The future of the Introductory Psychology course rests on the ability of its instructors to teach in ways aligned with our field's learning objectives, using evidence-based practices to engage and inspire their students. In this article, the Teacher Training and Development Team of the American Psychological Association's Introductory Psychology Initiative (IPI) provides models that will enable both novice and experienced instructors to integrate IPI's student learning outcomes and offers examples of assignments that instructors can adopt immediately. Concrete examples will help Introductory Psychology instructors find practical ways to enhance their teaching and to help their students achieve greater success in learning both the skills and content of psychological science. Finally, the team offers suggestions for chairs, developers, and course administrators to support the instructors teaching in their institutions in aligning their courses with these objectives. They also provide recommendations for training and professional development more broadly, to provide sustained support that will enable Introductory Psychology instructors to maintain and expand course changes over time.

This article reports on the development and use of an inclusive process to select a departmental textbook for general psychology. It describes a method for developing department-specific instruments to narrow the available textbook choices and an in-class textbook trial used in the final selection. Reported advantages of this method include "buy-in" by faculty, student evaluation of the books and ancillary materials, and classroom testing. We also provide several recommendations to assist other departments in employing our rubric.

Background: Reading comprehension and writing ability are critical to students’ success in introductory psychology. However, these generally are not prerequisites. There is conflicting evidence with regard to the effectiveness of remedial reading and writing classes for students with low placement exam scores. Objectives: To explore whether ACCUPLACER® test scores help predict performance in introductory psychology, and the effectiveness of reading and writing remediation classes in helping students, particularly those with low ACCUPLACER® scores. Method: Logistic regression analyses were used, to explore whether ACCUPLACER® test scores helped predict performance, and whether completing remediation classes helped students pass, controlling for ACCUPLACER® and WritePlacer® scores, at an upstate New York community college, between the years 2010 and 2015. Results: Placement test scores did help to predict successful course completion. There was not a statistically significant difference in successful course completion between students who passed the remedial courses and those who did not take them. Conclusions: Success in introductory psychology requires college-level reading and writing. Remedial courses’ value in students’ success in this class appears relatively small or non-significant. Teaching Implications: We propose solutions that may be more effective, involving embedding the remediation in the course, or in closely linked ancillary sections.

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Formal training and support for all introductory psychology instructors is necessary to implement the vision for course design and implementation articulated in the Introductory Psychology Initiative (IPI; American Psychological Association, 2020). a. Instructors teaching introductory psychology must receive training and support that develops and deepens their content knowledge, encourages sound principles of course design, focuses on strategies to support student skill development and scientific reasoning, and helps them design authentic, equitable assessment strategies aligned with learning outcomes.(continues)