Journal of Instructional Psychology最新文献

{"title":"The Effect of Perspective on Misconceptions in Psychology: A Test of Conceptual Change Theory.","authors":"E. Amsel, Adam T. Johnston, E. Alvarado, John W. Kettering, Lauren Rankin, Melissa K. Ward","doi":"10.1037/e626972012-011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1037/e626972012-011","url":null,"abstract":"To test whether students' knowledge about psychology undergoes a conceptual change when learning about the discipline, 227 Introductory Psychology students from six different classes were given the Psychology as a Science (PAS) Scale in one of two conditions. Students were randomly assigned to complete the questionnaire from their own (Self Condition) or their psychology professor's (Professor Condition) perspective. As predicted, results show scores on the PAS Scale were higher, reflecting greater appreciation for psychology as a science, in the Psychology Professor than the Self condition. These results suggest that learning psychology may be less about \"reflecting on and revising\" misconceptions and more about \"sorting out\" which beliefs are associated with scientific psychology and which with students' own intuitive understanding of the discipline. ********** To account for how students learn science disciplines, Posner, Strike, Hewson, and Gertzog (1982) proposed Conceptual Change theory, based on the idea that science learning is a rational and intelligible process (also see Carey, 2000; Duit, 2003; Nesessian, 1989; Strike & Posner, 1992). The theory states that students' ability to learn a scientific discipline will be limited by their holding disciplinary misconceptions, that is, beliefs that are incompatible with the core concepts of the discipline. It is proposed that in order for learning to occur, students must first critically evaluate misconceptions and revise them to be compatible with the discipline. This account has been applied to students learning many scientific disciplines (Duit, 2003; Carey, 2000). One purpose of the present study is to apply this account to students learning psychology, who often misclassify the discipline as less scientific than physics or astronomy. According to Stanovich (2007), students enter an Introductory Psychology class thinking that Freudian theory is largely what psychology is all about or that pop culture psychologists represent all psychologists in general. Previous research has identified a range of psychological claims which students believe about the discipline despite having been proven false by psychological research (Gardner & Dalsing, 1986; Kowalski & Taylor, 2006; McCutcheon, 1991; McCutcheon, Hanson, Apperson, & Wynn, 1992; Thompson & Zamboanga, 2004). For example, students readily believe that Good hypnotists can force you to do anything they want you to do, and that genius is akin to insanity despite evidence disconfirming such claims (c.f., Gardner & Dalsing, 1986). Furthermore, research suggests that students decrease in their misconceptions as they take more psychology courses (Gardner & Dalsing, 1986; Kowalski & Taylor, 2006; McCutcheon et al., 1992). These studies provide weak evidence for conceptual change as the process by which students learn psychology. The questionnaires used to assess psychology students' misconceptions may have reliability and validity problems. In the st","PeriodicalId":379871,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Instructional Psychology","volume":"25 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125201961","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Professional Human Services Occupation Biases Represented in General Psychology Textbooks","authors":"Michael W. Firmin, E. Johnson, J. Wikler","doi":"10.4324/9781315265841-31","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315265841-31","url":null,"abstract":"We examined the coverage given by General Psychology textbooks, representing 8 major commercial publishers, regarding the professions of psychology, counseling, marriage & family therapy, and social workers. Of the 24 textbooks assessed, we found substantial bias favoring the coverage of psychology. While 25% of the texts mentioned social workers, there was relatively little attention given to professional counselors or marriage & family therapists. A case is made for more parity to be shown for a larger cross-section of professions in these texts--since General Psychology courses tend to hold some measure of gate-keeping exposure for the human service professions. ********** The human service professions have a sordid history relative to collaboration (Schmitt, 2001). This partly relates to their history, with psychology deriving itself first from philosophy and then the hard sciences (Hunt, 1993), whereas counseling emerged from the American guidance movement, following World War II (Capuzzi & Gross, 1997; Nowlin, 2006). Social work sketches a separate family tree, tracing its roots to caring for the poor, indigent, and immigrants at the turn of the century who were mistreated or needed advocacy in society (Barker, 1998). Marriage & family therapy largely was derived eclectically from behavioral and cognitive psychology, with many of the original founders being psychoanalytically trained (Gurman & Fraenkel, 2002). Although all the professions share much in common, they also possess differences that bear unique emphases for training, supervision, and practice. Traditional clinical psychologists have advocated a historic scientist-practitioner model of the profession (Albee, 2000)--whereas counselors, marriage & family therapists, and social workers--comparatively, are more practice-oriented (Booth & Cottone, 2000; Houston, 2005). Psychologists often are considered the leading profession, since they require the doctoral degree as the entry-level credential for state licensure. The other helping professions require only a master's degree for independent practice. Inter-professional collaborative efforts have not generally been strong between the main human service professions (Goldin, 1997). Weigle (1977) notes that the 1970's became a period when increased conflicts among the professions arose, mostly due to licensure laws being passed by the states for the respective professions. Randolph (1988) labeled the mental health community organizations as their own worst enemies in this regard. This largely is because of the inter-professional squabbles and sometimes outright hostility that exists between the groups--often expressed in the open media. Goodyear (2000) indicates that the Community Mental Health Centers Act of 1963 began the modern tension and that the professions had relatively little conflict prior to that time, compared to present quarrels. This act provided federal funds for reimbursing the fees of particular mental health professional","PeriodicalId":379871,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Instructional Psychology","volume":"os-21 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127765687","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Using the Psychic Blue Dot to Teach about Science (and Pseudoscience).","authors":"William A. Ashton","doi":"10.1037/e416902005-769","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1037/e416902005-769","url":null,"abstract":"A new teaching method is described for teaching research methods in an Introductory Psychology curriculum with the goals of making the section on research methods more interesting, providing an active learning environment for research methods and to allow students to examine scientifically the claims of pseudoscience. Student groups created and conducted experiments to test the claims made of the psychic blue dot and described their projects in brief papers. An evaluation of the projects found that students did find the project interesting and the students felt that the project was useful in learning research methodology concepts. Students did not report being more wary of claims of pseudoscience. ********** \"Many postsecondary educators are concerned about the rising tide of pseudoscientific, fundamentally anti-intellectual belief among otherwise well educated American (Bates, 1991, p. 95). These words began a 1991 article in Teaching of Psychology regarding a method to teach hypothesis testing by using a classroom demonstration of telepathy. Unfortunately, 13 years later not much has changed. Miss Cleo, an American telephone psychic, defrauded people of approximately one-half billion dollars (Ho, 2002) and John Edwards, an American television psychic, is currently on television and touring the country appearing at many concert hall venues (2006 Schedule of Events, 2006, March 7). This lack of change may be quite understandable. In order to be prepared to evaluate the claim of pseudoscience, people--and especially psychology students--need to understand the basic concepts in research methodology and also have a facility with using these concepts. Teaching research methodology, especially in Introductory Psychology (potentially a college student's only exposure to a rigorous presentation of research methodology) can be difficult. For example, Hoffmaster (1986) stated that teaching research methodology is one of the driest subjects on earth. In order to--simultaneously--make the study of research methodology in an Introductory Psychology curriculum more interesting, scientifically examine pseudoscientific claims and create a more active learning environment for the study of research methodology, I developed a semester-long project for my Introductory Psychology courses. Hopefully, by taking advantage of some of the benefits of active learning techniques, this new project will allow students to better understand and better apply research methodological concepts. Active learning techniques have been shown to have a powerful impact upon student learning. Studies have shown that students prefer active learning to lecture; that active learning is comparable to lecture in terms of mastery of content, but active learning is superior to lectures in terms of thinking skills; and that many students have learning styles which may be served better by active learning techniques (Bonwell & Eison, 1991). One specific active learning technique is the group invest","PeriodicalId":379871,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Instructional Psychology","volume":"26 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128139964","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A Comparison of American and Taiwanese Students: Their Math Perception","authors":"Yea-Ling Tsao","doi":"10.4324/9781315267036-27","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315267036-27","url":null,"abstract":"The major purpose of this study was to attempt to understand some of the reasons for Mathematics perception of Taiwanese children compared to American children. The study was conducted with elementary schools in the Denver metropolitan area and Taipei, Taiwan in which fifth graders in each city (21 and 37 respectively) were selected as target subjects in the study. To determine if attitudes and beliefs have this profound of effect on American students' performance in mathematics, research believes that it may be helpful to compare American students to Chinese students. By providing comparative data, the researcher found marked differences in the beliefs of American and Taiwanese students in four areas under investigation: how to do well in mathematics, what math solutions should be, motivation. The present study makes a potentially important contribution to our understanding of child development and education in two cultures. ********** Poor performance by American students on tests of mathematics and science has reached the level of a national crisis. Why is this? Study after study has reported on one or another facet of the low standing of Americans in international competition. For example, in a recent cross-national study of mathematics achievement, American students in the eighth and twelfth grades were below the international average in problem solving, geometry, algebra, calculus, and other areas of mathematics. In contrast, Japanese eighth graders received the highest average scores of children from 20 countries, and, at the twelfth-grade level, Japanese students were second only to Chinese students in Hong Kong (Garden, 1987). We must ask why this is the case. Why are Chinese students consistently among the top scorers in cross-national studies of achievement and American students consistently below the international average? The primary purpose of this research project was to attempt to provide some answers to this question. The researcher was interested in exploring cross-cultural differences in mathematics perception and attitude of younger children. Our major concern was to describe the context in which different levels of achievement occur in these two cultures. The researcher sought to identify not only contexts that appear to be important in explaining differences that we observed at the early years but also those that might be related to the cross-cultural differences in achievement that have been found among older children and youth. What effect does it have on our children's performance in mathematics? The researcher hope's these question s can be answered in further research. Literature Review Logically, children's academic achievement is related to three major factors: their intelligence, their experiences at school, and their experiences at home. With regard to the first factor, it seems unlikely that cross-national differences in academic achievement among Chinese, Japanese, and American children can be accounted for by dif","PeriodicalId":379871,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Instructional Psychology","volume":"7 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2004-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115195520","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}