Full Description
Introductory and capstone experiences in the undergraduate psychology program are crucial ways to engage students in their major and psychology department, impart realistic expectations, and prepare them for life beyond college. Providing the right orientation and capstone courses in psychology education is increasingly a concern of instructors, department chairs, program directors, and deans, and both types of courses have become important sources for gathering pre- and post-coursework assessment data for degree learning outcomes.
The strategies presented here have been designed to help educators examine issues around teaching the introductory or careers course and developing a psychology-specific orientation program. The authors also provide concrete suggestions for building capstone experiences designed to fit the needs of a department, its pedagogical philosophy, or the educational agenda of the college or university. Undergraduate psychology curriculum designers and instructors can benefit from learning innovative and effective strategies for introducing the major to first-year students and, at graduation, for bringing closure, reinforcing the overall departmental learning outcomes, and helping students apply their disciplinary knowledge in capstone experiences and post-graduate life.
In this collection of articles, psychology instructors involved in the improvement of teaching and learning review the research and share their own successes and challenges in the classroom. Discussions include effective practices for helping students become acclimated to and engaged in the psychology major, application of developmental knowledge and learning communities to course design, and use of quality benchmarks to improve introductory and capstone courses. Other chapters describe innovations in the design of stand-alone courses and offer concrete advice on counseling psychology graduates about how to use what they have learned beyond their higher education experiences.
Contents
Contributor List
About the Editors
Foreword, James C. Goodwin
Preface
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1. Undergraduate Education in Psychology: All's Well that Begins and Ends Well
Dana S. Dunn, Bernard C. Beins, Maureen A. McCarthy, & G. William Hill IV
Part I: Beginnings
Chapter 2. Addressing the Multiple Demands of Teaching Introductory Psychology
Michael L. Stoloff
Chapter 3. Reading from the Same Page: Building an Integrated Curriculum
Brian T. Loher, Karri Verno, Francis W. Craig, and Peter A. Keller
Chapter 4. Advising in the Classroom: A Career Exploration Class for Psychology Majors
Drew C. Appleby
Chapter 5. Building a Psychology Orientation Course: Common Themes and Exercises
Brian T. Loher & R. Eric Landrum
Chapter 6. Engaging Students in Psychology: Building on First-year Programs and Seminars
Regan A. R. Gurung & Georjeanna Wilson-Doenges
Chapter 7. Learning Communities as an Innovative Beginning to the Psychology Major: A Tale of Two
Campuses
Kenneth R. Barron, Kim Buch, Jeffrey T. Andre, & Sue Spaulding
Chapter 8. Displacing Wikipedia: Information Literacy for First-Year Students
Charles M. Harris & S. Lynn Cameron
Chapter 9. Crafting and Implementing a Career Development Course in Psychology
Eric Goederis & Stanley Cohen
Part II: Endings
Chapter 10. The Capstone Course as Liberal Education Opportunity
Dana S. Dunn & Maureen A. McCarthy
Chapter 11. History of Psychology as a Capstone Course
Ludy T. Benjamin, Jr.
Chapter 12. Research Teams: Developing a Capstone Experience with Programmatic Research
Bernard C. Beins & Phil D. Wann
Chapter 13. Honors Thesis as a Capstone Experience: A Possible Perfect Ending
Sherry L. Serdikoff
Chapter 14 - The Capstone Research Course: A Case Study in the Evolution of Educational Efficacy
Wayne S. Messer and David B. Porter
Chapter 15. Ten Things I Hate about My Capstone Course-And a Few Ways to Fix Them
Tracy E. Zinn, Monica J. Reis-Bergan, & Suzanne C. Baker
Chapter 16. Writing for Psychology Majors as a Developmental Process
Bernard C. Beins, Randolph A. Smith, and Dana S. Dunn
Chapter 17. Capping the Undergraduate Experience: Making Learning Come Alive Through Fieldwork
Joann Grayson
Chapter 18. Helping Undergraduates Transition to the Workplace: Four Discussion Starters
Paul I. Hettich
Chapter 19. Helping Undergraduates Make the Transition to Graduate School
Brennan D. Cox, Kristin L. Cullen, William Buskist, and Victor A. Benassi
Chapter 20. Teaching Psychology's Endings: The Simple Gifts of a Reflective Close
Neil Lutsky
Part III: Coda
Chapter 21. Developing Scientific Reasoning Skills in Beginning and Ending Students
Suzanne C. Baker, Maureen A. McCarthy, Jane S. Halonen, Dana S. Dunn, & G. William Hill IV
Author Index
Subject Index
