Cranney, J'

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Helping Students to Think Like Psychologists Jacq
uelyn Cranney and Sue Morris University of New
South Wales
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Cranney, J. Morris, S. PLAT, York, June 2006
Background Our approach What does it mean to
think like a psychologist? Some
examples Conclusion
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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

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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

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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.
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Cranney, J. Morris, S. PLAT, York, June 2006

• target development of essential enabling skills
  that are assumed knowledge in all beginning
  students
• create explicit programs for development of
  graduate attributes that 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

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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
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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
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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)

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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)

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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

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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 theBarnum Effect
  and just blurting out what it is, we actually got
  to experience it. I cant forget what it is
  because we actually played a part in learning it.
  I saw the tutorials as active learning.

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• 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 dont 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 psychologythis is very rewarding

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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

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Cranney, J. Morris, S. PLAT, York, June 2006

• Creative thinking 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 ones own learning is
  an integral part of the learning process, and can
  be thought of as one aspect of critical thinking.

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Cranney, J. Morris, S. PLAT, York, June 2006

• 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 criticallyit
  introduced me to another way of thinking

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They were constantly presenting 2 sides of an
argumentwe were encouraged not to accept
anything, but to think about it I benefited
most from the emphasis on critical thinking
dont 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 measuringIt 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 .
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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

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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

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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
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Version 1
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Version 2
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Module Content
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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

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ILS Pre- vs Post-Test Performance Reading each
module enhanced performance in short- and
long-term
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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 sinceI think they are great At
first I thought I cant believe we have to do
this and its not even worth anything but it was
actually really useful to do it WebCT was
amazing. Its got so much information on there,
like the ILS modules were really good.
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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

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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

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Group Research Project
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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

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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 viewbut 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
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Cranney, J. Morris, S. PLAT, York, June 2006

• 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

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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 goodthey allowed us to gain a
deeper understanding and broader viewpoints
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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

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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
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Cranney, J. Morris, S. PLAT, York, June 2006

• 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 website
  http//www.portfolios.unsw.edu.au/default.cfm

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Cranney, J. Morris, S. PLAT, York, June 2006
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.
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Cranney, J. Morris, S. PLAT, York, June 2006
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.
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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)

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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 its 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.
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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
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