Teaching Psychology

Book excerpt: Most new psychology instructors enter their first undergraduate classrooms with little or no formal preparation for their role as a teacher. The goal of this book is to review the body of teaching research that is available as well as some of the well-accepted lore, so as to make the first foray into teaching psychology a positive experience. Teaching Psychology outlines the major problems and issues confronting psychology teachers. It presents an overview of the "nuts and bolts" of teaching psychology including dealing with troubled and troubling students, choosing and using technology, developing evaluation instruments, and selecting methods for self-evaluation. Written by two award-winning psychology professors with over 50 years of combined teaching experience, the book offers a wide range of down-to-earth suggestions and immediately usable materials intended to help psychology teachers teach better and help students learn more. The chapters are organized to roughly parallel the sequence of tasks that new psychology teachers face, beginning with goal setting and ending with evaluation of one's teaching. Each chapter is chockfull of helpful tools including checklists, sample lecture notes, writing assignments, and grading criteria. To make it easier to customize this material, these tools are available on an accompanying CD along with a rating sheet for choosing a textbook, a student grade-record sheet, a sample statement on academic integrity and a pool of less-than-perfect test items to hone item-writing skills. This book offers guidelines for teaching such as: setting goals in line with 10 basic principles of effective teaching planning the basics including choosing a text, writing a syllabus, and creating a grading system setting a positive tone in the classroom providing tips on asking and answering questions, promoting critical thinking, and evaluating student performance. Intended for psychology graduate students who are learning to teach, faculty who train psychology instructors, and new psychology faculty at institutions ranging from high schools to universities, as well as experienced faculty wishing to hone their teaching skills.