INTRODUCTORY PSYCHOLOGY TEACHING PRIMER Early Career ...

y the task, may not be able to best use the resources available, and may not even know where
to begin.
This basic primer for the teaching of the introductory course summarizes best practices and selects
from the many resources available, to provide a starting instructor with a clear, concise, and
concrete set of tools sufficient to successfully teach an introductory course for the first time. It is
also designed to provide the experienced instructor with suggestions and tips that can invigorate
a course taught many times over. Akin to guides provided for visiting cities or theme parks that
provide recommendations for what the person can do based on how much time they had -- if you
have a full day at Legoland/in New York city here is what to do. If you only have half a day,
here is what you do-- this primer provides a core set of basic pedagogical tools and
recommendations and then has sections adding more resources and recommendations building on
the basics for instructors with more time or those teaching it for the second or more time.
To be clear, this is NOT a book on how to teach well. There are many different resources to
satiate the thirst for reading in that area ranging from the classic McKeachie’s Teaching Tips
(Svinicki &McKeachie, 2011) now in its thirteenth edition, Tools for Teaching (Davis, 2009), and the
more recent Effective college and university teaching (Buskist & Benassi, 2012), providing a host of
teaching suggestions broken down by every different teaching situation imaginable (e.g., syllabus
and test writing, classroom management). There are also books offering best practices such as
Evidence-Based Teaching in Higher Education (Schwartz & Gurung, 2012) and Best Practices for
Teaching Beginnings and Endings in the Psychology Major (Dunn, Beins, McCarthy, & Hill, 2010).
The interested reader is urged to consider adding these titles to their bookshelves for when time
permits a gentle browse or in-depth perusal.
This primer is designed to be a pragmatic aid. It will give you what you need to get started right
away and includes key student learning objectives, assessments for each of the SLOs,
pedagogical techniques and designs to help students reach the objectives, and recommended
coverage models (i.e., sample content) based on a variety of key sources (APA, 2007; 2011;
Halpern, 2010). Authors divide each chapter into sections covering Learning Objectives, Possible
Assessments, Activities and Techniques, Relevant articles from the teaching of Psychology, Links to
TOPIX materials, and Coverage suggestions.
Use what you can as time permits. There is always more that can be done.
REFERENCES
American Psychological Association. (2007). APA guidelines for the undergraduate psychology
major. Retrieved February 20, 2012, from
http://www.apa.org/ed/precollege/about/psymajor-guidelines.pdf
American Psychological Association. (2011). Principles for quality undergraduate education in
psychology, American Psychologist, 66, 850-856. doi: 10.1037/a0025181
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