• Have knowledge of, and be able to discuss, the social psychological theories, and evidence for the theories, that attempt to explain social interaction
• Have an appreciation for the many factors that affect human behavior
• Understand the ways in which the scientific method is used to investigate human behavior
• Be able to recognize how the content of the course relates to the real world
I think the biggest problem that will occur in my class will be doldrums. I don’t think that it will be my fault as much as an instructor, but more so the size of the class and the content. The size of the class causes an issue for obvious reasons, but the content creates a different set of boredom inducing qualities. Most of social psychology is quite interesting and can be made very fascinating. However, some areas are quite a bit more fascinating than others. Therefore, combining with the natural doldrums that occur, certain necessary topics will create a double whammy of doldrums. In order to take care of this problem, I think that there is one excellent option. Lang points out different experimental projects and activities. The key here is to utilize these ideas during topics that lack a certain fascination. With the foresight (knowing as a student and researcher) of somewhat boring topics, it would be smart to create those experimental activities and projects for those specific topics ahead of time.
Another problem that can tend to happen in psychology, and particularly social psychology, is problem students. Students tend to get rude during lectures surrounding human behavior. They will shout out things like “well that doesn’t apply to me” or will just plain not “buy” any of the theories. This tends to happen when the theory implies something uncontrollable or negative about things that they can relate about. It happens in social psychology courses all the time, because social psychological theory basically takes the rational human away from human behavior. This is usually met with some resistance. While it is okay to not buy all theories, most of these theories are how the majority of a scientific field understands human behavior, so there would be no class without them. I really do not know how to deal with this issue. If anyone has a solution, I’d be happy to hear it.
Aside from the last example, most of the problems that I predict are quite manageable. I liked the one part in the Davis book regarding teaching in times of crisis. Social psychology has a unique position when crises, such as school shootings, happen. There are theories to explain the behaviors or reasons why they happen. My question is do you dive into that topic? Or do you just acknowledge the event and move on? I have opinions for both, but I’d like to hear other ideas, which I will bring up in the in-class discussion on Thursday.
Adam, I similarly anticipate that some people will not believe the information I teach in my social psychology class. There are a couple approaches I plan to employ, but I don’t anticipate that they will be 100% successful. First, as you mentioned, it is easy for student to think of “exceptions to rules” that you are teaching. The students are correct to point out that there are exceptions to the rules, however, they are forgetting that rules in social psychology are based on averages. Thus, it is important to emphasize at the beginning of the course that in social psychology conclusions (rules) are based on averages, and that individual people are normally distributed around these averages. For example, on average, men are typically taller than woman. There are plenty of exceptions to this rule, however, these exceptions don’t falsify the notion that, on average, men are taller than women. This can be demonstrated by showing a graph of two normal distributions that have different means, but still overlap.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I plan to give my students a disclaimer on the first day of class. Specifically, I will make the point that this is a class in which human behavior is studied from a scientific perspective and that it will require students to think about themselves in ways that may challenge important beliefs they have about themselves. For instance, the course may require students to think about humans as highly evolved animals. In additional to this disclaimer, I will highlight the importance of keeping an open mind and the positive outcomes (e.g., self-knowledge/discovery) that might result from the class.
Additionally, I think it is important say that not all of these “problem students” are necessarily rude. Although, their comments in class may be frustrating, it is important to keep in mind that everyone holds certain beliefs about their self (and humans in general) that help them make it (psychologically) through the day. Thus, when course information challenges these beliefs it is natural to become defensive, and as teachers, we should be tolerant of this.
Finally, my ultimate goal as a social psychology instructor is to teach students how to think scientifically about human behavior and not to challenge students’ beliefs. Despite the fact that the content of a social psychology course will challenge students’ beliefs, this is not my direct goal and I will explicitly make this clear at the beginning of the class. In short, I am in the business of teaching social psychology and not in the business of disconfirming peoples beliefs (e.g., religious) and making this clear may prevent students from responding to course material in defensive ways.
Jacob,
ReplyDeleteI should have been clearer in my post about rude/defensive students. I in no way intended to frame defensive students as rude.
I agree and feel exactly the same way as you regarding your last two paragraphs. However, and this is my fault for how I worded my second paragraph, there are actually just plain rude students that look a lot like the defensive students. The students I was referring to go a little like this:
There was always one student in every class I was in that wanted to make himself (using male here on purpose) look smarter than the prof (usually female). Therefore, he would point out how theories didn't apply to him etc etc, with the sole purpose of bringing the prof down to his level. And of course, this was based on his ignorance of means and statistics.
They are rude and can often look like they are being defensive. Hope this clears this up.
Adam,
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree with you that most, if not all subject areas have their own set of exciting and not so exciting topics, I also think that the instructor (often unintentionally) contributes to the doldrums. Similar to students, teachers are not immune to the repetitive nature of college teaching and the boredom that often ensues. I have had teachers that were as unexciting as the topic they were covering. I don’t expect a “song and dance” during lecture, but a teacher’s job includes much more than just conveying knowledge. As I am learning through this class, there are countless methods that can be used to engage and educate at the same time. I strongly feel that ALL college instructors should be required to take this (or one similar) class early in their teaching career!
I like your idea of using special projects to help engage students when the less exciting topics are being covered. It may also be helpful to set up the schedule so that the most exciting topics are covered during the weeks when the doldrums are expected.
The concept of identifying, ahead of time, which course topics are naturally less interesting (to the student AND instructor) and coming up with unique experimental projects and activities to increase interest makes a lot of sense. There will always be "doldrums" and I think you have identified a really good idea to address them. This might also help address the problem students. I have one suggestion about the "rude students" issue you mentioned. There are theories and ideas that not everyone agrees with in my field as well. I tell students that they need to understand the theory, that it is OK to have an opposing opinion, and that they need to have a coherent reason for agreement or disagreement beyond "I agree" or "I disagree". I explain to them that their reasoning is the most important part of their answer. I imagine that certain topics lend themselves to more or less controversy and rude behavior. If you can anticipate this, as you mentioned with the doldrums, you might be able to create ways of focusing these negative thoughts. One thing to think about is that these negative thoughts, if properly managed, could lead to some great discussion and get some problem students interested in the class. For an assignment you could have students create their own version of the theory and maybe present some opposing viewpoints.
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