Helping Students to Think Like Psychologists Jacquelyn Cranney and Sue Morris

1. Helping Students to Think Like Psychologists Jacquelyn Cranney and Sue Morris University of New South Wales

2. Cranney, J. & Morris, S. PLAT, York, June 2006 Background Our approach What does it mean to think like a psychologist? Some examples Conclusion

3. Cranney, J. & Morris, S. PLAT, York, June 2006 • Background • Large first year psychology courses: • Appreciation of psychology as a science • Appreciation of factors that influence own and others’ behaviour • Basics of critical thinking about human behaviour • Small first year B.Psychol course: • Beginning of professional training in psychological science and its applications

4. Cranney, J. & Morris, S. PLAT, York, June 2006 • Challenges for students in their first year: • grasp the expectations of university • experience a sense of belonging • develop skills needed to engage successfully • Large class format not conducive to this • academic and social integration: • surface vs. deep learning • heterogeneity of student population

5. Cranney, J. & Morris, S. PLAT, York, June 2006 Our Approach Enhance first year experience by taking a multifaceted, integrated approach to meeting the heterogeneous needs of students within the first year psychology context.

6. Cranney, J. & Morris, S. PLAT, York, June 2006 • target development of essential enabling skillsthat are “assumed knowledge” in all beginning students • create explicit programs for development of graduate attributesthat have strong generic as well as discipline-specific components (eg team-work skills) • personalise the experience for individual students by fostering small learning communities, by facilitating high-quality support from staff and other sources, and by supporting diversity in background, ability, and aspirations • Employ active learning strategies and facilitating opportunities to apply knowledge and realise personal relevance of psychological concepts in order to promote motivated and deeper learning

7. Cranney, J. & Morris, S. PLAT, York, June 2006 Level of graduate attribute GA attainment as a function of time (end of high school until graduation). Represented are one average student who begins university with, and one without, the required level of enabling skills. The green zone is acceptable (pass); the red zone is unacceptable (fail). Solid line = multiple targeted programs on enabling skill and graduate attribute development. Dashed line = no explicit emphasis on enabling skill or graduate attribute development. Cranney, J. & Morris, S. PLAT, York, June 2006

8. The holistic approach to supporting students during first year transition. Each circle represents a unique student within a large, heterogeneous first year course. Each colour represents a basic enabling skill or a graduate attribute (GA) that should be developed during the course. The higher the colour saturation, the higher the ability in the skill/attribute. Each student will begin the course with a different “mix” of abilities, and thus, heterogeneous needs. The effect of a holistic approach with several different enabling skill and graduate attribute development programs is to support students in acquiring the academic skills that will enable them to succeed in their program of study. Cranney, J. & Morris, S. PLAT, York, June 2006

9. Cranney, J. & Morris, S. PLAT, York, June 2006 • What does it mean to think like a psychologist • at a first year level? • Introductory knowledge of major theoretical and empirical base of major areas in psychology: regurgitation vs. understanding and application (to own and others’ behaviour) • Introductory development of critical, creative, and reflective thinking skills • Appreciation of how to scientifically investigate a question about behaviour ie how to do psychological research (individually or in a group) =

10. Cranney, J. & Morris, S. PLAT, York, June 2006 • find and evaluate information relevant to research question (literature search) • construct hypotheses based on theory, empirical findings and/or logic • construct an appropriate design and methodology to test the hypotheses (ethics, feasibility) • collect the data • analysis of data • Interpretation of results • written and/or oral presentation of results (appropriate formats)

11. Cranney, J. & Morris, S. PLAT, York, June 2006 • Some Examples • A. Increase student understanding and application of psychological knowledge • Some strategies: • more active learning exercises to stimulate deeper learning, higher order thinking • make material more relevant eg developmental activities on topic of adjustment to university life • break down classes into smaller groups • explicit scaffolding and linkage of assessment tasks

12. Cranney, J. & Morris, S. PLAT, York, June 2006 • Impact: • student evaluations of tutorials consistently high, and focus group comments re. value of tutorials • specific comments re. application of this knowledge • “In a lot of subjects it is just learning, not applying, This you can apply to everyday life.” • “Instead of just saying this is the…Barnum Effect and just blurting out what it is, we actually got to experience it. I can’t forget what it is because we actually played a part in learning it. I saw the tutorials as active learning.”

13. “The [social loafing] tutorial was most interesting as I was learning something completely new. I had never heard of social loafing, nor was I aware of what happened when people worked in teams. This was fascinating to me and made me realise how Psychology can be used in the workplace to determine the best way to form a high functioning group. Actually, the whole course opened my eyes to the diverse range of applications of psychology, which don’t just involve helping people” • specific statements that small groups successfully personalises first year experience • “Activities where individuals participate in groups which allows us to interact with each other and hence increased the level of interest towards psychology…this is very rewarding”

14. Cranney, J. & Morris, S. PLAT, York, June 2006 • B. Critical, Creative and Reflective Thinking • Critical thinking: aim is to develop a generally skeptical attitude with respect to human behaviour, and particularly to realise: • common mistakes in the logic of our everyday • thinking (fallacies) • (b) the strengths and limitations of scientific • approaches to the study of human behaviour • (c) logical and methodologically sound approaches to • the study of behaviour

15. Cranney, J. & Morris, S. PLAT, York, June 2006 • Creativethinking at this level of disciplinary knowledge includes some capacity to: • design experiments and programs of evaluation to • address specific issues • generally engage in creative problem-solving • The ability to reflect upon one’s own learning is an integral part of the learning process, and can be thought of as one aspect of critical thinking.

16. Some strategies: • challenging students about their existing beliefs and attitudes, thus promoting critical thinking capacity • asking students to design experiments or programs of evaluation, usually in a group, and reporting back to the class • asking students to reflect on one aspect of the tutorial program that particularly changed their way of thinking • “The tutorials help me to think critically…it introduced me [to] another way of thinking” Cranney, J. & Morris, S. PLAT, York, June 2006

17. “They were constantly presenting 2 sides of an argument…we were encouraged not to accept anything, but to think about it” “I benefited most from the [emphasis on] critical thinking – don’t accept anything, question everything, look for evidence. It just opens your mind” “The first and most helpful thing I have learnt from participating in research is that nothing is what it seems. I now critically think about the tasks I do in each experiment and what the experimenter is manipulating and/or measuring…It also creates a connection between the theory and practical components of psychology. I can now easily identify the independent and dependant variables and make practical connections to numerous other theoretical items I have learnt ….”

18. Cranney, J. & Morris, S. PLAT, York, June 2006 • C. Information Literacy Skills (ILS) • (Major Collaborators: Branka Spehar, Southnary Tan, Roman Tantiongco) • essential to both research and evidence-based application • standard laboratory report assumes a basic skill level, but little structured or embedded support for development of such skills

19. Cranney, J. & Morris, S. PLAT, York, June 2006 • Approach: • developed six specific ILS WebCT modules • integrated this skill development into the course with • general and specific assessment exercises • evaluated the effectiveness of the exercise • pre- and post-tests • interactive improvement of modules to: enhance • usability, incorporate ongoing student feedback, and • address issues that students find challenging

20. Lectures Field Studies Methodology Assignment Research Report WebCT Modules Tutorials ILS Delivery and Context Available Information Resources Searching and Locating References in the Library Defining your Topic and Searching Databases Citation Searching: Web of Science Evaluating Information and Using it Appropriately Plagiarism and Referencing

21. Version 1

22. Improved navigation • Interactive • Printable version Version 2

23. Module Content

24. Cranney, J. & Morris, S. PLAT, York, June 2006 • Impact: • pre-test (2.6) to post-test (4.3 /5) improvement • students rated the program as one they liked (3.7) and found useful (4.2 /5) • each module received 1500+ “hits” in Session 1 • more than 1/3 students revisited the modules in Session 2 • students rated ILS program as highly valuable and as giving skills that were generalisable to other courses

25. ILS Pre- vs Post-Test Performance Reading each module enhanced performance in short- and long-term

26. “I think that people who do psychology must have an advantage on getting the referencing, because it is almost as good as a full subject in research” “After doing these modules, it was like Wow! Is that how you do it! And I have being doing it ever since…I think they are great” “At first I thought ‘I can’t believe we have to do this and it’s not even worth anything’ but it was actually really useful to do it” “WebCT was amazing. It’s got so much information on there, like the ILS modules were really good.”

27. Cranney, J. & Morris, S. PLAT, York, June 2006 • D. Team-skills and Research Training • Team-skills one of the top three attributes desired by employers • group projects have multiple positive learning outcomes eg exposing students to different perspectives, development of interpersonal skills, and enabling the design of more complex and deeper learning tasks (cf negatives) • However: usually little training or support for students in development of team-skills

28. Cranney, J. & Morris, S. PLAT, York, June 2006 • Approach: • psychological science: group dynamics • highly structured and progressive strategy • contextualised task of a research training exercise • detailed and focused student resources • assessed both task output and team processes • innovative assessments • targeted training of tutors

29. Task 1: Design Field Study to investigate factors influencing judgement of body shape Peer- & tutor- assessed oral presentation of study method Allocation to groups at start of session Forms & Feedback Task 2: Data collection and “analysis” • Groups decided on: • different judgements to be made (eg too thin, too fat) • different groups to test (eg males vs females) • Collected data from 20 participants Peer- & tutor- assessed oral presentation of study results Group Research Project

30. Cranney, J. & Morris, S. PLAT, York, June 2006 • Impact: • self-rated improvement of team-work skills • students valued the exercise • significant improvement in team cohesion, productivity and personal satisfaction from beginning to end of the teamwork exercise • revision of strategies on the basis of student and staff feedback • significant improvements in team-work ratings from 2003 to 2004

31. “Working in groups can be rewarding, regardless of the final result” “I really liked how they forced us to say what do you like about the group” “This [group work] tutorial helped me develop better skills concerning working in groups… It was interesting to observe the group dynamics and emergence of leaders in the task” “I went into the group with quite a negative view…but 4 of us ended up doing all the work and sharing and it was a real group” “(The forms) made us aware of what was happening, what needed to be done ”

32. E. Other Approaches to Research Training • scaffolded assessment exercises • group research project -- design, implement, present • hypothesis generation exercises in tutorials • research participation including guided learning and reflective component • = students develop an appreciation of the context in which research exists, and the discipline-specific relevance of the graduate attributes they are concurrently acquiring Cranney, J. & Morris, S. PLAT, York, June 2006

33. Cranney, J. & Morris, S. PLAT, York, June 2006 Impact: “Just seeing everything we learned in lectures in action was very interesting, seeing how the rules and ethics and other components were executed. It was fantastic.” “Participation in Experimental Research has allowed me to apply scientific principles whilst evaluating and thinking critically about psychological science. In participating I have gained experience, knowledge and an understanding of various theories, methods and measures.” “the experiments were good…they allowed us to gain a deeper understanding and broader viewpoints”

34. Cranney, J. & Morris, S. PLAT, York, June 2006 • F. Putting it all together: Portfolio Development • (collaborators: M.Kofod, K.Levin, L.Jensen, G.Huon) • Portfolio tools assist students to: • reflect on and record their experiences and achievements • plan the further development of graduate attributes (GA), and career development • demonstrate skills and knowledge to potential employers

35. Cranney, J. & Morris, S. PLAT, York, June 2006 Approach: (a) assist students to become aware of their current level of achievement (b) provide structured development of specific GA within the course (c) encourage further development of GA prior to graduation

36. Strategies included: • pre- and post-ratings and assessments • specific graduate attribute development tasks • researching extracurricular activities • lectures on different areas of professional psychology • portfolio documentation and writing an application for an internship in a psychological setting. • UNSW Student Portfolio Support websitehttp://www.portfolios.unsw.edu.au/default.cfm Cranney, J. & Morris, S. PLAT, York, June 2006

38. Impact: Students improved in the targeted skill areas (eg average mark for experimental design increased from 41 to 63 %) “Completing a graduate attributes portfolio allowed me to begin to document information relating to my career. The evidence of graduate attributes that I have compiled will be of great benefit to me when seeking work (paid and voluntary) in psychology. This exercise also allowed me to become aware of the weaknesses in my portfolio of skills and has resulted in me thinking of ways to improve on these areas. My path to attaining a career in psychology is clearer as a result of finding these solutions. Also, learning to write a cover letter has been useful and should help me attain the future positions that I seek. Finally, the resume exercise has also been of benefit. Learning facts about resumes, such as the fact that my chance of attaining a position increases by approximately 30% when I include a statement about my career objective, has been interesting and will also be helpful when I apply for my next position.” Cranney, J. & Morris, S. PLAT, York, June 2006

39. CONCLUSION In a small class context, where there may be a relatively homogeneous group of students with similar needs relevant to their similar educational background and career aspirations, a single innovative strategy may have a significant impact on most students. In a large course, however, there is a high level of heterogeneity in student needs. This challenging situation needs to be approached by utilising sustainable and evidence-based learning and teaching strategies focusing on developing essential enabling skills and core graduate attributes that have both generic and discipline-specific relevance. Cranney, J. & Morris, S. PLAT, York, June 2006

40. Cranney, J. & Morris, S. PLAT, York, June 2006 • To help our students think like psychologists, we need to do know: • the most effective evidence-based strategies to assist their learning (ie the psychology of learning) • how to deal with diversity issues (ie individual differences in learning)

41. “[the tutorials] showed me that psych is not some airy-fairy theory, but something that is applicable to many aspects of life. I remember this tut clearly thanks to the example used in teaching. It was taught clearly and relevantly, and has therefore allowed me to be aware of the Fundamental Attribution error in my own attitudes” “Because it’s such a wide-ranging course and because you have so many faculties in first year doing it, it is good that it [the PSYC1001 course] is there to give you that basis of knowledge of university, and people can apply it in other areas.”

42. Cranney, J. & Morris, S. PLAT, York, June 2006 Acknowledgements Learning and Teaching Unit, UNSW Learning Centre, UNSW EdSquad, Faculty of Science, UNSW All the tutors and students of PSYC1001, PSYC1011, and PSYC1021 (2003-now). Bibliography Benjamin, L.T. (1991). Personalization and active learning in the large introductory psychology class. Teaching of Psychology, 18, 68-74 Bloom, B.S. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: The clarification of educational goals. New York, McKay. Bowden, J., Hart, G., King, B., Trigwell, K., & Watts, O. (2000). Generic Capabilities of ATN University Graduates. Ennis, R.E. (2000). An outline of goals for a critical thinking curriculum and its assessment. http://www.critical thinking.net/goals.html., accessed 21.6.05 Ennis, R.H. (1996). Critical Thinking. NJ: Prentice Hall Feigenbaum, E. & Friend, R. (1992). A comparison of freshman and upper division student preferences for small and large psychology classes. Teaching of Psychology, 19, 12-16. Halonen, J. (1995). Demystifying critical thinking. Teaching in Psychology, 22,1,75-81. Halpern, D.F. (1998). Teaching critical thinking for transfer across domains: disposition, skills, structure training, and metacognitive monitoring. American Psychologist Johnston, L. & Miles, L. (2004) Assessing contributions to group assignments. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 29, 751-768. McInnis, C., James, R. & McNaught, C. (1995). First year on the campus: Diversity in the initial experiences of Australian undergraduates, Melbourne: Centre for the Study of Higher Education (University of Melbourne) McKeachie, W. (1980). Class size, large classes and multiple sections. Academe, 66, 24-27. Starfield, S., Trahn, I. & Scoufis, M. (2004) Enabling Skills at UNSW: A Discussion Paper. Ward, A. & Jenkins, J. (1992). In G.Gibbs & A.Jenkins (eds) Teaching large classes in higher education. London: Kogan Page.