Contrasting Student and Instructor Views of Psychology Jeffrey Holmes ICTP : July 15, 2008.
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Transcript of Contrasting Student and Instructor Views of Psychology Jeffrey Holmes ICTP : July 15, 2008.
Contrasting Student and Instructor
Views of Psychology
Jeffrey HolmesICTP: July 15, 2008
Introduction
Calls for critical thinking skills Students who “hate math and science” Potential differences between students
and instructors Scientist-Practitioner Model Current Objective:
Compare students and instructors on interests and views of psychology
Method
Participantsundergraduate students (N = 282) college and high-school psychology instructors
(N = 160) (119 college instructors) Instruments
Scientist-Practitioner Inventory (Leong & Zachar, 1991)
Psychology as Science Scale (Friedrich, 1996) Procedure
online administration
Results Professors tended more toward viewing
psychology as a science than did students M(prof) = 89.55, SD = 8.28 M(students) = 75.63, SD = 8.89
Professors had higher scientific interests than students
M(prof)= 74.23, SD = 18.65 M(students) = 53.99, SD = 14.59
Students had higher practitioner interests than professors
M(students) = 69.91, SD = 15.03 M(prof) = 53.45, SD = 23.68
Item Level PAS Data “Carefully controlled research is not likely
to be useful in solving psychological problems.” (neutral or agree)college professors: 7.6%, college students: 28.4%
“Our ability as humans to behave in any way we choose makes our attempts to predict behavior ineffective.” (neutral or agree)college professors: 10.9%, college students: 35.4%
“Psychological advice given in popular books and magazines is often as useful as more research-based claims.” (neutral or agree) college professors: 11.7%, college students: 34.4%
Item Level PAS Data “Courses in psychology place too much
emphasis on research and experimentation.” (neutral or agree) college professors: 5.9%, college students: 36.9%
“Students get little benefit from learning about procedures for conducting psychology experiments.” (neutral or agree) college professors: 0 (0%), college students: 20.1%
“The Study of Psychology Should be seen primarily as a science.” (neutral or disagree)college professors: 6.7%, college students: 36.9%
Conclusions and Implications
Disconnect between instructors and (at least some) students?
Context provided by previous findings Solution is elusive – dissonance is
powerful Students are not blank slates
Contact Info
Jeffrey Holmes – [email protected]