Teaching of Psychology, 35: 147–159, 2008Copyright C© Taylor & Francis Group, LLCISSN: 0098-6283 print / 1532-8023 onlineDOI: 10.1080/00986280802201976

TOPICAL ARTICLES

Review of ToP Teaching Strategies: Links toStudents’ Scientific Inquiry Skills Development

Thomas J. TomchoSalisbury University

Rob FoelsAmherst College

Diana RiceGeneva College

Jeremy Johnson, Tad P. Moses, Douglas J. Warner, Rebecca A. Wetherbee,and Tiffany AmalfiSyracuse University

A major function of instruction in psychology is to conveycomplex phenomena in a manner accessible to students.Instructors using well-designed teaching activities can helpto make complex material accessible. We content analyzedteaching activities reported in the first 33 years of Teachingof Psychology. We identified 15 general teaching strate-gies in 681 teaching activity articles and coded strategies’potential impact on student development of scientific inquiryskills. We found that ToP authors have consistently usedlearner-centered strategies and have significantly increasedtheir use of active evaluation strategies. We discuss impli-cations of instructor use of the most frequently encounteredstrategies.

Teachers seeking to develop new teaching activitiesto convey information and to develop student appli-cation of knowledge and skills can turn to a numberof well-respected teachers who have offered guidanceabout college teaching (e.g., McKeachie & Svinicki,2006). Likewise, teachers can read about the latestteaching activities published in the Teaching of Psy-chology (ToP). Unfortunately, although the authorsof published ToP teaching activities and psychology

teaching handbooks (e.g., Benjamin, Nodine, Ernst, &Blair-Broeker, 1999; Ware & Johnson, 1996) provideinformation on specific teaching activities, they do notprovide an overview of strategies instructors can use inteaching about psychological phenomena. Thus, ourfirst goal was to identify the types of teaching strategiesteaching researchers use.

An important strategy instructors use in teachingabout psychology phenomena is active learning. In-structors using active learning approaches (e.g., discus-sion, writing, or experiential activities) provide stu-dents with a “hands on and minds on experience”(Benjamin, 1991, p. 70). Over the past quarter-century,educational researchers have advocated for greater useof active learning approaches when developing teach-ing activities (e.g., Benjamin, 1991; Halonen, Brown-Anderson, & McKeachie, 2002; Mathie et al., 1993;National Institute of Education, 1984; Sivan, Leung,Woon, & Kember, 2000). Psychology researchers haveempirically demonstrated that active learning ap-proaches have a positive impact on general learningoutcomes (e.g., Butler, Phillmann, & Smart, 2001;Yoder & Hochevar, 2005). Thus, our second goal was to

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determine whether authors of ToP teaching activitieshave increased their use of active learning approachesover the course of ToP’s publication history.

In addition to identifying ToP teaching strategiesand their use, we also were interested in how differentteaching strategies may promote student attainment ofspecific learning objectives. Indeed, a shortcoming inthe field of psychology teaching in general and in ToPhandbooks in particular is that teaching researchersprovide limited information regarding how instruc-tors’ use of specific teaching strategies can help stu-dents attain the American Psychological Association(APA) learning objectives (e.g., Halonen, Appleby,et al., 2002; Halonen et al., 2003). According to theAPA Task Force on Undergraduate Psychology MajorCompetencies (Halonen, Appleby, et al., 2002), grad-uating undergraduates should meet a range of learningobjectives. As a way of assessing student attainmentof APA’s learning objectives, Halonen et al. (2003)provided a developmentally based rubric examiningstudent proficiency in eight sets of skills in scientificinquiry (p. 198):

1. Descriptive skills in (a) observation, (b) measure-ment, and (c) interpretation.

2. Conceptualization skills in (a) recognizing andapplying concepts, (b) recognizing and ap-plying basic theory, and (c) advanced skillsin evaluating, synthesizing, or generatingtheory.

3. Problem-solving skills in (a) recognizing, apply-ing, or generating methods skills; (b) recog-nizing, applying, evaluating or generating sta-tistical reasoning; and (c) bias detection andmanagement.

4. Ethical reasoning skills in (a) awareness of ethicalstandards, (b) evaluation of ethical practices, and(c) adherence of ethical standards.

5. Scientific attitudes and values incorporating(a) enthusiasm for research, (b) objectivity/subjectivity, (c) parsimony, (d) skepticism, and(e) ambiguity tolerance.

6. Communication skills in (a) selecting appropriateresources, (b) argumentation prowess, and (c) useof conventional expression.

7. Collaboration skills in (a) completing projects, (b)process management, (c) leadership, (d) consen-sus building skills, and (e) brainstorming.

8. Self-assessment skills in (a) self-regulation and (b)self-reflection.

Given that instructors use teaching activities to helpstudents attain learning objectives, greater explication

of the potential links between teaching strategies andlearning objectives is warranted. To this end, Halonenet al. (2003) offered some theoretical guidance on thescope of learning experiences that may foster attain-ment of APA learning objectives, suggesting that in-structors design learning experiences that “enhance thelikelihood that students will be able to absorb, inte-grate, and apply practical examples to solving problemsscientifically” (p. 203). However, more specific infor-mation regarding types of teaching strategies that mayfacilitate these learning objectives would help teach-ers develop teaching activities. Therefore, we soughtto extend Halonen et al.’s work by proposing potentiallinks between teaching strategies commonly used byteaching researchers and student attainment of profi-ciency in eight sets of scientific inquiry skills.

Thus, we asked three questions: What are the typesof teaching strategies that authors of ToP teaching ac-tivities use? Have ToP authors changed their use ofteaching strategies over time? Does instructor use ofspecific teaching strategies have the potential to facil-itate differentially students’ development of scientificinquiry skills?

Method

Search Strategy

To identify the corpus of published teaching activ-ities in psychology, we reviewed every issue of ToPpublished from 1974 inclusively through 2006. We ex-amined each article to identify those that reported ona teaching activity regarding substantive psychologi-cal topics. After we identified the relevant articles, wecontent analyzed the teaching activities to determineauthors’ teaching strategies.

Inclusion Criteria

We content analyzed 681 teaching activity articlesthat met the following inclusion criteria. First, theteaching activity had to teach about a topic in psy-chology. We were not interested in broad approachesper se (e.g., Keller’s, 1968, Personalized Systems ofInstruction; see also Eppler & Ironsmith, 2004), as-sessment approaches (e.g., Halonen et al., 2003; Law-son, 1999), discussions of course or textbook content(e.g., Jackson, Lugo, & Griggs, 2001; Perlman & Mc-Cann, 1999), theoretical articles about teaching ap-proaches (e.g., Buskist, 2002; Sikorski, 2004), or stu-dents’ perceptions of teacher behaviors (e.g., Epting,

148 Teaching of Psychology

Zinn, Buskist, & Buskist, 2004). Second, the author ofeach teaching activity article needed to describe theactivity in sufficient detail to allow for a content anal-ysis of its teaching strategy.

Coding Procedure

Taxonomy development. We developed a tax-onomy to identify the range of all possible teachingstrategies that exist in the ToP literature. Expanding onMcKeachie and Svinicki’s (2006) framework, we iden-tified different types of mutually nonexclusive teachingstrategies. Multiple investigators examined the meth-ods section of each teaching activity article. On severaloccasions, we discussed the teaching strategies that weidentified in the teaching articles. We discussed whatboth instructors and students did to identify the char-acteristics that defined each type of teaching strategy.To determine whether the teaching strategy list was ex-haustive of content, we provided the list to an indepen-dent reviewer with extensive teaching experience. Thelead investigator and the independent reviewer agreedthat we had identified all relevant teaching strategies.

Teaching strategy identification. After we es-tablished a taxonomy of the types of strategies thatexist, we then identified which strategy or strategieswere evident in each of the articles. During the ini-tial period, we worked together coding articles thatevidenced different and multiple teaching strategies toreach agreement on how to identify teaching strate-gies. Then, multiple raters coded a random sample of30 articles resulting in an interrater agreement of .89.We divided the remainder of the teaching activity ar-ticles among the authors for independent coding. Themajority of authors participated in conference discus-sions to clarify potential teaching strategies if raters hadquestions about the teaching strategies in a particulararticle.

Strategies and learning outcomes. After weidentified the types of teaching strategies, two lead au-thors independently coded the degree to which learner-centered teaching strategies (i.e., all strategies exceptteacher demonstration) may facilitate undergraduatestudent proficiency in each of the eight APA skillsets (Halonen et al., 2003) using the scale anchorpoints 1 (low potential) to 5 (high potential). We des-ignated teaching strategies using the following scalepoint labels from Halonen et al.’s rubric: low potentialstrategies may facilitate “Basic Introductory Psychol-ogy” levels of proficiency, moderate potential strate-

gies may facilitate “Developing” levels of proficiency,and high potential strategies may facilitate “IntegratingAdvanced Undergraduate” levels of proficiency. Twocoders achieved an interrater kappa agreement of .91for all ratings. Coders used discussion to resolve codingdifferences to achieve consensus.

Results

Teaching Strategies Taxonomyand Frequency of Use

We identified 15 general teaching strategies in ourcontent analysis; two of these strategies (i.e., writingand presenting) could take one of two forms. Table 1provides a functional description of each of the strate-gies, ordered by percentage of use, along with represen-tative references, and frequency of occurrence. ToPteaching researchers most frequently used strategiesinvolving discussion, interactive participation, activeevaluation of psychology concepts, experiential ap-proaches, and non-self-reflective writing assignments.We found that ToP teaching researchers incorporatedseveral teaching strategies into teaching activities, witha range from 1 to 10 strategies. The mean number ofstrategies within an activity was 3.3 (SD = 1.9). Themodal number of strategies was two. Less than one fifth(n = 115) of the activities relied on a sole teachingstrategy.

Use of Teaching Strategies Across Time

We conducted a series of regressions examiningwhether author use of teaching strategies has changedacross the history of ToP. The mean number of teach-ing activities published per year was 20.6 (SD = 8.8;range = 3–38). Due to a significant positive correla-tion between year and the number of teaching activityarticles published, r(32) = .87, p < .0001, we con-trolled for number of articles published per year in ouranalyses. Specifically, we calculated the percentage ofauthors using each strategy by year prior to conduct-ing a series of regressions. For the majority of teachingstrategies we identified in this review, we found thatyear did not have a statistically significant effect onauthor teaching strategy use, Fs(1, 31) < 3.0 (range <

.01–3.0, mean Cohen’s d = 1.4), ps > .09. However,we found three significant results. First, ToP teach-ing researchers have significantly decreased their useof observational approaches to teach about psycholog-ical concepts, F(1, 31) = 5.53, p = .03. Second, ToP

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Table 1. Teaching Strategies: Functional Descriptions, Representative Articles, and Frequency of Use

Strategy Functional Description Representative Articles Frequency %

Discussion Students participate in conversations, debates, ordialogue with each other and the instructor regardingcomprehension, application, analysis, or integrationof course material or topics.

Bogart (1999); Carlsmithand Cooper (2002);Connor-Greene andGreene (2002)

311 46

Interactiveparticipation

Students participate in the learning activity rather thanbeing passive recipients. Similar to cooperativelearning (Marr, 1997).

Felsten (1998); Hamiltonand Knox (1985)

293 43

Active evaluation ofpsychologyconcepts

Students observe, discuss, or write aboutpsychological concepts. Students provide a specificevaluation of the concept or material. Examples ofevaluation include (a) integrating new concepts withexisting information, (b) critically evaluating others’work, or (c) evaluating how psychological conceptsapply to their own experiences.

Barber (1994); Boyce andGeller (2002)

251 37

Experientialapproach

Students participate in activities such as servicelearning, collaborative research, or some type offieldwork in which the students gain practicalexperience and that generally leads to thegeneration of some output (e.g., a research or writingproduct) beyond the immediacy of the activity.

Chute and Bank (1983);Watson, Hagihara, andTenney (1999)

250 37

Writing: Non-self-reflective

Students generate written work utilizing APA writingstyle. This may be broadly theoretical or empirical innature and may involve summaries of existingliterature, integrating multiple perspectives,theoretical or empirical papers.

Carkenord and Bullington(1993); Fleming,Piedmont, and Hiam(1990); Lawson (1994)

215 31

Observation Students observe participants’ behavior on videotapeor unobtrusively in real time to facilitate theirunderstanding of psychological phenomena orbehavioral coding practices.

Badura (2002); Eaton andUskul (2004)Koschmann and Wesp(2001)

188 28

Teacherdemonstration

Teacher-led activities intended to more explicitly orconcretely inform about a topic through illustrations.

Dyck and Gee (1998);Hom (1994)

169 25

Self-reportedsurvey

Students complete surveys to assess their attitudes,beliefs, or knowledge concerning psychologicalphenomena.

Cogan and Cogan (1984);Whitbourne andCassidy (1994)

108 16

Presentation:Group orindividual

Students either in a group or individually provide theirclass with an oral (and sometimes accompanyingwritten) presentation of information relevant to apsychological phenomenon. Typically a summary ordescription of a student-based project.

Group: Bleske-Rechek(2001); Boyatzis (1998);Kite (1990)

Group: 69 10

Individual: Barnes (1985);Dodd (1988)

Individual: 65 10

Role play Students role play individuals different from who theyare, or role play a response to an imagined event, togain a greater understanding of psychologicalphenomena.

Banyard and Fernald(2002); Deffenbacher(1990); Tomcho andFoels (2002)

66 10

Creativeexpression

Students produce some type of creative output noteasily categorized, such as making a brain model outof clay.

Daehler and Miller (2004);Daniels (1979);Rabinowitz (1989)

66 10

Writing:Self-reflective

Students incorporate their personal thoughts, beliefs,or attitudes regarding the referent psychologicalphenomena or published article or write about theirexperiences from the vantage point of a particularpsychological theory.

Bristow, Provost, andMorton (2002); Gillem(1999)

63 9

Interview Students practice communication skills either witheach other or with individuals outside of the courseas part of the activity.

Schwanenflugel (1987);Tomcho, Wolfe, andFoels (2006)

55 8

150 Teaching of Psychology

Table 1. Teaching Strategies: Functional Descriptions, Representative Articles, and Frequency of Use(Continued)

Strategy Functional Description Representative Articles Frequency %

Computer simulation Students engage in a simulated experience thatpromotes a better understanding of psychologicalphenomena, data analyses, or methodologicalapproaches.

Bibace, Marcus,Thomason, and Litt(1987); Dermer(2004); Lambert andLenthall (1988)

53 8

Keeping a journal Students keep a written, audiotaped, videotaped, orWeb-based log of their experiences, thoughts, orfeelings regarding a psychological topic. Studentsapply or analyze their own or others’ behaviors from aparticular theoretical vantage point.

Barton (1982); Kowalskiand Lakey (2004);Sternberg (1999)

34 5

Creating a portfolio Students create a compilation of work samples todemonstrate technological or scientific skills.

Larkin, Pines, andBechtel (2002)

7 1

teaching researchers have significantly increased theiruse of computer simulation approaches to teach aboutpsychological concepts, F(1, 31) = 6.59, p = .02. Third,ToP teaching researchers have significantly increasedtheir use of active evaluation approaches to teach aboutpsychological concepts, F(1, 31) = 5.88, p = .02.

Potential Links Between Teaching Strategiesand Scientific Inquiry Skills

Table 2 presents teaching strategies and how theiruse by instructors has the potential to facilitate sci-entific inquiry skills. Recall that we used Halonenet al.’s (2003) rubric to rate teaching strategies as hav-ing low to high potential. Two experienced teachersrated the potential of all teaching strategies exceptteacher demonstration to facilitate student develop-ment of eight broad scientific inquiry skills comprisedof 27 specific skills. Thus, these two teachers made 432total ratings, of which 146 were high, 136 were mod-erate, and 150 were low. As expected, teachers ratedteaching strategies with high levels of learner-centeredemphasis (e.g., discussion or experiential approachesrather than observational approaches) as having highpotential to facilitate scientific inquiry skills.

Table 2 shows that strategies are likely to have po-tential to facilitate differential student acquisition ofscientific inquiry skills. In general, instructor use of theteaching strategies identified in this review appear tohave the highest potential to facilitate students’ de-scriptive skills (1a, c), conceptualization skills (2a, c),and communication skills (6a–c). In contrast, instruc-tor use of the teaching strategies identified in this re-view appears to have the least potential to facilitate stu-dents’ collaboration skills (7b–e) and self-assessmentskills (8a, b). In addition, we found several strategies

to have high potential to facilitate the development ofmany student skills. Specifically, we identified instruc-tor use of discussion and experiential approaches asmost likely to have a high potential to facilitate studentdevelopment of 20 of the 27 specific scientific inquiryskills. Instructor use of active evaluation of psychol-ogy concepts and non-self-reflective writing teachingstrategies are similarly likely to have a high potentialto facilitate student development of 18 and 15 of the27 specific scientific inquiry skills, respectively.

Discussion

Regarding the types of teaching strategies that ToPteaching researchers use, we found that teaching ac-tivities published in ToP typically used at least oneof 15 general strategies. Moreover, more than 80%of teaching activities incorporated multiple strategies,with discussion, interactive participation, active evalu-ation of psychology concepts, experiential approaches,and non-self-reflective writing activities each used inmore than 30% of the activities.

Many of these teaching strategies parallel sugges-tions of authors regarding college teaching in general(e.g., Bourner, 1997; Vermette & Erickson, 1996), aswell as findings from other disciplines (e.g., Wentland,2004). For example, Bourner (1997) suggested severalteaching strategies including interactive participation,discussion, and experiential approaches, and we iden-tified these strategies in our content analysis.

We found mixed results regarding whether ToPteaching researchers’ use of teaching strategies havechanged across the history of ToP. We found that ToPteaching researchers’ use of most teaching strategieshas remained similar across the history of ToP, withthe exception of observational approaches that have

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Table 2. Teaching Strategies’ Potential to Develop Scientific Inquiry Skills

Potential to Develop Scientific Inquiry Skills

Goals High Moderate Low

1. Descriptive skillsa. Observation Discussion, active evaluation of

psychology concepts,experiential approaches,writing: non-self-reflective,observation, writing:self-reflective, interview,computer simulation, keeping ajournal

Interactive participation,self-reported survey,creative expression,role-play

Individual presentation,group presentation,creating a portfolio

b. Measurement Experiential approaches, writing:self-reflective, interviews

Discussion, activeevaluation of psychologyconcepts, writing:non-self-reflective,computer simulation,keeping a journal

Interactive participation,observation, self-reportedsurvey, role-play,individual presentation,group presentation,creative expression,creating a portfolio

c. Interpretation Discussion, active evaluation ofpsychology concepts,experiential approaches,writing: non-self-reflective,individual presentation, grouppresentation, writing:self-reflective, interviews,computer simulation

Self-reported survey,role-play, creativeexpression, computersimulation, keeping ajournal, creating a portfolio

Interactive participation,observation

2. Conceptualization skillsa. Concepts: Recognition

& applicationDiscussion, active evaluation of

psychology concepts,experiential approaches,writing: non-self-reflective,self-reported survey, individualpresentation, grouppresentation, writing:self-reflective, interviews,keeping a journal

Interactive participation,observation, role-play,creative expression,computer simulation

Creating a portfolio

b. Recognize & applybasic theory

Discussion, active evaluation ofpsychology concepts,experiential approaches,writing: non-self-reflective,individual presentation, grouppresentation, writing:self-reflective, computersimulation, keeping a journal

Observation, self-reportedsurvey, role-play,interviews, creativeexpression

Interactive participation,creating a portfolio

c. Evaluate, synthesize,generate advancedtheory

Discussion, active evaluation ofpsychology concepts,experiential approaches,writing: non-self-reflective,role-play, individualpresentation, grouppresentation, writing:self-reflective, interviews,keeping a journal

Interactive participation,observation, creativeexpression, computersimulation

Self-reported survey,creating a portfolio

152 Teaching of Psychology

Table 2. Teaching Strategies’ Potential to Develop Scientific Inquiry Skills (Continued)

Potential to Develop Scientific Inquiry Skills

Goals High Moderate Low

3. Problem-solving skillsa. Methods skills:

recognition,evaluation, generation

Discussion, experientialapproaches

Active evaluation ofpsychology concepts,writing: non-self-reflective,self-reported survey,individual presentation,group presentation, writing:self-reflective, interviews,creative expression,computer simulation,keeping a journal

Interactive participation,observation, role-play,creating a portfolio

b. Statistical reasoning:recognition,application,evaluation, andgeneration

Discussion, active evaluation ofpsychology concepts,experiential approaches,writing: non-self-reflective

Self-reported survey,individual presentation,group presentation,computer simulation

Interactive participation,observation, role-play,writing: self-reflective,interviews, creativeexpression, keeping ajournal, creating a portfolio

c. Bias detection andmanagement

Discussion, active evaluation ofpsychology concepts,experiential approaches,writing: non-self-reflective,individual presentation, grouppresentation

Self-reported survey, writing:self-reflective, interviews,creative expression,computer simulation,keeping a journal

Interactive participation,observation, role-play,creating a portfolio

4. Ethical reasoninga. Awareness of ethical

standardsDiscussion, active evaluation of

psychology concepts,experiential approaches,writing: non-self-reflective,interviews, writing:self-reflective

Self-reported survey,role-play, individualpresentation, grouppresentation, interviews,computer simulation

Interactive participation,observation, creativeexpression, keeping ajournal, creating a portfolio

b. Evaluation of ethicalpractices

Discussion, active evaluation ofpsychology concepts,experiential approaches,writing: non-self-reflective,individual presentation, grouppresentation, writing:self-reflective

Self-reported survey,role-play, creativeexpression, computersimulation

Interactive participation,observation, interviews,keeping a journal, creatinga portfolio

c. Adherence to ethicalstandards

Discussion, experientialapproaches, interviews

Active evaluation ofpsychology concepts,writing: non-self-reflective,self-reported survey,role-play, individualpresentation, grouppresentation, computersimulation

Interactive participation,observation, writing:self-reflective, creativeexpression, keeping ajournal, creating a portfolio

5. Components ofscientific attitudesand valuesa. Enthusiasm for

researchActive evaluation of psychology

concepts, experientialapproaches, writing:self-reflective, interviews

Discussion, individualpresentation, grouppresentation, computersimulation, keeping ajournal

Interactive participation,writing: non-self-reflective,observation, self-reportedsurvey, role-play, creativeexpression, creating aportfolio

(Continued on next page)

Vol. 35, No. 3, 2008 153

Table 2. Teaching Strategies’ Potential to Develop Scientific Inquiry Skills (Continued)

Potential to Develop Scientific Inquiry Skills

Goals High Moderate Low

b. Objectivity andsubjectivity

Discussion, experientialapproaches, writing:self-reflective, interviews

Active evaluation of psychologyconcepts, writing:non-self-reflective,self-reported survey, role-play,individual presentation, grouppresentation, creativeexpression, computersimulation, keeping a journal

Interactive participation,observation,self-reported survey,creating a portfolio

c. Parsimony Discussion, active evaluation ofpsychology concepts, writing:non-self-reflective

Experiential approaches,individual presentation, grouppresentation, writing:self-reflective, interviews,computer simulation, keeping ajournal

Interactive participation,observation,self-reported survey,role-play, creativeexpression, creating aportfolio

d. Skepticism Discussion, active evaluation ofpsychology concepts

Experiential approaches, writing:non-self-reflective, writing:self-reflective, interviews,creative expression, keeping ajournal

Interactive participation,observation,self-reported survey,role-play, individualpresentation, grouppresentation, computersimulation, creating aportfolio

e. Tolerance of ambiguity Discussion, active evaluation ofpsychology concepts,experiential approaches,writing: non-self-reflective,interviews

Role-play, individualpresentation, grouppresentation, writing:self-reflective, computersimulation, keeping a journal

Interactive participation,observation,self-reported survey,creative expression,creating a portfolio

6. Communication skillsa. Resource gathering

skills: selectivity,relevance, currency,evidence

Discussion, interactiveparticipation, active evaluationof psychology concepts,experiential approaches,writing: non-self-reflective,individual presentation, grouppresentation, writing:self-reflective, creating aportfolio

Role-play, interviews, creativeexpression, keeping a journal

Observation, self-reportedsurvey, computersimulation

b. Argumentation skills:organization,awareness ofaudience,persuasiveness

Discussion, interactiveparticipation, active evaluationof psychology concepts,experiential approaches,writing: non-self-reflective,individual presentation, grouppresentation, writing:self-reflective, creating aportfolio

Role-play, interviews, computersimulation, keeping a journal

Observation, self-reportedsurvey, creativeexpression

c. Conventionalexpression: use ofAPA format, grammar,appropriatesupportive visuals

Discussion, interactiveparticipation, active evaluationof psychology concepts, writing:non-self-reflective, self-reportedsurvey, individual presentation,group presentation, writing:self-reflective

Experiential approaches,interviews, computersimulation, keeping a journal

Observation, role-play,creative expression

154 Teaching of Psychology

Table 2. Teaching Strategies’ Potential to Develop Scientific Inquiry Skills (Continued)

Potential to Develop Scientific Inquiry Skills

Goals High Moderate Low

7. Collaboration skillsa. Project completion

skillsInteractive participation,

experiential approaches, grouppresentation, creativeexpression, creating a portfolio

Discussion, activeevaluation of psychologyconcepts, writing:non-self-reflective,interviews, individualpresentation

Observation, self-reportedsurvey, writing: self-reflective,computer simulation, role-play,keeping a journal

b. Process management Interactive participation, activeevaluation of psychologyconcepts, group presentation

Discussion, interviews,creative expression

Experiential approaches, writing:non-self-reflective,observation, self-reportedsurvey, role-play, individualpresentation, writing:self-reflective, computersimulation, keeping a journal,creating a portfolio

c. Leadership Interactive participation, grouppresentation

Discussion, experientialapproaches, interviews

Active evaluation of psychologyconcepts, writing:non-self-reflective,observation, self-reportedsurvey, role-play, individualpresentation, writing:self-reflective, creativeexpression, computersimulation, keeping a journal,creating a portfolio

d. Consensus-buildingskills

Discussion, interactiveparticipation, grouppresentation

Experiential approaches Active evaluation of psychologyconcepts, writing:non-self-reflective,observation, self-reportedsurvey, role-play, individualpresentation, writing:self-reflective, interviews,creative expression, computersimulation, keeping a journal,creating a portfolio

e. Brainstorming Discussion, interactiveparticipation, grouppresentation

Experiential approaches,writing:non-self-reflective,individual presentation,interviews, computersimulation

Active evaluation of psychologyconcepts, observation,self-reported survey, role-play,writing: self-reflective, creativeexpression, keeping a journal,creating a portfolio

8. Self-assessment skillsa. Self-regulation: work

completion skillsExperiential approaches,

individual presentation, grouppresentation, creating aportfolio

Active evaluation ofpsychology concepts,writing:non-self-reflective,creative expression

Discussion, interactiveparticipation, observation,self-reported survey, role-play,writing: self-reflective,interviews, computersimulation, keeping a journal

b. Self-reflection:thinking aboutthinking

Active evaluation of psychologyconcepts, experientialapproaches, writing:non-self-reflective, creating aportfolio

Discussion, individualpresentation, grouppresentation, writing:self-reflective, creativeexpression, keeping ajournal

Interactive participation,observation, self-reportedsurvey, role-play, interviews,creative expression, computersimulation

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declined, and computer simulation and active eval-uation of psychology concepts, both of which haveincreased.

We found that two experienced teachers indepen-dently rated several teaching strategies as having highpotential to help students attain proficiency in sci-entific inquiry skills. However, one potential concernwith our coding procedure is that the specific teachingstrategies we identified may not be mutually exclusiveand, in fact, may exhibit similar characteristics in somecases. For example, an activity that incorporates bothinteractive participation and experiential approachesmay involve some of the same actions on the part ofthe student. We believe, however, the two strategiesdiffer in that they seek to accomplish different goals;the former attempts to involve students in the learn-ing process, whereas the latter further incorporates aspecified student product.

Implications of Frequently Usedand High-Potential Strategies

Discussion. Students engaged in discussioncan develop descriptive, conceptualization, problem-solving, ethical reasoning, communication, and col-laboration skills. Some authors have noted that dis-cussion is valuable when the goal is learning to thinkcritically (e.g., Dunkin & Barnes, 1986). Moreover,discussion as a teaching strategy is used by teachers inonline courses that rely on “chat rooms” and “cyber-learning communities” to facilitate instruction (e.g.,Newlin & Wang, 2002). Unfortunately, instructor useof discussion as a teaching strategy is disproportionateto research supporting it. An exception to this pat-tern is Halpern’s (2006) work that offers data support-ing the idea that structured discussion can improvestudents’ critical thinking skills. Thus, teaching re-searchers should identify in their teaching activitieshow they facilitated discussion (e.g., Harton, Richard-son, Barreras, Rockloff, & Latane, 2002) and how theyassessed whether discussion was effective.

Active evaluation of psychology concepts.Instructor use of this strategy may develop stu-dents’ descriptive, conceptualization, problem-solving,or ethical reasoning skills, and scientific attitudesand values. Evaluation can involve “evaluating sourcematerial; recognizing fallacies; identifying compo-nents of arguments; distinguishing among assumptions,emotional appeals, speculations, and defensible evi-dence; and generate and evaluate solutions” (Halonen,

Appleby, et al., 2002, pp. 11–12). Teaching researchershave significantly increased their use of this approachin developing teaching activities. Unfortunately, thelimited amount of research on active evaluation of psy-chology concepts as a teaching activity in psychologyis, like discussion, disproportionate to its actual usage.However, like discussion, we believe that as a strategy,students’ active evaluation of psychology concepts hasthe potential to develop several important proficien-cies and that researchers should focus more attentionon this topic.

Experiential approaches. Students engaged inthis activity may develop an awareness and applicationof psychological phenomena both inside and outsideof the classroom. Inside the classroom, students usingexperiential activities engage in such actions as con-ducting a research project, a clinical or developmentalcase study, or a cognition or behavioral learning ex-periment. In any of these activities where studentsapply their knowledge, they may develop scientificattitudes and descriptive, conceptualization, problem-solving, ethical reasoning, communication, and collab-oration skills. Outside the classroom, students engag-ing in experiential approaches may encompass servicelearning. Instructors can enhance course content byincluding service-learning activities (Bringle & Duffy,1998; Chapdelaine & Chapman, 1999; Dunlap, 1998;Kretchmar, 2001; Pezdek, 2002). Thus, depending onthe focus of the activity, instructor use of experientialapproaches may help students develop several APAlearning objectives.

Writing activities. Students may derive multi-ple benefits from writing, including improved criticalthinking skills (e.g., Rickabaugh, 1993), enhanced stu-dent sociocultural awareness (e.g., Marchel, 2004), andgreater integration when engaged in service learningactivities (e.g., Dunlap, 1998). Writing assignmentsalso can provide feedback about learning (e.g., Hettich,1990) and can be incorporated into class experiencesto stimulate active learning during class (e.g., Butleret al., 2001). These writing experiences may take theform of assignments wherein students practice develop-ing writing skills or summarizing materials. Therefore,instructor use of writing activities may help students de-velop descriptive, conceptualization, problem-solving,ethical reasoning, communication, and self-assessmentskills.

156 Teaching of Psychology

Constraints on the Use of Strategies

Wentland (2004) noted instructors should considermany factors when choosing strategies to design ateaching activity. Beyond the constraints that a givenpsychological concept may impose, teaching strategiesmay be influenced by time constraints, the degree towhich instructors want individual work versus groupinteraction, whether it is a student- or teacher-orientedactivity, the feasibility of incorporating technology,and the level of student attainment of Bloom, Engel-hart, Furst, Hill, and Krathwohl’s (1956) taxonomy ofeducational objectives. Instructors also might considerAPA’s learning objectives for undergraduate psychol-ogy majors (Halonen, Appleby, et al., 2002; Halonenet al., 2003) when selecting a teaching strategy. In-structors using teaching strategies involving discussion,active evaluation of psychology concepts, experiential ap-proaches, or writing, either alone or in some combi-nation, may facilitate student development of multiplescientific inquiry skills (Halonen, Appleby, et al., 2002;Halonen et al., 2003).

Conclusion

Our results provide a frame of reference for instruc-tors developing future teaching activities. Future teach-ing activity researchers should include a more explicitdiscussion of the type of teaching strategies they employand the potential link between their use of teachingstrategies and their learning objectives. These actionswill help demonstrate empirically which strategies aremost effective in producing specific learning objectives.As our analysis shows, multiple strategies exist to helpinstructors convey psychological phenomena, and theuse of specific strategies may have high potential to fa-cilitate student development of scientific inquiry skills.Thus, we suggest incorporating several teaching strate-gies within the context of instructional constraints,resources, and learning objectives.

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Notes

1. Thomas J. Tomcho collected some of these data whilehe was a faculty member at Syracuse University andDelaware State University.

2. We thank Jaime Weinger, Evan McCaffery, and MahuaBaral for their help with data entry.

3. Send correspondence to Thomas J. Tomcho, PsychologyDepartment, Salisbury University, Salisbury, MD 21802;e-mail: tjtomcho@salisbury.edu.

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