Kristina and TIPSters,
I'd be interested in hearing more about your college's psychology
program: number of requirements, types of requirements, cognates, etc..
I wonder whether there is a perception among your students--as there is
at many institutions, I believe--that psychology is a "fall-back"
major. If I had a dollar for every time I heard a student say something
like, "I can't do science, so I'll major in psych," or "I don't know
what to study, so I guess I major in psych"...but then again, they get
to my stats class, and THAT myth is shattered! ;)
But seriously, I strongly advocate for a minimum GPA for entry into the
program, as well as for a minimum GPA to remain and to graduate with a
psych major. The program should be rigorous in its emphasis on stats,
methods, critical thinking, computing, and so forth. Psychology
increasingly is influenced by advances in genetics and neuroscience.
If presented in this way, you may "weed out" students who are not
serious about the field. Of course, I'm sure that we all still want
students to take at least one psych course, regardless of their majors.
Indeed, they should! But I'd suggest that you think about your
program's requirements, and students' perceptions of them.
Barbara
Dr. Barbara Watters
Mercyhurst College
501 E. 38th St.
Erie, PA 16546
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Dr. Kristina Lewis wrote:
>
> Tipsters,
> Our department is trying to address a "problem" that may be facing some of
> you....we are a department of 7 full-time faculty (6 tenure-line and a one
> 2-year visiting position) and 320 majors at last count. This is a college
> that prides itself on small classes and individual attention.....I think you
> see the problem....we're dying here! We have 50 advisees each, our classes
> are bursting at the seams, we can't offer upper-level seminar classes
> because we have to offer so many sections of lower level classes to meet
> demand, we can't require upper-level seminars because we can't offer them.
> The administration's response so far has been adjuncts; currently we have
> 11-13 adjunct sections per year.
>
> We have been tossing around ways to a) get the administration to take us
> more seriously; b) make our situation more workable. One alternative is to
> limit the number of majors by imposing minimum criteria to be met to be a
> major. The criteria we have come up with are C in general psych and C in
> research methods and/or overall GPA of 2.5.
>
> My question (finally).....do any of you have such criteria in place? How
> well do they work? Any other suggestions? How have you dealt with the
> influx of majors?
>
> If you respond to me I will compile the responses and post them to the list.
> But if this is an issue of wide interest, I would love to see some
> discussion....
>
> Thanks,
>
> Kris Lewis
> Saint Michael's College
> Colchester VT
