Empirical Research in Teaching and Learning

Contributions from Social Psychology

Debra Mashek, Elizabeth Yost Hammer, Debra Mashek, Elizabeth Yost Hammer

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9781444395334
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Education in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Empirical Research in Teaching and Learning: Contributions from Social Psychology draws upon the latest empirical research and empirically-based theories from social psychology to inform the scholarship of teaching and learning.

• Provides an accessible theoretical grounding in social psychological principles and addresses specific empirical evidence drawn from teaching and learning contexts
• Features concrete strategies for use in the classroom setting
• Includes contributions from experts in both social psychology and the scholarship of teaching and learning

Chapter 1

How Can Social Psychology Galvanize Teaching and Learning?

Regan A. R. Gurung & Kathleen C. Burns

Psychology instructors are lucky people. Social psychologists are particularly lucky. Psychology in general is fun to teach, but social psychology truly takes it up many notches. Social psychology is the study of how we are influenced by other people and the situations we find ourselves in. Is there a more relevant area to help study how teachers and the learning environment can influence learning? Some introductory instructors often move the social psychology section to early in the semester to grab their students' attention. Others look forward to the social psychology segment at semester's end to provide a booster shot of adrenaline to tired students. Social psychology is captivating, exciting, often counter-intuitive, and vastly underutilized in the very context where it is first exposed to students—the classroom. Whereas researchers have successfully used social psychology to tackle many contemporary problems (e.g., Abu Ghraib, Zimbardo, 2007; implicit prejudice, Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998), social psychology's potential contributions to teaching and learning have not been sufficiently mined. There is a sizable literature in the general area of scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) but little of this literature explicitly capitalizes on social psychological theories or is firmly grounded in theory at all (Hutchings, 2007). There are also many books that provide teaching tips (e.g., Davis, 2009) or offer advice on how to face challenges of teaching (e.g., Palmer, 2007), but these books only implicitly (if at all) draw on the richness of social psychology as it pertains to the classroom. This volume should begin the process to rectify these wrongs. In this chapter we set the stage for the launching of a new area, the social psychology of teaching and learning. First, we provide a brief history of the general area of SoTL. Then we review the scope of the field of social psychology. Finally, we review existing social psychological forays into SoTL and directly link key areas of social psychology to teaching and learning. We hope the latter provides a valuable heuristic to optimize teaching and learning as well as to guide future research in this arena.

What is SoTL?

Over the past few years there has been much said about what to call research done on one's teaching. The most commonly used phrase is the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, more often referred to by its acronym SoTL (though the pronunciation of said acronym varies as one moves across the globe). We define SoTL as intentional, systematic reflections on teaching and learning resulting in peer-reviewed products made public.

In addition to SoTL, one also may hear terms such as Scholarly Teaching and Pedagogical Research. A scholarly teacher is someone who intentionally and systematically reflects on and modifies her teaching to enhance student learning (evaluating whether enhancement took place). A scholarly teacher who shares the evidence collected in a peer-reviewed public format, presentation, or publication, is doing what is traditionally referred to as SoTL. If the person does not share their findings it is still scholarly teaching. Pedagogical research (PR) (Gurung & Schwartz, 2009) is a more general term that captures the essence of scholarly work conducted to enhance teaching and advance learning. PR encompasses SoTL and scholarly teaching, and does not imply the results are published or presented (a key part of being labeled SoTL) but by the same token implies a rigorous methodological investigation that goes beyond scholarly teaching. For more on definitional quibbles, the interested reader is urged to peruse Irons and Buskist (2008), Pan (2009), or Smith (2008).

In this chapter we opt for the more general term, pedagogical research, in our discussion as it has less of the negative connotations often associated with the term SoTL (e.g., “SoTL is not real research”). The bottom line is that when one is investigating one's own teaching and one's own students' learning, universities and disciplinary departments tend to see the work as falling under the realm of teaching but are beginning to recognize the work as scholarship (or research versus teaching). Some have argued that pedagogical research of this sort should be seen as part as one's professional responsibility as a teacher (Bernstein & Bass, 2005). Whereas this is not the venue to debate this particular issue further, we hope that the use of the term pedagogical research will make this form of scholarship more likely to be taken as seriously as research on other topics. In addition, we support its consideration as another indicator of excellent teaching. Research is only one part of what we do as educators in academic settings. We all teach. We all step into classrooms (or virtual realities if teaching online) and help quasi-captive audiences of our students to learn a little something of what we know and what we have jurisdiction over. Those who teach hence carry a great responsibility. It is upon them we rely to convey the basics about our various disciplines. How do we know if the students are learning? Beyond the simple rubric of exam grades and appreciative nods of understanding lies the challenge we all face as teachers. The challenge is to establish that our teaching is working and our students are learning. Pedagogical research (PR) helps face this challenge. There are other reasons to do PR as well. PR increases our understanding of how and why people learn, gathers evidence of productive teaching and learning, and develops more effective ways to help learners learn better (it is also fun and helps solve vexing mysteries such as “Why did that class go so badly?”).

A Brief History of a Movement

Although the term SoTL is a somewhat relative newcomer to the scene, people have been thinking about how to improve teaching and learning for centuries. As Kuh (2004) notes, this “new” line of research, is really a new spin on what researchers in certain fields of study have focused on for decades. It is time for a short excursion into the history of pedagogical research.

In a history of the field of educational psychology, Berliner (2006) traces the modern trend of thinking about individual differences, development, the nature of the material being taught, problem solving, and assessment, to the ancient Jewish rite of the Passover. The leader of the Passover service told the story of the Passover each year but differently to each of his sons according to the sons' own specific aptitudes. This reflects the modern day trend to focus on individual students' learning styles. Plato and Aristotle are said to discuss such topics as the role of the teacher, the relations between teacher and student, and the means and methods of teaching (Wason, 1960). Writers down the centuries from the Roman Quintilian (1st century), Juan Luis Vives (15th century), Comenius, Herbart (18th century), to the philosopher Joseph Schwab (1973) have also addressed education (Berliner, 2006). Education psychologists have identified a “father of research on teaching,” Joseph Mayer Rice (1912) who conducted empirical classroom-based research and a “grandfather,” William James (1842–1910) who was asked to present Cambridge educators with lectures on the new psychology (Talks to Teachers on Psychology, 1899). Other psychologists have tackled education. G. Stanley Hall, the first president of the American Psychological Association was professor of psychology and pedagogy at Johns Hopkins University. John Dewey, like Hall, was a former classroom teacher who respected the complexity of teaching and also contributed greatly to the methodological study of education (Dewey, 1910).

SoTL catapulted into the national higher education consciousness in 1990. It is not that this type of work did not exist before then, but Boyer's (1990) Scholarship reconsidered catalyzed extensive examination of the work done on teaching and learning and flexed the political muscle of organizations such as the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The results are staggering. Today enough universities and colleges pay attention to SoTL that books document how the scholarship of teaching and pedagogical research is fostered nationwide (O'Meara & Rice, 2005) and numerous international conferences convene yearly to advance the field.

It has been 20 years since Scholarship reconsidered was published and today SoTL is a well-known phrase driving multiple national and international organizations such as the International Alliance for Teaching Scholars (IATS) and the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL). Labels are empowering entities and having a phrase such as SoTL with its conferences and journals has helped further this form of research. Akin to the political force, visibility, and ownership that the politically correct terms such as Asian American and African American gave members of the related ethnic groups, SoTL has provided faculty interested in pedagogical research with a unifying banner to organize around. With the publicizing of the phrase SoTL in response to Boyer and subsequent work of his Carnegie colleagues (e.g., Shulman and Hutchings) among others, this type of research has only been recently recognized in most disciplines as a legitimate area of scholarship, worthy of recognition equal to that of more traditional lines of research and inquiry.

Champions of PR-Working Across Disciplines

There are many champions of SoTL. Since 1905, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has carried out a wide range of activities and research that has helped to support and advance the work of teachers at all levels. In 1997, the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (CASTL) was established when Lee Shulman became president of the Carnegie Foundation. The Lilly Foundation has long been a supporter of teaching enhancement and has been funding faculty scholars nationwide since the 1970s. It also supports an international as well as four national conferences around America. More recently, academic institutions have taken on the mantel of leader by starting up specialized journals. A recent example is the International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (IJSOTL), a peer-reviewed electronic journal published twice a year by the Center for Excellence in Teaching at Georgia Southern University whose first issue hit the electronic airwaves in January 2007.

Others who have greatly contributed to pedagogical research are not linked to foundations such as the Carnegie and Lilly foundations. Maryellen Weimer for example, one time associate director of the National Center on Postsecondary Teaching, Learning, and Assessment, and editor of the Teaching Professor newsletter on college teaching, has greatly helped guide and foster pedagogical research (see Menges, Weimer, & Associates, 1996; Weimer, 2006). Going beyond the previously discussed traditional sources, it is important also to include a look at how SoTL is done outside America. For example Hounsell and Entwistle spearhead the British Enhancing Teaching and Learning (ETL) Project which seeks to develop subject-specific conceptual frameworks to guide institutional and faculty or departmental development of teaching–learning environments. This group has developed a number of useful tools for pedagogical research and has also mapped out key variables that influence learning (see Entwistle, 2009 for a review).

Champions of PR-Discipline-Specific Activity

The disciplines whose names exemplify the topic of interest, Education and Educational Psychology, provide wonderful starting points for a look at how to examine teaching and learning. In addition, many other disciplines and a work of a wide array of scholars (e.g., Calder in history, Hake and Hestenes in physics, McKinney in sociology, Nelson in biology) have conducted research on teaching and learning. PR in various disciplines has been taking place for more time that many may imagine and is more widespread than one may have imagined. In a recent review of the history and diversity of pedagogical research, Weimer (2006) notes that almost all the major disciplines have pedagogical journals. In perhaps one of the most comprehensive listing of publication outlets for pedagogical research, Weimer's work clearly shows that if one is interested in learning more about how to optimize teaching and learning, there are many places to look (e.g., Journal of College Science Teaching; Active Learning in Higher Education).

As a testament to the (mostly unknown) longevity of pedagogical research, the earliest journal articles on teaching and learning were published back in 1924 with the first edition of the Journal of Chemical Education, a publication still in press today. Many of the journals that began a long time ago started as newsletters (e.g., Teaching of Psychology) and conversely, many pedagogical publications are not “published” on paper at all. There are a number of outlets that exist in the electronic World Wide Web only.

An example of the extent to which different disciplines are doing PR can also be seen in Exploring signature pedagogies: Approaches to teaching disciplinary habits of mind (Gurung, Chick, & Haynie, 2009). Authors in each chapter in this collection first provide a description of the uni...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contributors
• Preface
• Chapter 1: How Can Social Psychology Galvanize Teaching and Learning?
• Chapter 2: A Social Look at Student–Instructor Interactions
• Chapter 3: Self-Construal, Culture and Diversity in Higher Education
• Chapter 4: Unintentional Prejudice and Social Psychology's Lessons for Cross-Racial Teaching
• Chapter 5: Teaching in Ways that Support Students’ Autonomy
• Chapter 6: Achievement is an Attitude: The Importance of Help-Seeking Attitudes when Predicting Academic Achievement
• Chapter 7: Applying the Science of Learning to the Art of Teaching
• Chapter 8: Which Strategies Best Enhance Teaching and Learning in Higher Education?
• Chapter 9: Understanding Faculty Reluctance to Assess Teaching and Learning: A Social Psychological Perspective
• Chapter 10: Applying Social Psychology in the College Classroom: Teachers and Learners Need (Your) Scholarship
• Index