At SWT we teach the course as a senior level capstone, designed to bring
together all the courses they have taken. I tend to agree with Ken that
History taught in the capstone course model might not necessarily be the
best model to follow at a lower level.
But, would it not be possible to integrate some of the historical context
and ideas into an Intro psych course? I think I remember some intro texts
doing this, but often it requires material in addition to what's in the
text. It seems like too often in Intro we focus on very discrete topics and
try to pretend that they aren't related, when in fact they are. Shouldn't
the intro course provide this basic framework and context for our students
at an introductory level. Then they go and take more detailed courses about
specific areas. And then take the History and Systems course as a capstone,
which is essentially an advanced intro course that ties everything back
together and re-emphasizes the framework put forth in the intro course.
Admittedly this isn't easy because it requires all faculty in the
department to be committed to including some historical information in
their courses and sometimes venture into areas that aren't as familiar to
touch on how their field got to where it is currently. But, I feel that it
would be possible to show students the progression that has gone on in the
field... (For example, in stats and research methods I often talk about
historical contexts... such as why Pearson developed the product-moment
correlation, and why he changed his name from Carl to Karl... also, how the
method of limits relates to computerized adaptive testing.)
I'm not sure if I'm making much sense, but I'm in a hurry to try and get a
million things done today... just wanted to throw in my two cents...
- Marc
At 11:46 AM 9/29/2000 -0400, Kenneth M. Steele wrote:
>I am not sure that a History & Systems course, at the level
>presented as a capstone course, would be the best model to
>follow. Instead, I would suggest (and have wanted to develop)
>a much easier version to be used as the introductory course,
>itself.
