even though the material was easier. Some of them did > not even bring the correct text book. A few students did well > -- they had not only studied a bit but also annotated the > text book with notes pointing them to the appropriate pages > for key concepts. > > Cheers, > > Karl W. > ________________________________ > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Monday, May 11, 2009 1:26 PM > To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) > Subject: [tips] Open book test > > > Do you give open book tests? What are the pros and cons? I knew a prof who > thought it was great for Crossword puzzles psychology test. > > Michael Sylvester,PhD > Daytona Beach,Florida > > > --- > > To make changes to your subscription contact: > > > > Bill Southerly ([email protected]) > > --- > To make changes to your subscription contact: > > Bill Southerly ([email protected]) > > --- > To make changes to your subscription contact: > > Bill Southerly ([email protected]) > > --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
