On Wed, 10 Jan 2001, Hatcher, Joe wrote:
> Hello all,
> This has touched upon something I've been thinking about for a
> while. Our department at Ripon College emphasizes experimentation; we have
> students do about six experimental projects before graduation. Naturally,
> we teach the usual courses as well, with the usual content, but it is fairly
> obvious that we have geared our curriculum toward students who want to
> pursue graduate degrees in psychology, and even, one might say, toward
> students who wish to pursue the Ph.D. The problem is, we have very few of
> those students in our department, probably around 10%. So, the majority of
> our students, who are interested in psychology for fun or for preparation
> for a career in counseling get a very large dose of the experimental method,
> more than they sometimes desire.
> We have talked in the past about setting up a two-track major, one
> track for those interested in research, the other for those with other
> interests (keeping, of course, some level of research in that track as
> well). My question, I suppose, is should we set up our curriculum as if all
> of our students are future doctoral students? What should we teach them?
>
> Joe Hatcher
> Ripon College
> Ripon, WI 54971 USA
I do not subscribe to the idea that a heavy dose of Experimental
is geared towards the doctoral student. Since the experimental method is
one of the means of assessing validity and reliability,there is no reason
why the non-doctoral student could not profit from
those tools in his/her approach to other behavioral phenomena
It would behove the prof to see commonalities in the "fun" and "pratical"
aspects and sound scientific methodology.
It may not be correct to assume that the doctoral prone student will
be heavily in the experimental lifestyle paradigm.
I am for separate curriculum re the hope and aspirations of students,
but I do think that a balanceand integrated approach coukld serve all.
Michael Sylvester,PhD
Daytona Beach,Florida
