Hi I have to admit to reacting much like Annette's critics. Some of the things (e.g., career advising) appear more appropriate for student services or the like. Others do get covered, perhaps implicitly, in other courses (e.g., APA in methods course?). Others I would think that university students should be able to learn on their own and / or get help from appropriate resources (e.g., library search through on-line help and reference librarians).
I have always been somewhat leery about explicit teaching of all competencies we might want to instill in students. For one thing, it could prevent students from many opportunities to learn how to learn things for themselves, an important meta-cognitive skill? And it might wash out "natural" (for want of a better term) differences in the learning abilities of students, such that grades no longer indicate all the competencies they once did. Somewhat hypocritically, I do try to show students how complex material in courses can be conceptualized or organized, but at the same time I worry that they are missing opportunities to learn how to organize such information for themselves, especially if everyone is now doing more of this than in the past. I remember many hours as an undergraduate trying to distill year-long courses into a combination outline / notes on a single page (often a big page with little and very cryptic writing). What role did such repeated exercise and practice play in my own cognitive development in an age prior to detailed text outlines, nicely demarcated sections of books, powerpoint slides, conceptual maps, and the like? Finally, I worry somewhat that we could be emphasizing the pragmatic importance of what we teach, whether it is related to work opportunities or even practical skills. Might not this emphasis on such topics help to undermine the idea of learning psychology (or any liberal arts discipline) for its own merits? Perhaps especially when combined with all the other pressures that undermine the liberal arts. Take care Jim James M. Clark Professor of Psychology 204-786-9757 204-774-4134 Fax j.cl...@uwinnipeg.ca >>> Annette Taylor <tay...@sandiego.edu> 26-Mar-11 11:44:04 AM >>> I want to thank everyone who has responded and even sent along syllabi. I am facing two hurdles: (1) Getting some of our department faculty on board who think that this is not a "content" course and should, therefore, not carry any credit value to it. (2) Getting it through curriculum committee where it was shot down instantly as nothing more than advising. Sigh. What got me started on this was that I do our senior exit surveys, and have for the past decade at least. I found that a majority of our students demonstrated a poor understanding of the discipline, a poor understanding of what they want to do in life and how to get in a position to do that, and even didn't know how to go about getting advising. Another sigh. This has all been very helpful to me. Keep those syllabi coming and if anyone wants my 1-unit syllabus for the trial course I'm teaching now, just let me know. I will be on sabbatical next fall and my colleague who will teach it in the fall is amazed at the amount of reading I have assigned. She thinks it's more than many faculty assign for 3-unit "content" course. In addition, the assignments, 4-year plan, making a resume and CV and knowing the difference, writing up a letter of intent for a job and for a grad program, as well as knowing how to solicit letters of rec...basics of information literacy (a library scavenger hunt) as well as apa style; how we can use psychological principles to inform good learning skills and making time management logs...it's a lot of work and a lot of information! Along with the careers and meet the faculty stuff. OOF. Nevertheless the curriculum committee thought it was not worth considering as a college "course," nor do a few of my colleagues. Annette Annette Kujawski Taylor, Ph. D. Professor, Psychological Sciences University of San Diego 5998 Alcala Park San Diego, CA 92110 tay...@sandiego.edu<mailto:tay...@sandiego.edu> ________________________________ From: Blaine Peden [cyber...@charter.net] Sent: Saturday, March 26, 2011 9:04 AM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: Re: [tips] orientation to major Hi Annette here are a couple of older versions. you could email each instructor for the most current version. hope all is well, blaine ----- Original Message ----- From: Annette Taylor<mailto:tay...@sandiego.edu> To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)<mailto:tips@fsulist.frostburg.edu> Sent: Friday, March 25, 2011 2:06 PM Subject: [tips] orientation to major Do any of your psychology programs have a course that orients students to the psychology major as a whole? At some institutions this is a sort of omnibus course that allows students, as soon as they declare a major, to prepare a program of study that will maximize their immediate and long term goals, with a fail safe in there someplace in case plans change. Some look at how to maximize psych goals in terms of core requirements. As well, it seems to often times be a combination careers course combined with an orientation to psychology as a science, with some information literacy components, APA style components, graduate school preparation components and others. If your department or program does, (or if you know about institutions that have such as program) can you please tell me about it, or better yet, send me a syllabus. There is only one on project syllabus for the course taught by Drew Appleby at Indiana Purdue. There are also a couple of careers courses but I am more interested in an omnibus course such as the one at Indiana. Thanks Annette Annette Kujawski Taylor, Ph. D. Professor, Psychological Sciences University of San Diego 5998 Alcala Park San Diego, CA 92110 tay...@sandiego.edu<mailto:tay...@sandiego.edu> --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: cyber...@charter.net<mailto:cyber...@charter.net>. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13150.302fb879d23a9f8b8b43c453fd3bfed3&n=T&l=tips&o=9579 (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line is broken) or send a blank email to leave-9579-13150.302fb879d23a9f8b8b43c453fd3bf...@fsulist.frostburg.edu<mailto:leave-9579-13150.302fb879d23a9f8b8b43c453fd3bf...@fsulist.frostburg.edu> --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: tay...@sandiego.edu<mailto:tay...@sandiego.edu>. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13534.4204dc3a11678c6b1d0be57cfe0a21b0&n=T&l=tips&o=9601 (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line is broken) or send a blank email to leave-9601-13534.4204dc3a11678c6b1d0be57cfe0a2...@fsulist.frostburg.edu<mailto:leave-9601-13534.4204dc3a11678c6b1d0be57cfe0a2...@fsulist.frostburg.edu> --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: j.cl...@uwinnipeg.ca. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13251.645f86b5cec4da0a56ffea7a891720c9&n=T&l=tips&o=9602 or send a blank email to leave-9602-13251.645f86b5cec4da0a56ffea7a89172...@fsulist.frostburg.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=9605 or send a blank email to leave-9605-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
