Ignite the Fire: Strategies to Enhance Engagement and Belonging in Classes of All Sizes

Many instructors (ourselves included) have fallen into the trap of thinking that teaching is a process of filling a vessel: transferring knowledge from teacher to student. If so, then successful teaching depends on the clarity of our explanations and how well students can regurgitate what they have heard in class. But students are complex beings whose emotional experiences and social connections in a class shape both the learning process and longer-term interest in the field. How can we create a learning environment that ignites a passion for psychology? In this workshop, we specifically consider the importance of two related socioemotional processes: course engagement, which we define as a sense of “gusto” for learning in a course, and course belonging, which we define as a sense of value, comfort, or inclusion from the perception that one belongs in a course community. We will examine some of the evidence that these socioemotional processes shape important outcomes in psychology courses, and explore various strategies for increasing both. Participants will take time to reflect on how to apply specific strategies in their own courses, consider which strategies best fit the needs of their students, and will be encouraged to share their own strategies with each other and the group.

Bridgette Martin Hard;Emma Grisham

Trading Deduction for Instruction: Getting Started with Specifications Grading

Grading student work can at times become a time-consuming exercise in justifying deductions in preparation for battles over assigned grades. Specifications grading is an alternative approach built around grading student work as pass (‘meets specifications’) or fail (‘not all specifications met’)—depending on whether students have met a list of requirements (that is, specifications or 'specs'). By itself, pass/fail grading might sound terrifying for students (and teachers), but specs grading is intended to increase student motivation and effort, improve the quality of student work, reduce student-teacher conflicts about grades, and reduce faculty time investment in grading. How? Specs grading implementations achieve combine pass/fail grading with early and clear communication of the requirements for assignments, meaningful and targeted feedback on how to meet missed specifications, and provision of opportunities for correcting work that does not meet specifications. In essence, specs grading repositions teachers as cooperative guides instead of gatekeepers. In this workshop, we will describe what design elements teachers need to include when using specifications grading, what elements teachers need prepare in order to get started, and how to scale specifications grading from a single assignment to the design of a full course.

A first move towards diversifying one’s course is often content-driven: including more people of color in the syllabus and other course materials. But how can this be done in greater depth? This interactive workshop will discuss key strategies in assessing our syllabi (and courses) for equity, particularly as it relates to racial and ethnic categories. It will introduce strategies for assessing one’s course/the curriculum to incorporate structure, design, and engagement towards racial equity and inclusion.

Rebuilding, Reconnecting, and Finding that New Normal

By the first week of classes, many of us are already counting the days until the next break! Has it always been this way? Perhaps not – colleges, universities, communities, and the world all seem to be requiring more of our attention and concern. We know we are living through extraordinary times, but many of us are ready for some ordinary times. In this workshop, we will talk about strategies for dealing with the multitude of stressors we are facing. How can we help each other not just manage to get to the next vacation, but try to rebuild a more normal academic atmosphere? How can we help each other deal with the hassles and perhaps anxieties we are facing this semester? Participants will discuss ways to build back a departmental culture that is supportive of faculty and helps students thrive.

Misty G Lull;Deborah M. Licht

All speakers are asked to attend this important meeting.

Is this your first time at NITOP? Come hear from some experienced NITOPers about what to expect, etc.

We Need to Teach About Disability in Psychology Class

People with disabilities are the largest minority group in the United States, making up approximately 19% of the population. However, our data shows that disability is rarely represented in psychology curricula. I will describe inclusive pedagogical strategies to increase disability representation in our courses and our field.

Jacaranda Hall & Banyan Breezeway

1. Packback Interaction in an Introduction to Psychology Course

Jacaranda Hall & Banyan Breezeway

Following COVID-19, Packback served as a means of community and communication for students. Packback participation was significantly correlated with overall student grades. This study suggested that required Packback participation helped students feel more imbued in the class materials and connected to fellow students during the COVID-19 isolation.

Kylie Zangla;Rebecca Walton;Kathleen A. West

2. Reflecting on Experiential Learning in an Experimental Psychology Course

Jacaranda Hall & Banyan Breezeway

Experiential learning is increasingly a goal in higher education. Reflection, an important component of experiential learning, facilitates processing and understanding. We propose using the typical research paper from experimental psychology courses as an experiential learning requirement, and including a reflection component. We present data from students evaluating this project.

Deb Briihl;David Wasieleski

3. Student Cognitive Engagement in Virtual Discussions

Jacaranda Hall & Banyan Breezeway

Using a mixed-methods design, we explored the levels of cognitive engagement in virtual discussion boards in a graduate-level psychology course. Deep levels of cognitive engagement were observed in both written and video responses, but deeper levels were detected more when submitting written responses, and factors related to engagement were explored.

4. Integrating Service Learning in the Psychology Classroom

Jacaranda Hall & Banyan Breezeway

Poster will highlight the basic principles and best practice of Service Learning and provide a step-by-step guide to integrating a student led Service-Learning Project in a psychology class.

Christine Carbone;Andrea Dinan

5. Mentimeter: An Engaging, Cost-Effective Replacement for Student Response Systems

Jacaranda Hall & Banyan Breezeway

This poster describes our use Mentimeter in Introductory Psychology to test students' understanding of course concepts, to carry out class demonstrations, and to track attendance. We include data showing students' attitudes toward Mentimeter and provide instructions for using Mentimeter to take attendance and move attendance data into an LMS gradebook.

Christie Cathey;Kelly Gonzalez-Stewart;Brooke Whisenhunt;Danae Hudson

Jacaranda Hall & Banyan Breezeway

Student attrition is a concern, both in formal education and extracurricular activities. The Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Human Factors Mentorship Program has experienced a decline in participation and lower quality of communication between semesters. In order to address this decline, several surveys were assessed and interventions were created.

Cassandra Domingo;Carmen Van Ommen

7. Instructor-Written Essays to Enhance an Introductory Psychology Course

Jacaranda Hall & Banyan Breezeway

Instructor-Written Essays to Enhance an Introductory Psychology Course

Frank Ferraro;Lucas Weyrich

8. Helping First-Generation, Low-Income, and Minority Students Cope with Effects of the Pandemic

Jacaranda Hall & Banyan Breezeway

We investigated coping with the pandemic among first-generation, minority, and low-income college students. A majority indicated that they had been impacted by COVID, with nearly a quarter indicating that someone they knew died of COVID. Minority students scored higher than non-minority students on resilience. Structured mentoring programs may be beneficial.

9. Implementing Practice Assignments to Reinforce Concept Learning and Improve Research Comprehension

Jacaranda Hall & Banyan Breezeway

Students often struggle to comprehend psychology journal articles. We examined whether assigning structured reading worksheets (RWs) over a semester would improve research comprehension skills and reinforce related content learning. Our results suggest that RWs may be a practical option for psychology instructors looking to incorporate journal article readings into their courses.

Leamarie Gordon;Trina Kershaw

10. DEI-Related Faculty Development Opportunities Predict Inclusive Teaching Attitudes and Practices

Jacaranda Hall & Banyan Breezeway

This poster presents both quantitative and qualitative data from a study examining the effectiveness of faculty development opportunities focused on inclusive teaching on the DEI-related beliefs and the inclusive teaching practices of STEM faculty. Overall, our findings support offering these faculty development opportunities and suggest ways to maximize their effectiveness.

Mona Ibrahim;Mark Jensen

11. The Teaching of Undergraduate Abnormal Psychology: A National Survey

Jacaranda Hall & Banyan Breezeway

Abnormal Psychology is a common undergraduate psychology course, however, critics point out that the term "abnormal" may engender mental health stigma. We examined instructors' opinions regarding the course title. Moreover, instructors detailed their approach to teaching Abnormal Psychology, including preferred course content and teaching activities.

Rick LaCaille;Dakota Leget;Nicholas Kellar;Lara LaCaille;Scott Carlson;Eric Hessler

12. How Common is Mental Illness? Student and Public Perceptions

Jacaranda Hall & Banyan Breezeway

Students and non-student adults were asked to estimate the prevalence of specific psychological disorders; estimates were compared with actual epidemiological data. Results are discussed in the context of the current mental health crisis, rapidly changing media sources of mental health information, and the role of psychology courses to address misperceptions.

13. Overcoming Confusion: An Intervention for Psychology Students During Statistics Learning and Problem Solving

Jacaranda Hall & Banyan Breezeway

We developed an intervention to teach undergraduate psychology students the self-regulatory strategies and emotion regulation skills needed to effectively solve statistics problems. One hundred undergraduate psychology students volunteered to participate and were randomly assigned to a control or intervention group. The intervention was effective at improving students' learning processes and learning outcomes.

Krista Muis;Reinhard Pekrun;Gale Sinatra;Panayiota Kendeou;Michael Foy;Alana Kennedy;Kelsey M. Losenno;Tiia Ladvelin; Ali Fulsher; Martina Kohatsu; Shuting Wang;Elisabeth Graf

14. Effectiveness of a Semester Long Test Development Project in a Psychological Assessment Course

Jacaranda Hall & Banyan Breezeway

We examined students' experiences with a semester-long test development project in an upper division psychological assessment course. Students created items measuring a psychological construct, collected data via social media, and evaluated scale psychometrics. Most students indicated the project helped them understand measurement concepts and learn valuable test development skills.

Marrisa Roffler;Kate Nicolai

15. Students' Use of Learning Strategies: Effective, Ineffective, and Unethical

Jacaranda Hall & Banyan Breezeway

We surveyed undergraduates about their use of learning and test-taking strategies. All strategies were described without use of evaluative terms such as "cheating." Students were asked how often they used each strategy and which strategies they believed to be most effective for learning and for "getting a good grade."

Lori Van Wallendael;Kathleen Burke;Erin Godly-Reynolds;Jordan Lyerly;Hannah Peach

16. Success and Failures When Undergraduates Search for Online Information

Jacaranda Hall & Banyan Breezeway

Do our digital native Generation Z college students use effective search and find strategies online? Seventy-three students worked to find answers to 15 questions, answers of which could be found on the university website, and completed a self-efficacy survey. Self-efficacy scores were negatively correlated with number of correct answers.

Jennifer Blessing;Heather Scherschel

17. Making Your Syllabus Speak to Students

Jacaranda Hall & Banyan Breezeway

Our research demonstrates that students have more favorable perceptions about the instructor and course when syllabi use graphics and skills-based descriptions. Catch attention and motivate your students from Day 1!

Virginia Wickline;Rashuna Middleton;Drew Appleby

1. Teaching of Behavioral Neuroscience

I would like to present best practices for teaching of Behavioral Neuroscience. This is my area of expertise and I've been teaching the course for 18 years. I have ideas for resources, in-class experiences, and more.

2. Applying Narrative Identity to Psychology Students' Lives

Narrative identity theory provides a foundation for students' reflection on past experiences, current values, and future goals through the process of life authorship. In this roundtable we will discuss how understanding narrative identity and engaging in related activities can support students' success in transitioning to life after college.

3. Rethinking Abnormal Psychology: The Power of Language

This participant idea exchange will focus on the pros and cons of moving away from naming our textbooks and courses "Abnormal Psychology". As we strive to create an inclusive environment for our students, we should consider barriers that the course name itself may create before students even begin the class.

Scientific writing is a critical skill for psychology students to learn, particularly in research methods and upper-level psychology courses. For many students, scientific writing is a new communication method and requires significant instructional scaffolding. We discuss lessons, activities, and assessments that teach students how to write effectively for different audiences.

Serge Onyper;Mark Oakes;Elyssa Twedt

5. Design Thinking in the Psychology Classroom

This PIE will focus on the value of integrating design thinking within the college psychology classroom. Design thinking can promote experiential learning in psychology courses, add value to cognitive and I/O psychology course curricula, and serve as an inclusive pedagogy. The presenter will share firsthand experience and examples.

6. Strategies for Creating a Culture of Inclusivity in the Classroom

This PIE proposes a discussion of techniques to decrease prejudices held by students in order to create a culture of inclusivity. Pulling from the Social Psychology literature, a wide range of prejudice reduction techniques and their efficacies will be addressed. Suggested readings will be provided.

7. Developing a Peer Mentoring Program for Psychology Majors

In this Participant Idea Exchange, we will facilitate a discussion about the benefits of peer mentoring programs and the challenges involved with starting them. We welcome participation from NITOP attendees who have already have peer mentoring programs or who are interested in potentially beginning a program at their college.

Ashley Hansen-Brown;Holly Grant-Marsney;Stephanie Penley

8. International Dialogues Build Intercultural Competence, Empathy

Let's chat about chatting! Help your students build intercultural competence and other important skills and traits through international dialogues. For over a decade, the Crossing Borders program has helped students learn more about their own and others' cultures through a series of semi-structured dialogues, both face-to-face and virtually.

Deborah Wiese;Jessica Downey;Virginia Wickline

9. Cultivating Community in the Classroom

This Participant Idea Exchange will provide an opportunity for educators to learn about and
discuss the impact of classroom community on student success. Audience members will engage in a discussion focused on sharing and identifying strategies for creating community in the classroom.

Katherine Gerst;Aimee Kleisner Walker

10. Collaboration, Creativity, & Critical Thinking via Comics and Clay

Interesting, strategically targeted assignments can help students reengage and work collaboratively in the classroom. This PIE is an opportunity to share ideas about designing projects - like creating online comics or building a neuron out of straws and pipe cleaners - that support students and encourage engagement and creativity.

11. Teaching Ethics: A Fundamental Component of Undergraduate Psychology Education

Ethical reasoning, thinking, and literacy have been identified as key components of the undergraduate psychology major from Introductory Psychology to the Senior Capstone. This PIE will focus on discussion of methods of teaching ethics across courses and the expansion of ethics education within the major.

LInda Woolf;Michael Hulsizer

12. We Can Do Hard Things: Nudging Students Out of Their Comfort Zones For Improved Learning

Are students pushing back on your assignments and class activities because they prefer to absorb course content by simply listening to a lecture? How much are they learning through passive listening? Let's discuss how to encourage students to actively learn through techniques they may find challenging.

Laura Dolph Bosley;Ana Hutton Kehrberg

13. This or That? Creating Opportunities for Students to Practice Making Evidence-Informed Decisions

Decision-making is one of the most important life skills students need, but do we provide sufficient opportunities for students to practice evidence-informed decision-making? In this PIE, we will talk about activities and assignments that can be used in any course to help students develop this ability.

14. Using Psychology to Bring Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation to Campus

Marymount University recently became an AAC&U Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Campus Center. In this work, we aim to establish narrative change, racial healing/relationship building, and community engagement. In this session, we will describe our progress and challenges, as we hope to learn from the wisdom of fellow NITOP participants.

15. Career Connections: Incorporating Job Skills into Psychology Courses

In this Participant Idea Exchange, we will discuss how teachers can help prepare students for their future careers by highlighting professional skills in our psychology courses. This includes students who will go into the workforce immediately after graduation and those who will continue their education in graduate or professional programs.

16. How to Support College Students of Color in the Age of Intolerance in the Classroom Environment

This PIE discussion proposes to be a place to collaborate, share best practices, discuss strengths and challenges of teaching students of color for psychology professors. PIE participants can expect to discuss why/how we may position ourselves to discuss possible struggles they experience in classroom settings for successful outcomes

Making Team Projects Work: Tools for Improving Team Projects for Your Students

How do your Students Stack Up with Dunlosky et al. (2013) Study Habits? Use a Self-Report Measure!

Carmen Van Ommen;Cassandra Domingo

NITOP attendees are welcome to bring family/guests. Families with young children should come at 6:00 p.m. and those without young children should come at 7:00 p.m.

The Student Cognition Toolbox: How You Can Help Students Boost Academic Performance, and How Students Can Help Themselves

Students enter college with a variety of past experiences and beliefs about how to prepare for assessments of their academic performance. Considerable research supports that most students prefer and use study strategies that are ineffective relative to strategies supported by applied research on cognition. In addition, this research shows that different study strategies are needed for different kinds of learning—one size does not fit all. We have developed and deployed a comprehensive set of online, interactive instructional materials, the Student Cognition Toolbox (SCT), situated within Carnegie Mellon University’s (CMU) Open Learning Initiative (OLI http://oli.cmu.edu). This toolbox a) instructs students on how to select appropriate study strategies for different learning goals, b) provides opportunities for practice in using the strategies, c) includes formative and summative assessments that measure how well students have mastered the strategies, and d) asks students a series of self-reflective questions designed to help them develop their metacognitive skills (e.g., knowing which strategies to apply in varying contexts) with the ultimate goal of becoming self-regulated learners. This session will comprise a brief tour of the SCT followed by presentation of results from in vivo studies that document the efficacy of the SCT and how different learners benefit from the instruction. Finally, the session will offer examples of how teachers of psychology might use the SCT to empower students to become better (and self-regulated) learners, and how they might integrate SCT material into their courses to maximize student learning of course-related content.

Diversity education is the teaching of issues related to diversity in instructional contexts. These educational programs vary greatly in approach and scope. Some diversity trainings involve little more than a series of narrated PowerPoint slides. Other educational sessions involve expert instructors who hold intensive workshops that can last for days. Diversity education can also encompass semester-long courses about diversity taught by high school or university-level instructors. While some educational programs merely seek to raise awareness about bias, others aim to empower trainees with the motivations and skills necessary to reduce social inequality. In this session, I will show how conceptualizing diversity education as just another form of education clarifies when diversity education will “work”. Using theory and data, I discuss how straightforward predictions of whether a diversity education program will succeed can be made by examining a diversity training’s educational goals, educational content, teaching practices, and the educational needs of its trainees. Throughout, I will discuss recommendations that diversity education researchers and practitioners can apply right now to teach diversity better.

Shared Attention Please! How Attending Together Fosters Meaning and Learning

Good teachers constantly consider how to capture, direct, and sustain student attention. Students who are interested and undistracted will learn more, so it’s worth helping our students cultivate good habits of individual focus. However, our classrooms are more than just collections of individually attending minds. Attention is a social sport. This session will explore the phenomenon of shared attention—situations in which two or more people are aware that we are attending to some stimulus or situation at the same time. While psychologists have occasionally conceptualized humans’ quest for meaning as separate from their drive for connection, research on shared attention (and a related concept, shared reality) argues differently. For humans, meaning and belonging are impossible to separate. Meaning is social, and close relationships thrive on shared understandings. This session will share some current science on shared attention and shared reality and introduce some fresh, evidence-based ways of thinking about our face-to-face and online spaces. I hope attendees will feel curious, interested, and inspired to think more about the social learning environments of their classrooms.

How Can Teachers Benefit from Research on What Makes Psychotherapy Work?”

For over a half-century, researchers have been studying what makes psychotherapy work. Initially, proponents of each type of therapy argued that their own approach was best because of some unique techniques or emphases. But over and over again, results of empirical studies show that these different approaches are actually equally effective, regardless of the technical differences between them. The explanation for that equivalence centers on common factors—that is, fundamental elements shared by all legitimate therapy approaches that function as active ingredients. The most widely acknowledged of these common factors is the alliance between therapist and client, and others include hope and attention. Could the common factors that make therapy effective also make teaching effective? If so, to what extent? How might the common factors in therapy best be adapted for teaching? Which aspects of the alliance might be most important in the teacher/student relationship—goal consensus, positive regard, empathy, genuineness, or others? How might diversity factors influence the way common factors work for teachers? These and other questions will be discussed in this presentation.

17. Increasing Student Engagement in Psychology: Simple Hacks to Increase Discourse and Thinking

Are your students spending more time listening to you lecture than they are actively engaging and discussing the material? Join us in this PIE to learn about and discuss pedagogical strategies that spark student engagement and inspire meaningful discourse that can be used in any psychology course.

18. The Promise, Practicalities, and Politics of Open Educational Resources

An informal discussion about the challenges and opportunities with the adoption, adaptation, creation, and usage of Open Educational Resources.

19. Designing a Program for Peer Evaluation of Instruction

We will consider the use of peer-evaluations of instruction. In doing so, we will discuss whether they should be used for faculty development or employment review. We also will examine who should conduct peer-evaluations, as well as best-practices for reviews, and how to provide feedback that can improve pedagogical practice.

Maya M. Khanna;Michael J. Cortese

20. PsychJam: Faculty Response to Increased Student Mental Health Deterioration

During the pandemic and the consequent shutdown, students showed an increased level of mental health issues. PsychJam, a virtual event, was created to offer support and coping resources particularly to those students who suffered in silence. Hosts of the event included Counseling And Psychological Services as well as others.

21. Integrating NACE Career Readiness Competencies Across Psychology Curriculum

Upon graduation, more psychology majors enter the workforce than graduate school. Thus, career readiness becomes very important. This PIE discusses integration of National Association of Colleges and Employers' (NACE) Career Readiness Competencies across psychology curriculum.

Karen Mottarella;Martha Hubertz;Alisha Janowsky

22. Teaching Techniques to Foster Personal Development in College Students

This PIE will be geared toward facilitating a discussion amongst colleagues on the value of fostering personal development in college students. Specifically, we will share activities and strategies we use in the classroom to help students gain skills for regulating their own growth and development.

23. Strategies for Using CREP to Embed Research Experiences Directly into Class

Collaborative Replications and Education Project (CREP) is gaining momentum for more students to get hands-on experience conducting research and potentially diversify the identities of students who apply to psychology graduate programs. I am embedding a CREP experience into a Spring class and welcome your questions and insight!

24. C.U.R.E.s for Student Writing and Speaking

Effective writing and speaking are broadly transferable skills that will help students thrive in their future academic, professional, personal, and civic lives. In this session we will explore practical ways that faculty can foster students' writing and speaking skills via Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences (C.U.R.E.s).

25. Helping Students Improve their Study Habits: Successes and Challenges

Resources are available for instructors to promote effective studying among their students (e.g., Learning Scientists website, Stephen Chew's videos). But actually changing study habits is difficult. We propose to discuss successes and challenges from our own and others' research on interventions and integrate with experiences brought in by other participants.

Shaina Rowell;Emily Cohen-Shikora;John Nestojko

26. Using Hobbies as Part of Your Work

This PIE will look at how psychology professors take hobbies they have and attempt to integrate them into either their classrooms or research projects.

27. Infusing History, Culture, and Current Events into Personality Psychology

I will initiate discussion of ways to incorporate historical and current events into a foundational-level course on personality psychology. Such applications can help students understand how a person's displayed traits, often established by Western standards, may be a function of the history and culture in which they live.

28. Supporting Struggling Students through CARING: A DEI Imperative

It is easy to share the passion of what we teach to eager, dedicated students, but how do we foster the success of struggling undergraduate or graduate students? Incorporating an approach using the acronym CARING seems effective for students whose struggles are often founded in DEI issues.

29. Teaching a Course to Help Psychology Majors with Career Planning

I will describe a 3-credit hour Careers in Psychology course in which students complete assignments that help them develop plans to achieve their career goals, put their best forward in the job market, and increase their chances of getting accepted into graduate school.

30. Don't Try this Alone: Facilitating Successful Student Collaborations

Many students dread group assignments, but students' attitudes can improve after just one positive experience. In this PIE, we share examples of how we facilitate effective collaboration in our classes by setting clear expectations for group roles and group communication and creating challenging assignments that motivate students to work together.

Victoria Cross;Melissa Paquette-Smith

31. Alternative Grading in a General Psychology Class

We will discuss alternative grading methods, with a focus on General Psychology.

32. Using Low-Stake Knowledge Checks and Growth Mindset Grading to Improve Student Outcomes and Increase Efficacy

A guided discussion and application opportunity to apply the principles of a growth mindset pedagogy in university settings to improve students' mastery of course objectives and their self-efficacy as learners.

Aimee Kleisner Walker;Katherine Gerst

Teaching Integrative Psychology Focused on Reducing Youth Inequalities

Some of the most complex societal challenges – such as reducing health disparities and other inequalities among youth – demand effective solutions that integrate multiple subdisciplines of psychology. For example, supporting the mental health of refugee youth requires a blend of developmental psychology, cross-cultural psychology, and clinical psychology as a foundation. Therefore, it is in our best interest as a field to teach an integrative psychology to future generations of psychologists. What does it look like to teaching psychology integratively and how can such a psychology contribute to reducing inequalities? What are the ideal contents, methods, formats, and graded activities in such a course? This talk will serve as a guide to teaching an integrative psychology that focuses on reducing youth inequalities. Points will be illustrated with examples of syllabi, lectures, and assignments from courses/workshops I have taught using this integrative philosophy. By the end of the session, participants will be able to describe the importance of teaching an integrative psychology and will be armed with practical tools for doing so among high school students through doctoral students.

How Do We Teach Statistical Reasoning to Psychology Majors? A Report from Society for the Teaching of Psychology’s Task Force on Statistical Literacy, Reasoning, and Thinking

Dr. Hartnett will present findings and resources created by the STP’s Task Force on Statistical Literacy, Reasoning, and Thinking: Guidelines 2.0. This presentation will include a) easy-to-use resources for Introduction to Psychology classes that emphasize key, essential statistical terms and b) a nationwide survey that investigated how we teach statistics, and statistical reasoning, to psychology majors. Dr. Hartnett will offer resources and suggestions to reach all of our psychology majors and increase statistical literacy.

Helping Students Grapple with Psychology’s Methodological Crisis and Reform

In order for students to become well-informed consumers and producers of knowledge in psychology, they must grapple with the field’s methodological crisis and reform. In this presentation, I will propose a list of essential topics, including questionable research practices, replication, and publication bias. For each of these topics, I will review examples of approaches for promoting student engagement. This will include ideas ranging from (a) simple exercises that can be easily implemented in any course (e.g., quizzes, in-class exercises, and recommended readings), to (b) bold reformulations of research method curriculum (e.g., to focus on capstone replication or reproducibility projects). Links to relevant resources will be provided.

Metacognition and the Impostor Phenomenon: Why Teachers Should Take off Their Genius Masks

A growing body of literature suggests that we live among impostors. That is, many of us feel that we do not deserve our successes, and instead will attribute our achievements to external factors, such as luck or extra hard work. To avoid being “found out” that we are not the “genius” that others believe we are, we might then behave in ways that are harmful for further learning and advancement. For instance, we might fail to use appropriate metacognitive strategies. Metacognition is made up of two components, monitoring and control. For impostors, I will argue that while the monitor may be intact – we might know what we don’t know, the control function will often break down. In the classroom, for instance, a student impostor might know that they need help, but resist arguing for a higher grade, resist asking the teacher for extra help, resist requesting feedback on a rough draft, resist joining a study group, or, even simply, resist raising one’s hand in class. In this talk, I will first present the various features of an impostor, focusing mainly on the symptoms that might lead to a breakdown in metacognitive control. Then, I will go through a study on the hindsight bias, which will highlight not only how the mask gets put on, but also the deceptively thin nature of the mask. Finally, I will provide thoughts on how students might believe that they need the impostor mask to impress their teachers, who may be more “expert,” or deceptive, impostors. Overall, I hope to spark a larger discussion on why metacognition is so challenging to apply in the classroom, and what can be done about it.

Social (Psychology) Activism: Integrating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to Promote Social Change

As social psychologists, we are members of a discipline that thinks deeply about inequity, stereotypes, prejudice, and race. We view students’ introduction both to the broader discipline (e.g. Introduction to Psychology) as well as to Social Psychology as an opportunity to convey the power and potential of psychology to create fundamental change in the world. Therefore, we collaborated with members across our department to create an Introduction to Psychology course integrating diversity, equity, and inclusion material throughout the syllabus and in each lecture. We have then applied these same tenets to Social Psychology. We created learning goals focused on gaining mastery of content with a critical lens for issues of diversity and inclusion. Second, we integrated relevant content throughout the course that directly relates to DEI issues. Third, we integrated discussions focused on DEI issues that push students to think about the practical implications of these issues in their daily lives. Finally, we created an application project, which encourages students to act as change agents by using materials from the course to promote positive social change. This talk provides a framework for the course structure for both Introduction to Psychology and Social Psychology. Although both courses are currently taught in an in-person format, the pedagogical features could easily be adapted for online and/or hybrid teaching. By centering Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in every aspect of our courses we foster engagement and active learning to empower students as change agents both locally and globally.

Rebecca Totton;Catherine Sanderson

Jacaranda Hall & Banyan Breezeway

18. Virtual Reality-Based Simulated Hallucinations to Enhance Learning in Undergraduate Psychopathology Courses

Jacaranda Hall & Banyan Breezeway

Simulated auditory and visual hallucinations, administered via virtual reality, served as an effective educational tool among students in an undergraduate psychopathology course. Of note, we sought to maximize fidelity and immersion by incorporating the actual classroom and course instructor into the virtual world.

Ken Abrams;Andrew Wilson;Thais Del Rosario Hernandez

19. Interventions for "Best Practices" Teaching of an Introduction to Psychology Course

Jacaranda Hall & Banyan Breezeway

Overall introduction to psychology grades declined following the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since 2019, our lab has focused on "best practices" for supporting student learning in PSYC101. After the start of the pandemic, our lab attempted to maximize student success by implementing multiple interventions, including a customized Skyepack textbook.

Rebecca Walton;Kylie Zangla;Kathleen A. West

20. Two Birds, One Stone: Filling the Need for Data Collection and Undergraduate Research Experience

Jacaranda Hall & Banyan Breezeway

We will provide guidance on the formation of a class where undergraduates students can get the much desired research experience under the guidance of faculty members who are short on time and resources using the Psychological Science Accelerator.

Leanne Boucher;W. Matthew Collins

21. What's In It for Me? Benefits of Serving as an Undergraduate Teaching Assistant

Jacaranda Hall & Banyan Breezeway

We surveyed 30 previous undergraduate teaching assistants (UTAs) to examine how serving as a UTA impacted their subsequent college experiences. The UTAs (n=30) reported gaining skills across a variety of domains, including leadership, time management, speaking, and subject matter confidence. The vast majority found the UTA experience extremely rewarding.

22. Flipping History (of Psychology courses)

Jacaranda Hall & Banyan Breezeway

This poster will summarize and share materials for a flipped history of Psychology course.

23. Managing Exam Jitters: A Coping Intervention's Effects on Exam Emotions, Appraisals, and Performance

Jacaranda Hall & Banyan Breezeway

Students often feel stressed about the first exam in a course. This study examined whether an intervention that positively reframed exam-related stress and combines problem- and emotion-focused coping strategies to harness stress effectively would reduce stress, shift stress appraisals, and improve exam performance compared to standard exam guidance.

Emma Grisham;Bridgette Martin Hard

24. The Practical Implications of Teaching with the Doer Effect: Examples from Psychology Courses

Jacaranda Hall & Banyan Breezeway

In two online psychology courses at the University of Central Florida, the instructor used AI-generated courseware as the primary learning resource. This poster will connect the learning science research of the Doer Effect principle with its practical implications on classroom implementation and student learning outcomes in these two courses.

Martha Hubertz;Rachel Van Campenhout

25. Teaching Abnormal Psychology: A Content Analysis of Course Catalogs Across Programs

Jacaranda Hall & Banyan Breezeway

Due to controversy surrounding the term "abnormal," we conducted a content analysis of course catalogs to examine the number of Abnormal Psychology (AP) courses offered in higher education and alternative course title prevalence. Results indicated that should AP be considered problematic, about 90% of institutions require course title reform.

Nicholas Kellar;Dakota Leget;Lara LaCaille;Rick LaCaille;Scott Carlson;Eric Hessler

26. Effect of Assignment Choice on Student Academic Performance in an Online Class

Jacaranda Hall & Banyan Breezeway

We evaluated the effects of assignment choice (flash cards, study guide) on the academic outcomes of 42 graduate students in an online, asynchronous course.

Hannah MacNaul;Rachel Garcia;Catia Cividini-Motta;Ian Thacker

27. T-tests and Covid Tests: Pandemic Effects on Statistics Anxiety in Undergraduates

Jacaranda Hall & Banyan Breezeway

Statistics anxiety has always been an issue in statistics courses, and even more so since the pandemic. Our study shows that statistics anxiety has significantly increased since the pandemic began. We discuss implications of this result, and offer suggestions for instructors to mediate student anxiety and increase learning.

Marsha McCartney;Susan Marshall

28. Power and Privilege Application Activity: APA's Resolution on Harnessing Psychology to Combat Racism

Jacaranda Hall & Banyan Breezeway

This poster will present details of an application activity used to teach power and privilege concepts as students investigated American Psychological Association's 2021 historical chronology and resulting apology to people of color. Details of the activity as well as student insights collected after the completed activity will be shared.

29. Authentic Assignments: Using real life sports data to increase student engagement and grades

Jacaranda Hall & Banyan Breezeway

Research methods are a constant struggle for most students. Assignments for parametric tests have been redesigned to focus on sports data from the Miami and Los Angeles NBA teams. Comparing scores from pre and post redesign, as well as attitudes, we expect to see increased students' engagement and grades.

Julia Parker;Maria Reid;Carla Abad

30. Pedagogy and Motivation: What You Do in Class Matters

Jacaranda Hall & Banyan Breezeway

Faculty often wonder how pedagogical choices impact students. We examined the relationship between course activities and faculty behavior on perception of learning, course satisfaction, and motivation. Findings indicate good pedagogy is associated with greater satisfaction and perceived learning as well as increased intrinsic motivation and decreased amotivation.

Nicole Rosa;Jacquelyn Raftery-Helmer;Colleen Sullivan;Kathryn Frazier

31. Using Student Created Podcasts as an Example of Constructivist Learning Activities

Jacaranda Hall & Banyan Breezeway

Constructivism is a learning theory based on the premise that learners build knowledge within themselves through a process of imbuing experiences with meaning. Through the experience of creating a podcast, students engage with the content much more thoroughly than they would through passively listening to a podcast.

32. Changing Perspectives: Covid-19's Impact on Student Mindset

Jacaranda Hall & Banyan Breezeway

Our study explored how different Covid learning environments impacted student concerns. We found that students mentioned more mental health concerns after Covid, but there was no difference for online versus in-person Covid learning. Time management and procrastination concerns were higher during the pandemic, specifically for online rather than in-person learning.

Lydia Soucie;Katie Carey;Chelsea Witt;Lauren Behnk

33. Students Perceptions of Stress Related to Role Overload: Investigation of Coping Strategies

Jacaranda Hall & Banyan Breezeway

Students will complete a survey questionnaire rating their stress on the Perceived Stress Scale, students will also identify and implement techniques/strategies they have learned to enhance their well-being over a 6-week time frame related to their perceived stress and demands as a college student. Students will assess their stress level and reflect on the impact his has on them academically and personally. Furthermore, what strategies they can use to reduce their level of stress.