I think we must always keep in mind our own personalities in addition to the
type of class we are teaching and what we want the students to take from it.
As a graduate student I took a seminar in teaching psychology, and the
professor who led the seminar argued that it was the instructor's job to
entertain the students. Even if I totally agreed with that (which I don't),
I am not and never will be an entertainer, and for me to try to play that
role would be a disaster. I think Zimbardo sees himself as an entertainer,
and I'm sure he is quite good at what he does, but it wouldn't work for me.
That is one reason I chose to teach at a small school---I don't have to deal
with sections of >100 students.
Kris Lewis
Saint Michael's College
Colchester VT
> ----------
> From: Patrick O. Dolan[SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Reply To: Patrick O. Dolan
> Sent: Thursday, March 18, 1999 8:58 AM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Re: philosophy of teaching intro psych
>
> Matt- you bring up a good point. I made sure I TA'd Intro
> before I left graduate school to at least get a chance to read
> Gleitman and get a feel for how one teaches such a broad topic
> course. Imagine my surprise! This respected full professor
> of this large research university was doing a one-man
> show- psycho-dramas (his terms), AV demos, stand-up comedy
> -- he even brought in his dog to perform tricks during the analysis
> of behavior sections. This was quite different from my experience
> as an undergraduate. It sounds very similar in philosophy
> to what you experienced. A lot was left for the students to
> learn and read on their own (there were ~6 TA's and lots of smaller
> recitations sections too). The bottom line was that he was very
> effective, well respected, and really challanging (he covered every
> chapter of the full Gleitman text in ~15 weeks).
>
> Maybe this philosophy or style is well suited for a large (several
> hundred in my case) class where more traditional interactive/discussion
> lecture styles are not as possible. McKeachie (Teaching Tips)
> discusses different approaches to teaching when the class is large
> - my experience (and it sounds like yours) is that this approach may
> be a good one. Will you be teaching a large class or more reasonably
> sized one? I wonder if it would be so effective with a class of 25.
>
> Good luck, and congratulations on the new position!
>
> Patrick
>
>
>
> At 12:04 PM 3/17/99 -0800, Matthew Prull wrote:
> >TIPSters:
> >
> >I have been an off-and-on subscriber of TIPS for many years, primarily
> >during my graduate years, and have read hundreds upon hundreds of posts
> >with great interest. However, I feel that only now am I about to begin
> my
> >teaching career -- in the fall I'll start my career as a professor and
> >I've been asked to teach intro psych. Although I previously taught
> >courses in cognitive psych throughout grad school, I haven't taught in
> >quite some time (I've been in a postdoc position for the past 3 years),
> >and I have never taught intro psych. I've already begun to think about
> >various ways in which intro psych might be taught and thought I'd solicit
> >inputs from the members of TIPS.
> >
> >To get some ideas, I decided last week to attend Phil Zimbardo's intro
> >lecture on social psych, in which he described the stanford prison
> >experiment, Milgram's infamous study on obedience to authority, etc. It
> >was an impressive multi-media tour de force -- about 20 overheads, 40
> >slides, and a half-dozen video clips were displayed during a two-hour
> >lecture. I started taking notes but found myself eventually just
> watching
> >the presentation -- at the end I had less than one page of notes, more
> >than anyone else around me. No questions were asked by students during
> >the two hour period -- I assume that these are saved for the smaller
> >seminar-like sections that are led by the TAs (attendance at these
> >sections is optional). I thought the lecture was wonderful -- students
> >applauded at the end.
> >
> >I learned later that many of those who teach intro psych here approach it
> >almost like a "talk show" -- lectures contain lots of visuals, video, and
> >sound, with the primary goal of getting students excited about psychology
> >and motivated to read the text. There are lots of guest lecturers. The
> >text seems to be the primary source of learning, not the lecture.
> >
> >This "talk-show" format appeared to me to contrast sharply with the more
> >"traditional" format of the intro course that I remember taking as an
> >undergraduate way back when. From what I can remember, those lectures
> >were far less A/V-heavy, and focused on basic principles, theories, and
> >experiments that were described in the course text. Questions from
> >students were very frequent (but then, we didn't have separate sections),
> >and there were class discussions occasionally. The central goal of the
> >course did not seem to be to get students "excited" about the field of
> >psychology with lots of overheads and videos, etc., but was to facilitate
> >students' learning of basic psychological principles and elaborate on the
> >information contained in the text. I felt that I learned as much, if not
> >more, from lecture than from the text. I don't remember any guest
> >lecturers. I thought it was a great course.
> >
> >What do the members of TIPS think about the talk-show vs. traditional
> >approaches? What are the pros and cons of these two philosophies of
> >teaching? How to best teach psych 1?
> >
> >Cheers,
> >
> >Matthew Prull
> >
> >-------------------------------------------------------------------------
> -
> >Matthew Prull, Ph.D. Phone: (650) 725-0797
>
> >Department of Psychology Fax: (650) 725-5699
> >Jordan Hall, Bldg. 420
> >Stanford University Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >Stanford, CA 94305-2130 Web:
> http://matia.stanford.edu/~prullm/
> >-------------------------------------------------------------------------
> -
> >
> >
> ****************************************************************
> Patrick O. Dolan Voice: 314-935-8731
> Department of Psychology Fax: 314-935-7588
> Washington University
> Campus Box 1125
> One Brookings Drive
> St. Louis, MO 63130-4899
>
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>
