By can I relate! I teach Cognition, Sensation and Perception, and History
of Psychology. What I have found to be really useful is to do
demonstrations, make sure I spend a great deal of time on applied aspects,
and giving out my essays questions ahead of time.
Importance of demonstrations - I actually have the students do the critical
experiments (one of the reasons why I love student MELLAB so much). They do
the experiments outside of class so when we reach that topic in class, it
can be more discussion oriented since they have done the experiment. I can
also spend less time discussing these studies since they participated in them.
Applied - When I first taught cognition, I was very theoretical/basic
science about the course. It turned into a 2 hour naptime practically and I
received feedback such as So what, who cares, etc. I now try to tie this in
with a variety of applied areas. For example, in Cognition, I'm starting on
problem solving. I will be discussing such things as the Psychology of
Gambling, how the anchoring effect can be seen in aution houses, how
surveys are impacted by the way the question is asked, etc. In S&P, when I
discuss signal detection theory, I have a list of different areas in which
this can be used such as drug testing, radar, detecting cancer on x-rays,
seeing images in items - such as Christ's face in a bowl of pasta (oh, how
I wish I was making that up).
Essay questions - I give out the questions ahead of time - this allows them
to organize their notes and they know what to expect.
I am having some difficulty with History - I must admit it has become more
interesting to me only after I have learned so much other stuff in psychology.
>
>So my question is this: what have you done to help develop the motivation of
>(initially unmotivated) students to become deeply involved in the course
>material?
>
>Jeff Ricker
>Scottsdale Community College
>Scottsdale AZ
>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>
Deb
Deborah S. Briihl There are as many
Dept. of Psychology and Counseling ways to live as
Valdosta State University there are people in
Valdosta, GA 31698-0100 this world and each
[EMAIL PROTECTED] deserve a closer
look..
You got so many dreams you don't know where to put them, so you better turn
a few of them loose... Fire
