Re: confusing ballot
If you would like a look at the actual ballot, a humorous rendition of the ballot, and an interesting statistical analysis relevant to the ballot, check out the page I just put up at: http://personal.ecu.edu/wuenschk/BushBallot.htm ++ Karl L. Wuensch, Department of Psychology, East Carolina University, Greenville NC 27858-4353 Voice: 252-328-4102 Fax: 252-328-6283 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://core.ecu.edu/psyc/wuenschk/klw.htm
Re: Following directions
Dear Colleagues, I endorse the comments of my colleague Stephen when he cites Don Norman's work. Systems should be designed to be as easy as possible to follow, to minimize error. I heard on a news bulletin this morning that there is a rule (law?) in Florida that responses are always supposed to be to the right of the option. Is this true? It sounds like a good way to enhance clarity. Stuart > Date: Thu, 09 Nov 2000 13:17:31 -0600 > From: "Linda M. Woolf, Ph.D." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Reply-to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Cc:TIPS <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: Following directions > > > Stephen Black wrote: > > > > On Thu, 9 Nov 2000, Rick Froman wrote: > > > > > You don't have to suspect. Check it out for yourself at: > > > > > > http://www.sun-sentinel.com/elections/palmbeachballot.htm > > > > Very revealing, Rick. Thank you. > > > > 'Tis true. You would definitely not be the sharpest knife in the > > drawer to ignore those arrows and vote for the wrong person. > > > > If you have ever seen one of these ballots it is not so simple. They > are slid into a slot and gets "locked" in place by hooking the holes in > the ballot card over two little plastic knobs (okay, not the best > description but close enough!). Unfortunately, there is some give so it > can shift a bit up or down. Thus, the arrows don't always line up > directly with the hole to punch but sometimes hit the line above or > below. Usually, the candidates are spaced fairly far apart and only on > one side of the page so that there is not question as to which candidate > one is voting for. > > On our ballots, the candidates for office including our new dead senator > were only on one side of the page. Some of the resolutions concerning > our sewer district resembled the two sided Florida ballot. It was very > confusing indeed to know what you you were punching. I had to pull out > the ballot several times to double-check that I had punched the right > hole for a resolution. If you accidentally discovered upon double > checking (which I doubt that most individuals do) that you punched the > wrong hole, you would have to go and have the ballot invalidated and get > a new ballot (it is actually a fairly complicated process). If you have > folks who have been waiting in line for a couple of hours to vote, there > is a good deal of social pressure to just "let it slide". > > Finally, I would mention that a fair number of voters in the Florida > vote are senior citizens and elderly. Thus, they may be contending with > the visual difficulties that are correlated with old age. For them, the > ballot would have been a perceptual nightmare. > > Hope everyone is having a great semester! > > Linda > > -- > Linda M. Woolf, Ph.D. > Associate Professor - Psychology > > http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/ > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > ___ Stuart J. McKelvie, Ph.D.,Phone: (819)822-9600 Department of Psychology, Extension 2402 Bishop's University, Fax: (819)822-9661 3 Route 108 East, Lennoxville, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Quebec J1M 1Z7, Canada. Bishop's University Psychology Department Web Page: http://www.ubishops.ca/ccc/div/soc/psy ___
Re: Florida's Forrest Gump
At 3:06 PM -0500 11/9/00, Michael Sylvester wrote: > The voting apparatus in Florida is like a box of chocolate: > you never know what you are going to get. > >Michael Sylvester,PhD >Daytona Beach,Florida Unfortunately, it looks like someone stuck a few razor blades in this particular box! * PAUL K. BRANDON [EMAIL PROTECTED] * * Psychology Dept Minnesota State University, Mankato * * 23 Armstrong Hall, Mankato, MN 56001 ph 507-389-6217 * *http://www.mankato.msus.edu/dept/psych/welcome.html*
RE: confusing ballot
Hello to all, The reason the registrar's office in Palm Beach county gave for converting to the new butterfly style ballot was to use a larger font for the type, and therefore to be easier to read use. Ironic to say the least. Dawn Dawn Morales University of California, San Diego Department of Psychology 9500 Gilman Drive, MC-0109 La Jolla, CA 92093-0109 --- I was just going to guess that since there are a number of elderly individuals in that county that they were doing it to increase the font size. That is really the only way I can think to do that given the constraints of the size of the ballot. If you put them all on the same side, the font would have to be smaller. You can't put them on successive pages because that would be very confusing. Putting them on facing pages allows you to increase the font size while keeping all of them visible at the same time. So there were some human factors concerns playing into the design of the ballot. For an additional irony, the placement of the two major candidates on the left page and Buchanan on the right page seemed to be designed in favor of the major parties (no surprise there). My favorite hyperbole of the day (from the CNN website): "Rep. Robert Wexler, a Democratic congressman who represents parts of the [Palm Beach] area, said he witnessed the confusion himself. "I saw it with my own eyes. Hundreds of people left the ballot box and became hysterical in the parking lots when they realized they had probably voted for Pat Buchanan," he told CNN's "Larry King Live." Rick Dr. Richard L. Froman Psychology Department John Brown University Siloam Springs, AR 72761 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.jbu.edu/sbs/psych/froman.htm -Original Message- From: Dawn Morales [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, November 09, 2000 2:06 PM To: Linda M. Woolf, Ph.D. Cc: TIPS Subject: confusing ballot
What to put in a summary of course evaluations?
Hello everyone, I am currently undergoing the job application process. Many of the jobs I am applying for ask for summaries of course evaluations. I don't have any models for such a document, so I just plowed right in. At this point I've taught about a dozen courses, so there's quite a bit to say. The way I've set it up right now, is for each class, I give a brief paragraph description of the class: number of students, number and length of meetings per week, content overview, class session description, and statement about how students earned their grades (e.g. type of exams/homework/papers etc.). After that, I provide a quantitative analysis of rating scale items on the course evaluation forms (I present means and modes). Finally, I discuss qualitative comments from students, highlighting course/instructor strengths, the most consistent negative comments, and noting any inconsistencies in student comments (e.g. students were split on the issue of group work, with some saying that it was the best part of the course and others feeling that it was a waste of time). I organized this in chronological order, so I can talk about changes made based on past feedback, and at one point (after about 4 courses reviewed) I wrote an extensive personal reflection section, saying that I noticed these trends and this is what I did about them (or why I chose to continue certain practices). Well, the document is 10 pages long. My questions are: 1. What do you expect to see in a document like this when you are looking to hire a new faculty member? 2. Is this too long? 3. Would it be reasonable to develop a shorter version to send to some jobs and send the full version when the school emphasizes teaching in the advertisement? 4. What would you cut? I'm really having difficulty with that, since you need to know that the course met 7 days a week at 7:30am for 3 1/2 weeks in the summer to understand why the most consistent negative comment was that the student's hated the time the class met. I'd be happy to share the actual document with anyone who is really intrigued (or is on a faculty looking to hire a budding social psychologist/methodologist/statistician instructor;-) Thanks in advance, Don ~ Donald J. Rudawsky University of Cincinnati Dept. of Psychology PO Box 210376 Cincinnati, OH 45210-0376 513.558.3146 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://homepages.uc.edu/~rudawsdj
Re: confusing ballot
On Thu, 9 Nov 2000, Dawn Morales wrote: > Hello to all, > > > The reason the registrar's office in Palm Beach county gave for converting > to the new butterfly style ballot was to use a larger font for the type, > and therefore to be easier to read use. Ironic to say the least. > > Dawn > Why not have the option of bilingual ballots in some predominantly Hispanic precincts? Michael Sylvester Daytona Beach,Florida
Florida's Forrest Gump
The voting apparatus in Florida is like a box of chocolate: you never know what you are going to get. Michael Sylvester,PhD Daytona Beach,Florida
confusing ballot
Hello to all, The reason the registrar's office in Palm Beach county gave for converting to the new butterfly style ballot was to use a larger font for the type, and therefore to be easier to read use. Ironic to say the least. Dawn Dawn Morales University of California, San Diego Department of Psychology 9500 Gilman Drive, MC-0109 La Jolla, CA 92093-0109
Re: Following directions
At 1:06 PM -0500 11/9/00, Pat Cabe wrote: >Apparently, the ballots were laid out in a confusing way, but I'm not sure >that >excuses marking two candidates for President. The implication is that individuals realized that they had made a mistake and tried to correct it. Unlike a pencil ballot, punch cards are not correctable. There were also claims that individuals were denied replacement ballots when they realized that they had made a mistake. * PAUL K. BRANDON [EMAIL PROTECTED] * * Psychology Dept Minnesota State University, Mankato * * 23 Armstrong Hall, Mankato, MN 56001 ph 507-389-6217 * *http://www.mankato.msus.edu/dept/psych/welcome.html*
Re: Following directions
Stephen Black wrote: > > On Thu, 9 Nov 2000, Rick Froman wrote: > > > You don't have to suspect. Check it out for yourself at: > > > > http://www.sun-sentinel.com/elections/palmbeachballot.htm > > Very revealing, Rick. Thank you. > > 'Tis true. You would definitely not be the sharpest knife in the > drawer to ignore those arrows and vote for the wrong person. > If you have ever seen one of these ballots it is not so simple. They are slid into a slot and gets "locked" in place by hooking the holes in the ballot card over two little plastic knobs (okay, not the best description but close enough!). Unfortunately, there is some give so it can shift a bit up or down. Thus, the arrows don't always line up directly with the hole to punch but sometimes hit the line above or below. Usually, the candidates are spaced fairly far apart and only on one side of the page so that there is not question as to which candidate one is voting for. On our ballots, the candidates for office including our new dead senator were only on one side of the page. Some of the resolutions concerning our sewer district resembled the two sided Florida ballot. It was very confusing indeed to know what you you were punching. I had to pull out the ballot several times to double-check that I had punched the right hole for a resolution. If you accidentally discovered upon double checking (which I doubt that most individuals do) that you punched the wrong hole, you would have to go and have the ballot invalidated and get a new ballot (it is actually a fairly complicated process). If you have folks who have been waiting in line for a couple of hours to vote, there is a good deal of social pressure to just "let it slide". Finally, I would mention that a fair number of voters in the Florida vote are senior citizens and elderly. Thus, they may be contending with the visual difficulties that are correlated with old age. For them, the ballot would have been a perceptual nightmare. Hope everyone is having a great semester! Linda -- Linda M. Woolf, Ph.D. Associate Professor - Psychology http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/ [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Requirements to Declare Major?
Actually, here is the plan that I have been thinking about. We believe that the student should have at least a 2.0 GPA to get into Psychology (they need 2.0 to graduate). We have students that have less that a 2.0 trying to get into our major (the lowest was someone with a 1.2 - we get at least 4-5 EACH TERM with way lower than a 2.0). Our feeling is, if you can't make a 2.0 in your core and electives (they need to have completed 45 hours before becoming a psych major), then you will struggle - with a high likelihood of having to take each class twice. I have also thought about contracts. If a student is falls below the 2.0 in the psych major, then the advisor and the student create a written contract, so that way all parties know what is expected of them. I haven't hammered out all of the details yet, but this is designed to help the student that does have a bad semester. At 09:34 AM 11/9/00 -0500, Pollak, Edward wrote: >We are also discussing this. We currently have a moratorium on internal >transfers to Psychology because our 500+ majors are really taxing us. We >just passed a rule that to transfer into psychology the students need to >have passed psych courses in two different categories with grades of C or >better. For various reasons we're not permitted to use a GPA criterion even >though education can (because of certification issues). > >FWIW, I have always fought against arbitrarily high entrance criteria for >the major. The fact is that we are a liberal arts school and require that >our students major in SOMETHING. If all Depts. adopted a 2.5 GPA for new >majors it would make a mockery of the notion that a 2.0 is passing and would >represent fraud toward students who were told that they could major in >psychology and are now told they can't. Let's face it, the marginally >competent student needs a major. If you won't let them have one, then don't >admit them! > >That being said, I see nothing inherently wrong with making the PSY major >more rigorous. Such a move is (to me) inherently more fair than an >arbitrary GPA requirement. It also lets students see (up front) what the >requirements are. If your fear is that the Psych major is becoming the >"last refuge of the incompetent," taken by those who can't hack it in other >majors, the solution is to make your program more rigorous. That way you >increase the quality of your program, let students know up front what's >required, and warn off those students looking for an easy way out. >Increasing the GPA requirement is, IMNSHO, just a cheap fix that unjustly >punishes those students who get off to a shaky start in their first year and >does little to improve the major. Heaven knows we've all seen students get >drunk on freedom in their first year and take an academic nose dive. But >we've also seen that many of those students sober up their second year and >become great students. Whatever method you employ to restrict the major you >need to have some way to accommodate these prodigal students. >Ed > >Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, >West Chester Univ. of PA, West Chester, PA 19383 >~~~ >Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and >bluegrass fiddler > >Shameless self promotion: The Mill Creek Bluegrass Band performs every >Tuesday night at Dugal's Inn, Mortonville, PA. Call 610- 486-0953 for >directions. > > > Date: Wed, 8 Nov 2000 17:21:04 -0500 > > From: "Bev Ayers-Nachamkin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Subject: Requirements to Declare Major? > > Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > > Our students declare majors at the end of their first semester as > > sophomores. Once again I find myself jealously eyeing Education's > > requirement that, among other things, any student who wishes to major in > > Ed. > > must have and maintain a 2.5 gpa (soon to be 3.0). Have any of your > > programs > > established criteria that must be satisfied in order to major in Psych or > > Behavioral Sciences? > > Second half of the semester - must be I'm getting cranky ;-) > > > > If there is sufficient interest, I'll be glad to compile responses for the > > list. > > > > Cheers, > > Bev > > > > >>>@@ > > Bev Ayers-Nachamkin > > Wilson College > > 1015 Philadelphia Ave. > > Chambersburg, PA 17201-1285 > > 717-264-4141, Ext. 3285 > > > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Deb Dr. Deborah S. Briihl Dept. of Psychology and Counseling Valdosta State University Valdosta, GA 31698 (229) 333-5994 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Well I know these voices must be my soul... Rhyme and Reason - DMB
Re: Following directions
Apparently, the ballots were laid out in a confusing way, but I'm not sure that excuses marking two candidates for President. > At 07:57 AM 11/09/2000 -0500, Pat Cabe wrote: > Quote from one of my colleagues: "I always wondered what happened to our > students who never could learn to follow directions. Now I know. They move > to Florida and vote twice on the same ballot." Yeah, 19,000 of'em. > ...follow the directions??? You mean it matters??? > Pat Cabe > > If I saw this much error in an experiment I would suspect poor human > factors design and equipment problems and failure. I doubt it's solely the > intelligence of the voter. > Dawn ** Patrick Cabe, Ph.D. Department of Psychology University of North Carolina at Pembroke One University Drive Pembroke, NC 28372-1510 (910) 521-6630 [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." Thomas Jefferson "There is the danger that everyone waits idly for others to act in his stead." Albert Einstein "Majorities simply follow minorities. Gandhi
S&P and Politics
I get TIPs as a daily digest, so I apologize if I'm saying something that's already been said today. If I were teaching Sensation & Perception this fall, I might be enjoying the chance to devote some class time to how the presidential election seems to hinge on a perceptual phenomenon, by which the conflicting cues on the Florida ballot may have led several thousand people to mismark their ballots. I'm not sure one could have a thoughtful classroom discussion of this issue without triggering people to defend whomever they voted for, but it would be fun to try. Just a "psychology is everywhere" kind of thought...
Re: Requirements to Declare Major?
At UCLA (where I went for grad school) your first had to become a pre-psychology major. To become a psychology major you had to pass general psychology, statistics and methods. Maybe also a physiology class. I'm sure the issues at research universities are different than small liberal arts schools. Nevertheless, the point is that many schools (with an influx of psych majors) have made passing certain classes a prerequisite. Marie Vincent Prohaska wrote: > Recently a couple of programs have tried this here, some we have to go > along with because they come out of certification (e.g., Social Work) or > new state requirements (e.g., Education). I find this trend troubling. Our > College (and University) policy staes that a 2.0 GPA is required to be "in > good academic standing." How can we then tell students in good standing > that they cannot enroll in their major of choice because its requirement > is 2.5 or 2.75 or even 3.0? And once the dam is breeched don't we all have > to go along? I would hate to be one of the programs whose requirement > stays at 2.0 while others get raised. But is most of us raise, then "good > standing" becomes meaningless. (I haven't even linked this to the grade > inflation issue - a 2.7 requirement isn't going to be a problem if the > courses in the major have A- as the average grade.) > > Vinny > > Vincent Prohaska, Ph.D. > Associate Professor and Chair > Department of Psychology > Lehman College, City University of New York > Bronx, NY 10468-1589 > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > 718-960-8204 > 718-960-8092 fax
RE: Following directions
On Thu, 9 Nov 2000, Rick Froman wrote: > You don't have to suspect. Check it out for yourself at: > > http://www.sun-sentinel.com/elections/palmbeachballot.htm Very revealing, Rick. Thank you. 'Tis true. You would definitely not be the sharpest knife in the drawer to ignore those arrows and vote for the wrong person. And yet. That ballot violates two of Norman's principles as I recall them. The first is that controls should map appropriately to the device they control (or names should map appropriately to the holes to be punched). (Another example: the controls for my stove burners!) The second principle that the ballot violates is that form should indicate function. According to Norman, and I agree with him, if you have to put a sign on a door saying "push", that's a design failure. And if you have to put an arrow to indicate where you should punch your choice, that's a design failure too. Serves 'em right for not listening to him. -Stephen Stephen Black, Ph.D. tel: (819) 822-9600 ext 2470 Department of Psychology fax: (819) 822-9661 Bishop's Universitye-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Lennoxville, QC J1M 1Z7 Canada Department web page at http://www.ubishops.ca/ccc/div/soc/psy Check out TIPS listserv for teachers of psychology at: http://www.frostburg.edu/dept/psyc/southerly/tips/
Re: making the BA distinctive
Hi, In the Behavioral Sciences department at Millikin Unviversity, we offer a General Psychology Degree - BA with 12hr in a modern language and a capstone experience via a community based internship. The Experimental Psychology Degree - BS has a 10hr (in addition to 4hr for GE) math sciences requirement and a capstone experience via an experiemental research project. Also, the Experimental and General Psychology majors have different required and elective psychology course options. You can see our program of study at http://www.millikin.edu/academics/ArtsSciences/SocialSciences/behavior/psmajor.html Hope this provides some food for thought.Rene >>> "Steven Davis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 11/07/00 01:20PM >>> At North Central College, we offer both the BA and BS in psychology. The main difference is that the BS requires more courses in science and math. We are interested in doing something to make the BA more distinctive, rather than being just the easier option (e.g., requiring a philosophy of science course, other coursework in the social sciences, language requirement, etc.). I was wondering if anyone out there works at a place where the BA has such requirements that make it distinctive (again, rather than just easier), and if so, what are the requirements? Thanks, Steve -- ** * Steven M. Davis, Ph.D. * * Assistant Professor of Psychology * * North Central College * * 30 N. Brainard St. * * Naperville, IL 60566-7063 * ** * [EMAIL PROTECTED]630/637-5327 (office) 630/637-5121 (fax) * ** http://www.noctrl.edu/academics/departments/psychology/department_site/psychome.htm
RE: Following directions
Stephen suggested that a design flaw in some of those Florida ballots caused the problem rather than an inability to follow directions. You can take a look at the ballot yourselves at http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/p/nm/20001108/pl/mdf129505.html This ballot looks like a great example of how not to design a fixed choice instrument. We would not let our students use this design for research purposes. At this time there seems to be a legitimate question about whether this ballot was designed in error. There is nothing like a good conspiracy theory to keep things interesting. OR we could use this opportunity to build enrollment in our research methods classes. For those of us teaching statistics, there is another teaching opportunity here. With 19,000 votes lost when much less then 2,000 make the difference in the current count it is no wonder that the polling folks were wrong. I wish that the other polling problems had been identified because they too are relevant to that issue. Dennis Dennis M. Goff Dept. of Psychology Randolph-Macon Woman's College Lynchburg, VA 24503
RE: Following directions
You don't have to suspect. Check it out for yourself at: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/elections/palmbeachballot.htm Rick Dr. Richard L. Froman Psychology Department John Brown University Siloam Springs, AR 72761 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.jbu.edu/sbs/psych/froman.htm -Original Message- From: Dawn Blasko [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, November 09, 2000 9:03 AM To: Pat Cabe; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Following directions At 07:57 AM 11/09/2000 -0500, Pat Cabe wrote: Quote from one of my colleagues: "I always wondered what happened to our students who never could learn to follow directions. Now I know. They move to Florida and vote twice on the same ballot." Yeah, 19,000 of'em. ...follow the directions??? You mean it matters??? Pat Cabe If I saw this much error in an experiment I would suspect poor human factors design and equipment problems and failure. I doubt it's solely the intelligence of the voter. Dawn Dawn G. Blasko Ph.D. Associate Professor of Experimental Psychology Penn State Erie, The Behrend College Station Road, Erie, PA 16563-1501 Office phone: 814-898-6081 http://www.pserie.psu.edu/hss/psych/blasko.htm "There is the danger that everyone waits idly for others to act in his stead." Albert Einstein
Re: Requirements to Declare Major?
Hi, Bev - In order to move from "pre-major" to "major" status, our students must have earned at least a C in college algebra and at least a C in Psy. 100. Those requirements may sound really minimal, but to be honest, they seem to have had an effect. College algebra is a pre-req for our Statistics in Psychology, and prior to our instituting the requirement of at least a C in it before the student could be a psychology major, we had students who tried to put algebra off as long as possible. They would go on and take all the psychology courses they could that didn't have statistics as a pre-req, and then when they couldn't put off algebra any longer, they would take it. Many would struggle to pass, and some didn't. If they didn't pass algebra, some were understandably distressed to have so many hours in psychology but no major. Those who barely passed algebra then sometimes had to take statistics more than once, and this meant they had to delay the two required courses for which statistics is a pre-req. So it seems that we have at least partially solved the problem by not allowing them to be psychology majors until they have earned at least a C in algebra. The other requirement, earning at least a C in Psy. 100, seemed reasonable to us. Occasionally we had gotten a few majors who had earned a D, but who were sure that they could do better. It was seldom true. I would caution you, however, to be prepared for the consequences of raising the entrance requirements. One consequence may be that number of student credit hours and number of majors will decrease; administrators get suspicious about what might be going on in a program in which those two things happen. You'll have to be prepared to show that you were anticipating that you would have fewer, though higher quality, students. Will this outcome be acceptable to your administration? Another issue is whether you really do want to restrict your major to a select group. Some would argue that psychology has a lot of offer, that we should strive to "give psychology away" to as many people as we can, including (maybe especially!) lower ability students. Some faculty in our department were opposed to our instituting entrance requirements for this very reason. Best wishes - Retta Bev Ayers-Nachamkin wrote: > Our students declare majors at the end of their first semester as > sophomores. Once again I find myself jealously eyeing Education's > requirement that, among other things, any student who wishes to major in Ed. > must have and maintain a 2.5 gpa (soon to be 3.0). Have any of your programs > established criteria that must be satisfied in order to major in Psych or > Behavioral Sciences? > Second half of the semester - must be I'm getting cranky ;-) > > If there is sufficient interest, I'll be glad to compile responses for the > list. > > Cheers, > Bev > > >>>@@ > Bev Ayers-Nachamkin > Wilson College > 1015 Philadelphia Ave. > Chambersburg, PA 17201-1285 > 717-264-4141, Ext. 3285 > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Retta E. Poe, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology Western Kentucky University 1 Big Red Way Bowling Green, Ky. 42101 (270) 745-4409 FAX: (270) 745-6934 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Live long, and prosper!"
Re: Requirements to Declare Major?
At 10:09 AM 11/09/2000 -0500, Vincent Prohaska wrote: > How can we then tell students in good standing >that they cannot enroll in their major of choice because its requirement >is 2.5 or 2.75 or even 3.0? And once the dam is breeched don't we all have >to go along? I would hate to be one of the programs whose requirement >stays at 2.0 while others get raised. But is most of us raise, then "good >standing" becomes meaningless. (I haven't even linked this to the grade >inflation issue - a 2.7 requirement isn't going to be a problem if the >courses in the major have A- as the average grade.) I agree, Several of the majors at Penn State have instituted admissions caps based on GPA , residency requirements or both. I think it's a bad trend and encourages grade inflation and cheating. It also tells the students that some programs are more valuable that others. IMHO either raise the admissions standards or the coursework needed to get into a major. In our case requiring students to have completed both a rigorous math and english course before entering the major would ensure better students. Dawn Dawn G. Blasko Ph.D. Associate Professor of Experimental Psychology Penn State Erie, The Behrend College Station Road, Erie, PA 16563-1501 Office phone: 814-898-6081 http://www.pserie.psu.edu/hss/psych/blasko.htm "There is the danger that everyone waits idly for others to act in his stead." Albert Einstein
RE: Following directions
Dawn Blasko > If I saw this much error in an experiment I would suspect poor human > factors design and equipment problems and failure. I doubt > it's solely the intelligence of the voter. How strange to require more intelligence of the voter than of the nominee... Paul Smith Alverno College Milwaukee
Re: Following directions
At 07:57 AM 11/09/2000 -0500, Pat Cabe wrote: Quote from one of my colleagues: "I always wondered what happened to our students who never could learn to follow directions. Now I know. They move to Florida and vote twice on the same ballot." Yeah, 19,000 of'em. ...follow the directions??? You mean it matters??? Pat Cabe If I saw this much error in an experiment I would suspect poor human factors design and equipment problems and failure. I doubt it's solely the intelligence of the voter. Dawn Dawn G. Blasko Ph.D. Associate Professor of Experimental Psychology Penn State Erie, The Behrend College Station Road, Erie, PA 16563-1501 Office phone: 814-898-6081 http://www.pserie.psu.edu/hss/psych/blasko.htm "There is the danger that everyone waits idly for others to act in his stead." Albert Einstein
Re: Requirements to Declare Major?
Recently a couple of programs have tried this here, some we have to go along with because they come out of certification (e.g., Social Work) or new state requirements (e.g., Education). I find this trend troubling. Our College (and University) policy staes that a 2.0 GPA is required to be "in good academic standing." How can we then tell students in good standing that they cannot enroll in their major of choice because its requirement is 2.5 or 2.75 or even 3.0? And once the dam is breeched don't we all have to go along? I would hate to be one of the programs whose requirement stays at 2.0 while others get raised. But is most of us raise, then "good standing" becomes meaningless. (I haven't even linked this to the grade inflation issue - a 2.7 requirement isn't going to be a problem if the courses in the major have A- as the average grade.) Vinny Vincent Prohaska, Ph.D. Associate Professor and Chair Department of Psychology Lehman College, City University of New York Bronx, NY 10468-1589 [EMAIL PROTECTED] 718-960-8204 718-960-8092 fax
Requirements to Declare Major?
We are also discussing this. We currently have a moratorium on internal transfers to Psychology because our 500+ majors are really taxing us. We just passed a rule that to transfer into psychology the students need to have passed psych courses in two different categories with grades of C or better. For various reasons we're not permitted to use a GPA criterion even though education can (because of certification issues). FWIW, I have always fought against arbitrarily high entrance criteria for the major. The fact is that we are a liberal arts school and require that our students major in SOMETHING. If all Depts. adopted a 2.5 GPA for new majors it would make a mockery of the notion that a 2.0 is passing and would represent fraud toward students who were told that they could major in psychology and are now told they can't. Let's face it, the marginally competent student needs a major. If you won't let them have one, then don't admit them! That being said, I see nothing inherently wrong with making the PSY major more rigorous. Such a move is (to me) inherently more fair than an arbitrary GPA requirement. It also lets students see (up front) what the requirements are. If your fear is that the Psych major is becoming the "last refuge of the incompetent," taken by those who can't hack it in other majors, the solution is to make your program more rigorous. That way you increase the quality of your program, let students know up front what's required, and warn off those students looking for an easy way out. Increasing the GPA requirement is, IMNSHO, just a cheap fix that unjustly punishes those students who get off to a shaky start in their first year and does little to improve the major. Heaven knows we've all seen students get drunk on freedom in their first year and take an academic nose dive. But we've also seen that many of those students sober up their second year and become great students. Whatever method you employ to restrict the major you need to have some way to accommodate these prodigal students. Ed Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, West Chester Univ. of PA, West Chester, PA 19383 ~~~ Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and bluegrass fiddler Shameless self promotion: The Mill Creek Bluegrass Band performs every Tuesday night at Dugal's Inn, Mortonville, PA. Call 610- 486-0953 for directions. > Date: Wed, 8 Nov 2000 17:21:04 -0500 > From: "Bev Ayers-Nachamkin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Requirements to Declare Major? > Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Our students declare majors at the end of their first semester as > sophomores. Once again I find myself jealously eyeing Education's > requirement that, among other things, any student who wishes to major in > Ed. > must have and maintain a 2.5 gpa (soon to be 3.0). Have any of your > programs > established criteria that must be satisfied in order to major in Psych or > Behavioral Sciences? > Second half of the semester - must be I'm getting cranky ;-) > > If there is sufficient interest, I'll be glad to compile responses for the > list. > > Cheers, > Bev > > >>>@@ > Bev Ayers-Nachamkin > Wilson College > 1015 Philadelphia Ave. > Chambersburg, PA 17201-1285 > 717-264-4141, Ext. 3285 > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [EMAIL PROTECTED] >
Re: Following directions
On Thu, 9 Nov 2000, Pat Cabe wrote: > Quote from one of my colleagues: "I always wondered what happened to our > students who never could learn to follow directions. Now I know. They move to > Florida and vote twice on the same ballot." Yeah, 19,000 of'em. > > ...follow the directions??? You mean it matters??? On the contrary, if I recall what Donald Norman said in one of my favourite psychology books, _The Psychology of Everyday Things_, it was something like "There is no such thing as human error, only design error". I understand that the ballot used for those votes in Florida illustrates exactly what he was talking about. -Stephen Stephen Black, Ph.D. tel: (819) 822-9600 ext 2470 Department of Psychology fax: (819) 822-9661 Bishop's Universitye-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Lennoxville, QC J1M 1Z7 Canada Department web page at http://www.ubishops.ca/ccc/div/soc/psy Check out TIPS listserv for teachers of psychology at: http://www.frostburg.edu/dept/psyc/southerly/tips/
Re: Requirements to Declare Major?
We have been talking about it here - in fact, I posted a message a few weeks ago about that same subject and didn't receive any replies. I do know that there are some schools with requirements because I found a few through an internet search (if you want the names, I can send them). At 05:21 PM 11/8/00 -0500, Bev Ayers-Nachamkin wrote: >Our students declare majors at the end of their first semester as >sophomores. Once again I find myself jealously eyeing Education's >requirement that, among other things, any student who wishes to major in Ed. >must have and maintain a 2.5 gpa (soon to be 3.0). Have any of your programs >established criteria that must be satisfied in order to major in Psych or >Behavioral Sciences? >Second half of the semester - must be I'm getting cranky ;-) > >If there is sufficient interest, I'll be glad to compile responses for the >list. > >Cheers, >Bev > > >>>@@ >Bev Ayers-Nachamkin >Wilson College >1015 Philadelphia Ave. >Chambersburg, PA 17201-1285 >717-264-4141, Ext. 3285 > >[EMAIL PROTECTED] >[EMAIL PROTECTED] Deb Dr. Deborah S. Briihl Dept. of Psychology and Counseling Valdosta State University Valdosta, GA 31698 (229) 333-5994 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Well I know these voices must be my soul... Rhyme and Reason - DMB
Following directions
Quote from one of my colleagues: "I always wondered what happened to our students who never could learn to follow directions. Now I know. They move to Florida and vote twice on the same ballot." Yeah, 19,000 of'em. ...follow the directions??? You mean it matters??? Pat Cabe ** Patrick Cabe, Ph.D. Department of Psychology University of North Carolina at Pembroke One University Drive Pembroke, NC 28372-1510 (910) 521-6630 [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." Thomas Jefferson "There is the danger that everyone waits idly for others to act in his stead." Albert Einstein "Majorities simply follow minorities. Gandhi
