First Year Experience Program

Rationale for offering Introduction to Psychology as a FYE course:

o PSY 100 fulfills the basic criterion of being a 100-level general education course that serves a very wide range of students.

o The content of the course is easily amenable to achieving many of the intended outcomes of the FYE program.

o The course proposal and syllabus included here depart quite considerably from the traditional way that PSY 100 is taught at WCSU and at most universities across the nation. I personally have been hoping to pilot this new approach and see the FYE program as a perfect time to do this. More specifically, the proposed course replaces the ?big text book approach? to psychology that carries with it particular assumptions about the nature of psychology, of science, and of the purpose of an introductory, survey style, course.

o The fresh approach proposed here will present psychological science as an ongoing and unfinished process, not as a set of pre-established outcomes (facts) that students are expected to memorize.

o Furthermore, this proposed course will incorporate several elements from both the Academic Skills and Methods and the University Success Factors categories, as noted below.

Category 1: Academic Skills and Methods

1. Critical Thinking: This will be incorporated into the course in a number of ways:

a. reading and discussion of a book on critical thinking about psychology

b. oral and written discussion of the application of critical thinking concepts to course content (both lecture material and the Hock text) throughout the semester

c. many of these concepts overlap with those included under the information literacy element, including the ability to examine the relationship between evidence and conclusions and the evaluation of information sources and their bearing on the validity of the information.

d. oral and written application of critical thinking to articles in the popular press that are of psychological relevance

e. oral and written discussion of the role of critical thinking in the creation and development of psychological science, including in hypothesis generation, the selection of methods/hypothesis testing, and the interpretation of results.

f. will be assessed as recommended (1-5 or equivalent scale) and will constitute 10% of the course grade.

2. Writing:

a. frequent short writing assignments described in the critical thinking section, with detailed feedback from the professor.

b. regular journal entries that will provide opportunities for students to informally apply psychological concepts to their own lives. These will be graded on a complete/incomplete basis.

c. in addition, students will write 2 longer papers (6-8 pages), one of which will be in the form of a research report and the other as an extended argument pertaining to ethics and informed by psychology (such as genetic engineering of humans or privacy issues). Students will receive feedback from the professor on drafts of each and will expose at least one of these to one or more other students in class for additional, peer feedback.

d. will be assessed as recommended (1-5 or equivalent scale) and will constitute 25% of the course grade.

3. Information Literacy

a. assignments and activities that described above require the assessment of information, determination of its sufficiency and relevance, and the evaluation of sources.

b. the development of a research report that will require the gathering of information, use of electronic databases, creation of annotated and traditional bibliographies.

c. this element will be graded as recommended and will constitute 10% of the students grade.

4. Oral Communication

a. oral communication will be integral to the course throughout the semester, as described above. Oral communication will occur in informal small group discussions, informal large group discussions, and in formal presentations. The formal presentation(s) will be tied to the longer written assignments. Students will receive guidance concerning how to present, and will be evaluated on both content and presentation style.

b. oral class participation will constitute 15% of the course grade.

5. Ethics (addressed here, but doesn?t reach the minimum requirements)

a. Ethics will be incorporated into the class in at least three ways: the ethics of psychological research on human subjects, the ethical implications of the findings of psychological research, and the potential psychological impact of some nonpsychological scientific research or practices (e.g., genetic marking).

b. one of the two longer papers will be focused on ethical issues, as stated above.

c. the course will include a lesson or section devoted to the ethics of research on humans (and, to a lesser extent, other animals), and this will be raised at various times throughout the course.

d. in addition, ethical implications of psychological research (such as the responsibility for obedience to an ?evil? authority).

Category 2: University Success Factors

1. Co-curricular Involvement

a. Students will attend a minimum of 3 co-curricular activities. These cannot be determined for certain at this time, but may possibilities include ?Pizza with the President,? a visit to the Westside Nature Preserve, stargazing with the astronomy department, etc. Students will describe two of these in their informal journal, and the third will be reported in the form of a short paper.

b. the journal entries will be graded complete/incomplete, and the paper will be graded in a more traditional fashion.

2. Organizational Skills

a. the instructor will provide some guidelines for students regarding test preparation (organizing and focusing effectively)

b. a representative from Student Affairs will be asked to speak to the class relatively early in the semester to provide tips on time management, study skills, etc.

c. students will be asked to practice some of these strategies in order to demonstrate their mastery.

d. students will be asked to report on strategies they used to prepare for tests, and feedback will be provided.

e. this element will constitute 5% of the course grade.

3. Technology Skills

a. with the exception of the journal entries, all assignments must be typewritten.

b. most assignments and other course materials will be posted on WebCT Vista, and therefore students will have to learn to use it.

c. both papers in the class will require students to use electronic databases to locate and retrieve articles.

d. students will be required to use PowerPoint for their formal oral presentation.

e. students will be required to use web-based resources for one or more assignments.

f. students will be required to use the course discussion board on a regular basis.

g. students may be required to attend a class at the technology training center (depends on the offerings).

h. this element will constitute 5% of the course grade.