The Pedagogical Value of Experimental Participation Paired with Course Content

Abstract

This study investigated the educational value of research participation by assessing the accuracy of student perceptions regarding the scientific status and methodology of psychology at 3 times during a semester: during the first week, following introductory and methodology lectures, and at the end of the term. Students' understanding of contemporary psychology and research procedures improved across the term. Findings indicate that students' increased understanding of psychological research procedures may be due to their participation in research in addition to course content.Two goals that appear to be germane to most introductory psychology courses are that students gain an understanding of (a) the breadth of contemporary psychology and (b) the scientific methods psychologists employ. College students taking their first psychology course often have misinformed opinions about psychology based on exposure to the popular media. For example, the prevalence of psychological television talk shows and self-help books, in addition to the iconic status of Sigmund Freud as representative of the field of psy-chology, might lead students to overestimate the extent to which psychology is a clinical field that relies on armchair observation methods (Stanovich, 1986). Often, teaching students to appreciate contemporary psychology necessitates attempting to correct these popular misconceptions (McKeachie, 1960;Vaughan, 1977). Indeed, several instructors explicitly mention on their syllabi that one of the goals of the course is to debunk popular myths regarding psychology (Project Syllabus, 2003), and correcting common opinions based on media misinformation is an avowed objective of popular introductory texts (e.g., Wade &Tavris, 2003) and supplements (e.g., Stanovich, 1986).Does the common practice of requiring introductory students to participate in research help to meet these pedagogical goals of introductory psychology classes? Sieber and Saks (1989) found that 74% of the universities they surveyed used a participant pool, 93% of which recruited participants from introductory courses. Universities often claim educational value as the rationale for requiring introductory psychology students to participate in experiments (Jung, 1969; Landrum Vol. 32, No. 2, 2005 95

Gender Balance, Representativeness, and Statistical Power in Sexuality Research Using Undergraduate Student Samples

“…In many ways, undergraduate students are an ideal sample for understanding sexual behavior as this is developmentally consistent for young adults. Beyond providing an inexpensive and readily available source of research subjects, the use of student pools has also been justified by the educational benefits it provides to students who participate, such as increased knowledge about contemporary psychology and research ethics (Rosell et al, 2005). However, there are also a couple of central concerns with the use of undergraduate student participants, namely gender imbalances and the representativeness of the samples.…”

A Video Introduction to Psychology: Enhancing Research Interest and Participation

“…Recent research (e.g., Bowman & Waite, 2003;Rosell et al, 2005;Trafimow et al, 2006) has indicated that students in introductory psychology courses benefit more from direct participation in psychology experiments when attempting to meet their research experience requirement than from the alternatives to direct participation, such as writing papers. Based on such findings, our current goal was to develop a standardized method of familiarizing students with psychological research that would increase their enthusiasm in direct participation in a noncoercive manner.…”

Research Participation Improves Student's Exam Performance

“…On the other hand, there have also been attempts to study how research participation may affect the perception of a certain field of study in the first years of the degree. Rosell et al (2005) found that student perceptions and topics about psychology in the first year courses may vary depending on research participation. Those first year students who participated in research reported an increment understanding psychological research procedures as well as an increment understanding contemporary psychology.…”