Jane S. Halonen

Demystifying critical thinking

Critical-thinking scholarship is in a mystified state. No single definition of critical thinking is widely accepted, but stakeholders in higher education often enter conversation about critical thinking with the premise that their individual definitions are uniformly shared. With an increasing emphasis on academic accountability, we need to work toward a better understanding of the varying ways the term critical thinking is used and explore the implications of the variation for effective pedagogy. In this article, I describe the confusion about critical thinking in psychology and offer suggestions for demystifying the concept. I provide a framework for organizing critical-thinking scholarship into meaningful dimensions. Finally, I describe a psychology curriculum using performance-based assessment practices as one context in which critical thinking in psychology can be made clearer for students and faculty.

Quality Benchmarks in Undergraduate Psychology Programs

Performance benchmarks are proposed to assist undergraduate psychology programs in defining their missions and goals as well as documenting their effectiveness. Experienced academic program reviewers compared their experiences to formulate a developmental framework of attributes of undergraduate programs focusing on activity in 8 domains: curriculum, assessment issues, student learning outcomes, program resources, student development, faculty characteristics, program climate, and administrative support. A continuum of performance was conceptualized for each attribute in each of the domains to characterize underdeveloped, developing, effective, and distinguished achievement for undergraduate programs. The authors hope to inspire a national conversation about program benchmarks in psychology in order to improve program quality, encourage more effective program reviews, and help optimally functioning programs compete more successfully for resources on the basis of their distinguished achievements.

Measuring up : educational assessment challenges and practices for psychology

Psychology teachers and administrators in high school through graduate programs are repeatedly challenged by parents, politicians, and school reformers to provide solid evidence that their instruction is both effective and demonstrative. This practical volume addresses that challenge head on, by providing the most up-to-date thinking and concrete practices of experienced scientist-educators. Using the information provided in this volume, educators will be able to demonstrate learning, track and measure student achievement, and gauge quality of instruction.

Embedding Career Issues in Advanced Psychology Major Courses.

Despite the popularity of the psychology major, complaints regularly arise about the value of majoring in psychology. This article reviews the workforce advantages that accrue to successful psychology students and encourages new strategies for emphasizing the professional development goal in the American Psychological Association’s Guidelines for the Undergraduate Psychology Major (2013). Recommendations include infusing career preparation in advanced classes, designing career-focused capstone courses, and conducting a climate check on department support for fostering realistic and appropriate career aspirations in undergraduate psychology majors.

Promoting Effective Program Leadership in Psychology A Benchmarking Strategy

Although scholars have scrutinized many aspects of academic life in psychology, the topic of leadership for psychology programs has remained elusive. This article describes the importance of high-quality leadership in the development of thriving psychology programs. The author offers a strategy for evaluating leaders to help provide developmental feedback and to promote effective professional development in the administration of psychology programs.

Practice What We Teach: Improving Teaching and Learning in Psychology

In traditional research areas within psychology, effective researchers stay up-to-date with the latest advances and new methodologies within a specialty area. Failure to do so limits one’s effectiveness and potential impact on advancing that field of study. In our view, teachers of psychology possess the same responsibilities to stay current and incur the same risks if they fail to do so. Psychology educators should not only employ scientifically validated principles of learning and evidence-based pedagogies but should use the methods of psychological science to test the effectiveness of their teaching practices empirically. We articulate and document these complex issues in this manifesto and urge more psychology educators to become leaders in innovative and effective teaching by leveraging our disciplinary understanding of the fundamentals of teaching and learning. We provide pragmatic steps and resources to aid more faculty, especially early career instructors, in becoming scientist-educators.