Getting Psyched About Memes in the Psychology Classroom

Abstract

Introduction Internet memes are a ubiquitous part of internet culture and a common communication tool among students. Because they are a good medium for expressing ideas and concepts in a concise and fun manner, memes are a potentially valuable tool for teaching and engaging students. Statement of the Problem Instructors may not know how to use memes in classroom assignments or activities to support learning objectives. Literature Review Students finding or creating their own class-related content is an empirically supported way to enhance learning. Instructors can enhance learning by using multimedia approaches (pictures/videos in addition to words), which is a good fit for the use of memes. We include examples of ways that memes have already been used in psychology classrooms. Teaching Implications Incorporating meme assignments or activities in the classroom could be beneficial. Conclusion We describe how students can explain or generate memes that illustrate concepts related to course material. Instructions and supporting information and resources, as well as calls for research into the effectiveness of the use of memes in the classroom, are included.

Making way for memes in the social science classroom: How generational media preferences may impact discussions of racial inequities

“…We found that few studies had looked at this specific area, but a small number of studies had been done on the use of memes in university teaching more generally. Empirical evidence suggests that memes can improve engagement and retention of course material among university students (Kath, Schmidt, & Hartnett, 2022; Underwood & Kararo, 2020). Furthermore, memes frequently lend themselves to discussion about racism and have the advantage of being both timely and culturally relevant.…”

Are Scientific Memes Motivating and Does Public Sharing Affect Motivation?

“…To create a meme, a person selects a publicly accessible image from a meme generator site and writes a brief caption that overlays the image. Creating a good meme can be a challenging task, as the image and caption should match the idea being captured by the meme (Kath et al, 2022). Students enrolled in the graduate courses used peer-reviewed research articles as sources, whereas students enrolled in the undergraduate courses had source information provided by the instructors (students chose which sources to create memes on based on a variety of topics covered in the sources provided).…”

“…Scientific memes are images or videos with minimal text to convey scientific findings or concepts (Riser et al, 2020). Memes, in general, are popular on social media and the internet in general; therefore, memes may be a means to engage students in psychology content as students are already familiar with the creative potential of memes for communication (Kath et al, 2022). Comparisons of scientific memes to traditional research writing assignments have indicated similar grades, but more completion of memes (Riser et al, 2020).…”

Social, Strutturale e Specializzato: tre significati per comprendere, studiare e utilizzare in classe i meme matematici

“…Il compito dell'insegnante è introdurre gli studenti alla cultura della matematica, e questo processo di inculturazione è più agevole se l'insegnante è più consapevole della cultura da cui provengono gli studenti (Skovsmose, 2005). In questi ultimi anni, la letteratura accademica ha infatti iniziato a rivolgere le sue attenzioni all'esplorazione delle potenzialità didattiche dei meme, sia nel campo della didattica della matematica (Abrams, 2021;Bini et al, 2021;Videla et al, 2022) sia in altri ambiti disciplinari, come la didattica della psicologia (Kath et al, 2022), delle lingue straniere (Romero & Bobkina, 2021) o della farmacia (Brown, 2020). Questi studi hanno mostrato che l'utilizzo dei meme nella didattica può essere efficace sotto diversi aspetti: catturare l'attenzione degli studenti e mantenere l'interesse durante le lezioni; aiutare gli studenti a sintetizzare informazioni, a cogliere l'essenza di un argomento e a ricordare concetti chiave; favorire l'associazione di idee e la memorizzazione; promuovere la creatività e l'interazione tra gli studenti, incoraggiando la condivisione e la discussione di contenuti rilevanti per il programma scolastico.…”