I think there are wide individual differences across disciplines. Whether the AP exam deserves credit based on a particular score was recently discussed on the psychteach list.
As most everyone on tips knows, there is a subset of us who are AP Readers and others who have been on the committee that reviews and evaluates AP proposals--yes, each AP course has to be approved. Syllabi are closely examined and feedback provided to ensure the depth and breadth that is necessary for students to succeed. I for one am very impressed with the psychology exam. For students to do well on the exam they really must have a comprehensive grasp of the field, MUCH more so than most students who simply complete intro psych in a single college quarter or semester and then never take another psych class. And it cannot just be a memorized parroting of information. The essay questions tend to be integrative and it is typically quite difficult for students to score well. Several years we have had a mode of 2 or 3 out of 10 on my essay. There are times when scoring a 10 is so outstanding that everyone at a table cheers. OK, so it's a very quiet cheer. So, I think that it's very difficult to compare the exam across disciplines. There are qualitatively different conceptual underpinnings. Perhaps some can be better taught in an AP course than others. 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: Richard Hake [rrh...@earthlink.net] Sent: Monday, April 11, 2011 8:05 PM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Cc: aera_tep_sig128-fo...@listserv.aera.net Subject: Re:[tips] Question About AP Some subscribers to TIPS and TeachEdPsych might be interested in discussion-list post "Re: Question About AP" [Hake (2011)]. The abstract reads: ******************************************* ABSTRACT: EDDRA2's Susan Ohanian wrote: "Someone asked me for research questioning Advanced Placement." I suggest Susan check out "AP: A Critical Examination of the Advanced Placement Program" [Sadler et al. (2010).] In his review of that book Scott Jaschik wrote (paraphrasing): "Coeditor Sadler summed up by stating 'Advanced Placement courses offer students an opportunity to study a subject in a very rigorous and demanding fashion [and] college admissions officers are correct to assume that success in the courses is a meaningful measure of academic achievements.' But if it's so rigorous and such a good gauge of achievement why are "Force Concept Inventory" average pretest scores so abysmally low for university students entering introductory courses, many of whom have taken AP-Physics? An older resource relevant to AP courses is the NRC's "Learning and Understanding: Improving Advanced Study of Mathematics and Science in U.S. High Schools" [Gollub et al. (2002)]. BTW -Susan Ohanian wages unrelenting battle with the "Standardistas" at <http://www.susanohanian.org/>. ******************************************* To access the complete 13 kB post please click on <http://bit.ly/i3uB5u>. --- 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=9958 or send a blank email to leave-9958-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
