On re-reading this message of mine I realize that the meaning of the numbers
may not be clear, and may come off indicating the opposite of what I think
that they indicate. The important thing is that I left off quite a few
courses that were only mentioned once, or not at all in response to these
questions. It may sound like 4 or 6 mentions out of 51 graduates is very
few, but in fact, that would put a course among the most-mentioned. Students
were not required to mention specific courses, and more than a few instead
chose to talk about more general experiences, or specific experiences not
related to courses (that's why, for example, only 34 of the 51 students
mentioned Senior Seminar as a course in which they met the Theoretical
Reasoning outcome, despite the fact that they were all required to meet that
outcome in that class, and were well aware that they were doing so).
I think the effectiveness of the Experimental class would be more clearly
shown by these numbers if I were to have included the list of courses that
received no mentions at all (which of course is another issue entirely, and
one I hope to address).
Paul Smith
Alverno College
Milwaukee
----- Original Message -----
From: Paul Smith <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, October 11, 2002 7:01 AM
Subject: Re: Purpose of Experimental Psychology
> Here are the top few answers to the first question ("most proud of",
> with # of graduates giving that response):
> Senior Seminar 23
> Experimental 11
> Physiological 10
> Learning and Cognition 7
> OCEL (incl. 383) 4
> Social 3
>
> ("OCEL" is the required internship experience, and includes two semesters
of
> work).
> (I have left off several courses that were cited only once, or not at all)
>
> and to the second question ("most meaningful"):
> Senior Seminar 15
> OCEL (incl. 383) 12
> Physiological 6
> Experimental 6
> Learning and Cognition 5
> Clinical 2
>
> and to the third ("most dissatisfying"):
> Experimental 12
> Adult Learner 4
> Senior Seminar 4
> Family 3
> Physiological 3
> Learning and Cognition 3
>
> Experimental easily topped this list, but the reasons that the
students
> gave in 10 of those 12 instances were about their frustrations at not
having
> done the work carefully enough or having felt sufficiently well-prepared
> (the other two were an inability to get funding for a project and a
> personality clash).
>
> Our students also identified courses in which they met each of the
> department's four major outcomes.
> -Theoretical Reasoning-
> Senior Seminar 34
> Learning and Cognition 11
> Social 6
> Experimental 4
> Physiological 2
>
> -Methodological Proficiency-
> Experimental 25
> OCEL (incl. 383) 13
> Clinical 8
> Learning and Cognition 3
> Senior Seminar 3
>
> -Professional Interaction-
> OCEL (incl. 383) 28
> Applied Research 6
> Experimental 4
> Physiological 3
> Clinical 3
>
> -Self Reflection-
> OCEL (incl. 383) 7
> Senior Seminar 6
> Clinical 2
> Physiological 1
> Experimental 1
> Applied Research 1
> Learning and Cognition 1
>
> Notice that Experimental is not only the leader in Methodological
> Proficiency (not at all surprising) but is also among the leaders in two
of
> the other three categories (where other courses are the intended source of
> the outcome).
>
>
> ---
> You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
---
You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
