Undergraduate Teachers

Pre K - 12 Teachers, Undergraduate Students, Undergraduate Teachers February 19, 2018

Environmental Psychology “In Action”: Understanding the dangers of noise to humans

Dr. Arline Bronzaft is worried about the effect noise could be having on your health. She’s an environmental psychologist whose research on the impact of noise in New York City has changed noise code policy and brought a lot of attention to the dangers of noise to humans. Her latest collaborative project with the Department of Environmental Protection of New York City is the Sound and Noise Education Module. This module provides interactive, multi-disciplinary, STEM lessons tailored to teach elementary, middle and high school students about sound and noise in their neighborhoods. Activities in each lesson encourage students and teachers to participate in citizen science projects by collecting and analyzing data.

Pre K - 12 Teachers, Undergraduate Students, Undergraduate Teachers February 12, 2018

Learning through Blogging: Implications of Blog Psychology in the Classroom

It was estimated that in January 2017, there were more than 1.8 billion websites. And as most of us know already, a website can be a personal, commercial, governmental website, or a non-profit organisation. Websites are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, ranging from entertainment and social networking, to providing news and education.

Graduate and Postgraduate Students, Undergraduate Teachers January 29, 2018

This is Why Social Media is the Secret to Success in Student Engagement

Over the last few years as a School Psychology doctoral student, I have begun to experiment with various social media and technology platforms with hopes to improve efficiency and service delivery. I have found that the attention and information consumption of youth are structured into small but high-volume increments of time. Each social media platform serves its own purpose in the lives of our youth and as educators we must utilize this knowledge to bridge the educational gaps that exist.

Pre K - 12 Teachers, Undergraduate Teachers December 18, 2017

Technology in Education: Why Being a Luddite is No Longer an Option

On Twitter, educator Justin Tarte wrote about technology in education no longer being a luxury but a necessity. Larry and Laurie, the campus Luddites and technophobes will need to retire to make way for the new tech-savvy teachers of tomorrow. Technology will not be for the rich districts; it will be for everyone. Every school will have some form of 1:1 and all teachers and administrators will need to be able to adapt to changing software and technological tools in the future. Good teaching and good pedagogy will still be needed, but we are approaching the science of learning from a different place than when I began teaching. This is a great change.

Graduate and Postgraduate Teachers, Pre K - 12 Teachers, Undergraduate Teachers December 3, 2017

Help Your Students Believe in Themselves: Self-Efficacy in the Classroom

In his pioneering work, Albert Bandura characterised self-efficacy as the individual’s belief in his capacity to execute behaviours necessary to produce specific performance attainments. It reflects confidence in the ability to exert control over one’s own motivation, behaviour, and social environment. As teachers, this is an important element of human behaviour that can be harnessed to optimise students’ learning experience.

A host of research has already demonstrated that self-efficacy appears to be an important variable because it impacts students’ motivation and learning. But what are the factors that teachers should bear in mind to ensure that self-efficacy flourishes in the classroom?

Pre K - 12 Teachers, Undergraduate Teachers November 20, 2017

Learner-Centered Assessment Strategies for Greater Student Retention

Teachers usually have their own set of ways to teach their students and make sure that the students are actually learning. Most teachers usually don’t challenge the traditional way of teaching, which can leave some students overwhelmed and confused. When I first started teaching, without even thinking, I constructed courses that looked the same as how they looked when I was in school. Step one: Teach a unit; Step two: Give an in-class exam; Step three: Teach a unit; Step four: Give an in-class exam. Etc. My observation is that a lot of teachers do the same thing. In my own research, however, in-class exams are poor alternatives to something called learner-centered assessments.

Graduate and Postgraduate Teachers, Undergraduate Students, Undergraduate Teachers November 6, 2017

Avoiding the “I’m So Busy” Trap

Anyone who has had the chance to work in more than one psychology department – either as undergraduate, graduate, or faculty member – comes to realize that every workplace is different. There are different norms, different dress codes, different colleagues, and different leadership styles. But whatever work setting you end up in, you are guaranteed to find one strong commonality:

everyone is so busy.

And you will find this commonality immediately because everyone will want to tell you how busy they are.

pencil with a mortar hat and text Is Graduate School in Your Future?

Undergraduate Students, Undergraduate Teachers September 11, 2017

Master’s careers in psychology

For most careers, providing professional services using psychological knowledge requires a doctoral degree in psychology, and these careers are often called professional or health service psychology. However, psychology careers for individuals holding master’s degrees are available in multiple occupational settings and in fields across the discipline. The demand for jobs at this level of training is reflected in the growth of master’s psychology degrees — from slightly below 18,000 in 2003 to nearly 28,000 in 2013. Similarly, the National Science Foundation reports growth during the past decade in research-focused psychology master’s degrees: approximately 15,000 in 2003 and 22,000 in 2011.