One assignment that I have seen requires the explanation of a person's behavior from different perspectives - similar to what is seen in the abnormal section of an Intro class. Students could chose someone famous and try to explain their behaviors. I've done this for an Honor's Intro class - my favorite example was Scooby Doo - the student took the biological perspective for why he acts the way he does (the characteristics of a Great Dane) and the obvious learning approach (Scooby Snacks!).
Frantz, Sue wrote: >We've based our student learning outcomes for Intro Psych on the APA Guidelines for the Undergraduate Psychology Major: http://www.apa.org/ed/precollege/about/psymajor-guidelines.pdf. > >Goal 5, Values in Psychology (pdf page 17) reads, "Value empirical evidence, tolerate ambiguity, act ethically, and reflect other values that are the underpinnings of psychology as a science." Within this one goal are 7 suggested student learning outcomes. The one we want to address is 5.4: "Tolerate ambiguity and realize that psychological explanations are often complex and tentative." > >In our brainstorming, we came up with giving students a scenario and asking them to describe the events in the scenario from a number of different psychological perspectives, e.g. biological, behavioral, cognitive. To get at the ambiguity part, we were looking for some writing prompt that would evaluate whether students understood that one perspective isn't the correct perspective, but rather all contribute to our understanding. We had a couple ideas on how to do that, but none we were happy with, and certainly none that led to an obvious grading rubric. > >Rather than reinvent the wheel, I was wondering if anyone else has evaluated this student learning outcome, and if so, how. To reiterate, we are not at all committed to this particular assignment. We're just looking for ideas. > >Some people suggested using 'tolerance of ambiguity' scales. This is an approach we hadn't considered. I wonder if one Intro Psych course would show much movement on such a scale, or if it's even fair to expect such a thing. I also wonder if scores on such a scale at the beginning of the course (or the end of the course) would correlate with final grade in the course. > >And then I wonder if it's possible to construct such a scale that's specific to psychology, a 'tolerance of ambiguity in psychology' scale. > >Sue > > >-- >Sue Frantz Highline Community College >Psychology, Coordinator Des Moines, WA >206.878.3710 x3404 sfra...@highline.edu > >Office of Teaching Resources in Psychology, Associate Director >Teaching of Psychology Idea Exchange (ToPIX) >APA Division 2: Society for the Teaching of Psychology > >APA's p...@cc Committee > > > > > > >--- >You are currently subscribed to tips as: dbri...@valdosta.edu. >To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13162.50de294b9d4987a3c89b4a5cc4bdea62&n=T&l=tips&o=2838 >or send a blank email to leave-2838-13162.50de294b9d4987a3c89b4a5cc4bde...@fsulist.frostburg.edu ---------------------------------- Deb Dr. Deborah S. Briihl Dept. of Psychology and Counseling Valdosta State University 229-333-5994 dbri...@valdosta.edu --- 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=2851 or send a blank email to leave-2851-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
