I like Jim's ideas here. It shouldn't be too hard to create scoring schemes. One other aspect related to this is recognition of multiple causation (re Stanovich's ideas) and if they can pick up on how other factors might commune or interact to produce events.
GPeterson On May 30, 2010, at 1:17 PM, "Jim Clark" <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi > > The second part of the learning outcome ("realize that psychological > explanations are often complex and tentative") suggests one possible > approach. Give them a number of findings / observations and ask for possible > explanations for each. > > Some academic disciplines contain a higher percentage of men (or members of > group A) than women (or members of group B). What explanations are possible > for this finding? Parenthesized phrasing would make it more abstract? Score > for sensitivity to biological (innate and environmental) and societal > influences. > > A school of fish is swimming along with one fish ahead of the others. Why > might that one fish be swimming ahead of the others? Score for internal / > external explanations (based on some cross-cultural work on attributions). > > Infants who are more attached to their mothers grow up to be less aggressive > than children who had poorer attachment as infants. Why? Score for > different directions of causality and third factor, coercive cycle, .... > > The correlation between IQs is higher for monozygotic twins than for > dizygotic twins. Why might this be the case? Score for genetic and > environmental (e.g., intrauterine due to shared placenta / chorion, later > treatment by others) factors. > > A study reported that children who attended preschool tended later in life to > be more successful in school than children who did not attend preschool. How > might you explain this finding? Score for benefits of preschool, flaws in > design (e.g., non-equivalent groups), parental motivation, importance of > looking at all comparable studies, .... > > ... > > Should be possible to generate a host of these for diverse psychological > domains? Might be useful to also ask for student estimates of likelihood of > each explanation being correct to see if they are indeed "tolerating > ambiguity" or are simply citing alternatives they have actually discarded > mentally. > > Or one could give such scenarios but with one explanation (e.g., group A is > genetically better endowed, the fish in front is "leading" the others) and > ask for alernative explanations, perhaps providing (some) explanations that > force students to think "against the grain." > > e.g., Some people believe that men are more aggressive than women because of > their upbringing; that is, without socialization to be aggressive and sexist > societies, men and women would show little or no difference in > aggressiveness. What possible causes for gender differences in aggression > might be inconsistent with this model? > > Use of multiple items would allow measure of reliability and would also be > able to determine if trait was unidimensional or not? > > One nice thing about this approach is that it does seem to overlap with how > we might actually evaluate this in a classroom? > > Take care > Jim > > > James M. Clark > Professor of Psychology > 204-786-9757 > 204-774-4134 Fax > [email protected] > >>>> "Frantz, Sue" <[email protected]> 30-May-10 10:25:12 AM >>> > We've based our student learning outcomes for Intro Psych on the APA > Guidelines for the Undergraduate Psychology Major: > http://www.apa.org/ed/precollege/about/psymajor-guidelines.pdf. > > Goal 5, Values in Psychology (pdf page 17) reads, "Value empirical evidence, > tolerate ambiguity, act ethically, and reflect other values that are the > underpinnings of psychology as a science." Within this one goal are 7 > suggested student learning outcomes. The one we want to address is 5.4: > "Tolerate ambiguity and realize that psychological explanations are often > complex and tentative." > > In our brainstorming, we came up with giving students a scenario and asking > them to describe the events in the scenario from a number of different > psychological perspectives, e.g. biological, behavioral, cognitive. To get > at the ambiguity part, we were looking for some writing prompt that would > evaluate whether students understood that one perspective isn't the correct > perspective, but rather all contribute to our understanding. We had a couple > ideas on how to do that, but none we were happy with, and certainly none that > led to an obvious grading rubric. > > Rather than reinvent the wheel, I was wondering if anyone else has evaluated > this student learning outcome, and if so, how. To reiterate, we are not at > all committed to this particular assignment. We're just looking for ideas. > > Some people suggested using 'tolerance of ambiguity' scales. This is an > approach we hadn't considered. I wonder if one Intro Psych course would show > much movement on such a scale, or if it's even fair to expect such a thing. > I also wonder if scores on such a scale at the beginning of the course (or > the end of the course) would correlate with final grade in the course. > > And then I wonder if it's possible to construct such a scale that's specific > to psychology, a 'tolerance of ambiguity in psychology' scale. > > Sue > > > -- > Sue Frantz Highline Community College > Psychology, Coordinator Des Moines, WA > 206.878.3710 x3404 [email protected] > > Office of Teaching Resources in Psychology, Associate Director > Teaching of Psychology Idea Exchange (ToPIX) > APA Division 2: Society for the Teaching of Psychology > > APA's p...@cc Committee > > > > > > > --- > You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. > To unsubscribe click here: > http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13251.645f86b5cec4da0a56ffea7a891720c9&n=T&l=tips&o=2838 > > or send a blank email to > leave-2838-13251.645f86b5cec4da0a56ffea7a89172...@fsulist.frostburg.edu > > --- > You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. > To unsubscribe click here: > http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13445.e3edca0f6e68bfb76eaf26a8eb6dd94b&n=T&l=tips&o=2839 > or send a blank email to > leave-2839-13445.e3edca0f6e68bfb76eaf26a8eb6dd...@fsulist.frostburg.edu > --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. 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