Being able to communicate your study’s purpose quickly and effectively is important. Often we need to share our science with non-experts, so being able to capture others’ interest in an engaging way from the start, helps them see the value of our work. Elevator pitches are traditionally thought of in the context of a job …
Knowing what p values tell us can be tricky to teach. Here are several videos that help explain exactly what p-values are (and aren’t) able to tell us. Each video essentially covers the same content so which one you use can be a matter of personal preference.
Students often have the greatest anxiety about writing the Introduction and Discussion sections of an APA style paper. Part of the problem is that they struggle with writing properly constructed paragraphs. This guide from the University of Newcastle not only describes several types of paragraphs, but outlines what the topic, supporting, and concluding sentences should …
Write with Purpose: What Do You Want Your Paragraph To Do? Read More »
On this short (4:05) clip from Last Week Tonight, John Oliver outlines how to be a better consumer of scientific information (e.g., don’t give too much significance to individual studies) and how communication to the public can misinterpret findings altogether.
This is an article on The Effortful Educator from Blake Harvard (Twitter: @effortfuleduktr) that reviews “Five ways to increase the effectiveness of instructional video.” Going forward, because more of us will need to create videos for our courses, we should learn as much as we can about making those videos as effective as possible. In …
Principles to Improve Instructional Videos’ Effectiveness Read More »
A chapter by Beth Chance and Allan Rossman that introduces several key topics in statistics such as: distributions, p-values, confidence intervals, samples/populations, and drawing statistical conclusions . This chapter could serve as an introduction to the topic or as a refresher for students in a more advanced course. You can access the full chapter here.
An article by Christie Napa Scollon that outlines the basics of research designs in psychology, including information about experimental vs. correlational design. This reading would be a good introduction to the topic, or a good review for students who previously took a methods course. You can access the full chapter here.
An article by Matthias Mehl that advocates for taking our research out of the lab and exploring phenomena in the real world. The discussion touches on topics like internal/external validity, ecological validity, sampling, as well as several specific/specialized methods related to capturing daily information from participants. The chapter also includes information about conducting research online …
This article by Ed Diener provides a brief primer on the science of psychology. The article focuses on defining science, showing how it applies to psychology, discusses ethical considerations, and why science is so useful in psychology. In any psychology course, but especially research methods, this article would provide students with a really nice introduction …
This chapter from Regan Gurung (Twitter: @ReganARGurung) and Drew Christopher, discusses all aspects of teaching research methods and statistics in psychology from why students need the course, how to organize the course, highlight resources, and discuss challenges in teaching these important courses. Citation: Gurung R.A.R., Christopher A. (2020) Teaching the Foundations of Psychological Science. In: …
Article: Teaching the Foundations of Psychological Science Read More »
An in-depth presentation from Mike Morrison (you can find him on Twitter @MikeMorrison) about the need for a #betterposter. If this doesn’t convince you that we need to revamp how we present scientific information at conferences, nothing will. Want to find templates for creating better posters? Click here. The next video is a deeper dive …
This guide (created by Gary Lewandowski; Twitter: @LewandowskiPhD) is a free resource that can substitute for the APA Manual and SPSS guides. The Student Guide leads students through data analysis in SPSS with step-by-step instructions and screenshots for setting up the analyses and interpreting the output. For each analysis, students also see an example SPSS …
Student Guide to SPSS and APA Style Writing (v.12.0) Read More »
One of the most helpful resources instructors can provide for students is a solid example. To facilitate learning APA Style, the APA has provided several sample papers for both professional and student formats. Here are two annotated examples: Professional Paper – Annotated Version (Sample Only Version) Student Paper – Annotated Version (Sample Only Version)
Students read a lot of abstracts, but can still struggle with writing their own. In this handout from the APA, they provide key points for both content and format. You can find the handout here.
Students can always use additional information about plagiarism as a refresher. In this handout from the APA, they distinguish between word plagiarism and idea plagiarism, as well as discuss “patchwriting.” (which may be a new concept for students) You can find the handout here.
Anyone who has ever taught writing of APA Style Research Reports, knows that students struggle with writing the Discussion section. The APA now provides a handout that helps students by providing key phrases for each subsection. These should help students better match their content to the appropriate section. You can find the handout here.
The video is a bit long (over an hour) and the audio quality isn’t stellar, but it has lots of good information. Instructors could provide this to students and have confidence that all of the key elements were covered. Here is an additional resource/handout that summarizes APA Style References as well.
This is an online guide from the APA that introduces APA Style writing and formatting. This would be a great resource to introduce students to APA, especially for an online course. From the site “By the end of this tutorial, you should be able to understand and implement the following basic elements of APA Style” …
APA Style (7th Edition): Academic Writer Tutorial: Basics of Seventh Edition APA Style Read More »
This article, authored by Marianne Fallon (Central Connecticut State University) in the Psi Chi Journal of Undergraduate Research, addresses the myth that APA style writing needs to be boring. The article features lots of great advice for students (and for more senior researchers). Students could read this before starting their paper to give them a …
Writing Quantitative Empirical Manuscripts With Rigor and Flair (Yes, It’s Possible) Read More »
The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) is a premier source for all types of resources for teaching writing, including APA style (Here is a link to all of their APA materials). But perhaps the most useful resource is their sample research report with abundant notations highlighting key points for students. Not only that, but they …
