Best Practices for Teaching Beginnings and Endings in the Psychology Major

Introductory and capstone experiences in the undergraduate psychology program are crucial ways to engage students in their major and psychology department, impart realistic expectations, and prepare them for life beyond college. Providing the right orientation and capstone courses in psychology education is increasingly a concern of instructors, department chairs, program directors, and deans, and both types of courses have become important sources for gathering pre- and post-coursework assessment data for degree learning outcomes.
The strategies presented here have been designed to help educators examine issues around teaching the introductory or careers course and developing a psychology-specific orientation program. The authors also provide concrete suggestions for building capstone experiences designed to fit the needs of a department, its pedagogical philosophy, or the educational agenda of the college or university. Undergraduate psychology curriculum designers and instructors can benefit from learning innovative and effective strategies for introducing the major to first-year students and, at graduation, for bringing closure, reinforcing the overall departmental learning outcomes, and helping students apply their disciplinary knowledge in capstone experiences and post-graduate life.
In this collection of articles, psychology instructors involved in the improvement of teaching and learning review the research and share their own successes and challenges in the classroom. Discussions include effective practices for helping students become acclimated to and engaged in the psychology major, application of developmental knowledge and learning communities to course design, and use of quality benchmarks to improve introductory and capstone courses. Other chapters describe innovations in the design of stand-alone courses and offer concrete advice on counseling psychology graduates about how to use what they have learned beyond their higher education experiences.

Dana S. Dunn is President-Elect of the Society for the Teaching of Psychology. Professor of Psychology and Director, Learning in Common Curriculum at Moravian College. Dana Dunn is winner of the 2013 Charles L. Brewer Award for Distinguished Teaching of Psychology from the American Psychological Foundation (of the APA). Bernard C. Beins is Professor of Psychology and Chair at Ithaca College. Maureen A. McCarthy is Professor of Psychology at Kennesaw State University. G. William Hill, IV is Professor of Psychology and Director, Center for Excellence in Teaching & Learning at Kennesaw State University. Beins, McCarthy, and Hill are all past presidents of the Society for the Teaching of Psychology.

Contributor List About the Editors Foreword, James C. Goodwin Preface Acknowledgements Chapter 1. Undergraduate Education in Psychology: All's Well that Begins and Ends Well Dana S. Dunn, Bernard C. Beins, Maureen A. McCarthy, & G. William Hill IV Part I: Beginnings Chapter 2. Addressing the Multiple Demands of Teaching Introductory Psychology Michael L. Stoloff Chapter 3. Reading from the Same Page: Building an Integrated Curriculum Brian T. Loher, Karri Verno, Francis W. Craig, and Peter A. Keller Chapter 4. Advising in the Classroom: A Career Exploration Class for Psychology Majors Drew C. Appleby Chapter 5. Building a Psychology Orientation Course: Common Themes and Exercises Brian T. Loher & R. Eric Landrum Chapter 6. Engaging Students in Psychology: Building on First-year Programs and Seminars Regan A. R. Gurung & Georjeanna Wilson-Doenges Chapter 7. Learning Communities as an Innovative Beginning to the Psychology Major: A Tale of Two Campuses Kenneth R. Barron, Kim Buch, Jeffrey T. Andre, & Sue Spaulding Chapter 8. Displacing Wikipedia: Information Literacy for First-Year Students Charles M. Harris & S. Lynn Cameron Chapter 9. Crafting and Implementing a Career Development Course in Psychology Eric Goederis & Stanley Cohen Part II: Endings Chapter 10. The Capstone Course as Liberal Education Opportunity Dana S. Dunn & Maureen A. McCarthy Chapter 11. History of Psychology as a Capstone Course Ludy T. Benjamin, Jr. Chapter 12. Research Teams: Developing a Capstone Experience with Programmatic Research Bernard C. Beins & Phil D. Wann Chapter 13. Honors Thesis as a Capstone Experience: A Possible Perfect Ending Sherry L. Serdikoff Chapter 14 - The Capstone Research Course: A Case Study in the Evolution of Educational Efficacy Wayne S. Messer and David B. Porter Chapter 15. Ten Things I Hate about My Capstone Course-And a Few Ways to Fix Them Tracy E. Zinn, Monica J. Reis-Bergan, & Suzanne C. Baker Chapter 16. Writing for Psychology Majors as a Developmental Process Bernard C. Beins, Randolph A. Smith, and Dana S. Dunn Chapter 17. Capping the Undergraduate Experience: Making Learning Come Alive Through Fieldwork Joann Grayson Chapter 18. Helping Undergraduates Transition to the Workplace: Four Discussion Starters Paul I. Hettich Chapter 19. Helping Undergraduates Make the Transition to Graduate School Brennan D. Cox, Kristin L. Cullen, William Buskist, and Victor A. Benassi Chapter 20. Teaching Psychology's Endings: The Simple Gifts of a Reflective Close Neil Lutsky Part III: Coda Chapter 21. Developing Scientific Reasoning Skills in Beginning and Ending Students Suzanne C. Baker, Maureen A. McCarthy, Jane S. Halonen, Dana S. Dunn, & G. William Hill IV Author Index Subject Index