WELCOME STATEMENT
Welcome to Introductory Psychology Weekly Updates
Every Monday through June you will find wonderful resources to enhance your teaching and to engage your students in discussions. With each “published” edition, you will discover two or three interesting provocative articles to use as “triggers” to discuss important issues that relate to your teaching content, subject matter, and/or important issues. The choice of the articles is such that students can find these on popular sites such as the New York Times, Time Magazine, Huffington Post, and read them without the pressure of going to the library or poring through their textbook. The popular media choices are easy to find without the need for subscription services; these are often articles that you might have read and brought up in your class. Further, the update will include a few questions that can be used to get a discussion started.
In addition to a listing of the articles, you will also be presented with a few websites for use in your teaching. The websites can be useful informative resources for both your teaching preparation and for student use. Lastly, every week, you will find either an App Of The Week listing, occasionally YouTube video, or a Podcast that will both enhance your teaching and presentations. If you have any suggestions please contact me.
Thank you,
David Berg
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FOR THE PROFESSOR: 3 ARTICLES TO BEGIN THE SEMESTER
This first Update for the new semester comprises three thought provoking and conversation stimulating articles from the Chronicle to help focus on planning for a successful Fall semester.
ARTICLE #1
TITLE
How to Prepare for Class Without Overpreparing
DESCRIPTION
It’s the beginning of a new semester and do you ponder over how much you have to prepare materials for each class? Do you over prepare and begin to stress about it? Professor Lang offers his perspective on preparation for class that involves learning activities that will engage students and help you consider exactly what it is you want to do in each class. “Once you let go of the instinct to provide exhaustive coverage, you can use the time that emerges to create opportunities for your students to engage with the material in class. Those opportunities represent pathways to saner levels of preparation. Your goal here is to devise, identify, test, and refine a small number of strategies that you can deploy at any moment you need them in class. They can be modified within different contexts and time frames.” The article offers four types of activities that he makes use of, and though he teaches humanities courses, these activities can be useful for your Psychology classes.
SOURCE
Chronicle of Higher Education – Vitae, July 30, 2018, by James Lang
LINK TO RESOURCE
https://chroniclevitae.com/news/2084-how-to-prepare-for-class-without-overpreparing
(Tiny URL) http://tinyurl.com/ychhep8m
ARTICLE #2
TITLE
Your Students Learn by Doing, Not by Listening
DESCRIPTION
While most of us give lip service to “learning by doing,” we still focus our teaching on the use of the lecture as the main vehicle for our classes in Psychology. Professor Gooblar, who teaches rhetoric, offers his perspective in this interesting readable article from the Chronicle. “We have to go beyond the idea that the perfect presentation of the relevant facts will be enough to help the majority of our students learn. Such pedagogy (whether or not we call it lecturing) will work for some students. But for most students, we need to shift our focus from what it is we say to what it is they do.” Read the article, and perhaps it will provide a self-reflection of what to do with your teaching activities to engage your students in addition to lecturing.
SOURCE
Chronicle of Higher Education – Vitae, May 2, 2018, by James Gooblar
LINK TO RESOURCE
https://chroniclevitae.com/news/2046-your-students-learn-by-doing-not-by-listening
(Tiny URL) http://tinyurl.com/y8ftzkoy
ARTICLE #3
TITLE
The 5 Tips for Student Success That a Longtime Instructor Swears By
DESCRIPTION
This teaching blog highlights a presentation by Tony Holland, a special assistant to the chief of staff at the Alabama Community College System. The article presents the “5 tips” for helping insure student success in a simple succinct manner that will be worth reading and considering for your course. It is thought provoking and worthwhile sharing with colleagues about the goals for you classroom and teaching. If interested, you can watch to Dr. Holland’s YouTube talk:
(NOTE: The article is the beginning of the blog so you only need to read up to the section that begins with “Student Evaluations.”)
SOURCE
Chronicle of Higher Education, May 3, 2018
LINK TO RESOURCE
https://www.chronicle.com/article/The-5-Tips-for-Student-Success/243323/
(Tiny URL) http://tinyurl.com/yb225ojk
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