Spring 2005

I. How was this an effective learning experience for you?

*Knowledge about the field supplies confidence. By knowing a thorough background, we are comforted.

*It filled in the gaps of my knowledge of the history of the field.

*There was a lot of interesting and important information that w/o wouldn’t otherwise learn about theorists and their backgrounds. The graphs of scores are nice so you know where you stand.

*Presentations worked, text was good except for contextual issues, quizzes are ok if given weekly.

The presentations allowed the freedom to explore ideas interesting to you. Weekly quizzes focus the class. Class discussion helped to clarify my own ideas.

*Great choice of book. Covered a lot of material. Got to choose own topic for presentation.

*Lectures were informative.

*Book was well chosen. Great lectures. Presentations added to the lectures.

*Presentations-great! Following development of ideas/theories.

*I liked that lectures were organized and clear. Information was presented in a nice way and what was presented was an interesting supplement to the readings-it was not just a review of the readings-I really liked that.

*Exposed to a very broad range of psychological epistemology and authors and know when to find it. What I found the most meaningful experience was the opportunity to choose the content of my presentation (personally meaningful and relevant).

*The information was presented in an interesting manner and the instructor did a great job in covering a great deal of information.

*The book was very good. It contained a lot of information but was presented in digestible chunks. The information was interesting and complemented the entire lesson.

*I enjoyed the power point presentations-they were a very effective means of displaying information-especially all of the names/dates etc. I also enjoyed doing the presentation-it gave me a chance to get in depth on one subject and share it.

*The book covered a lot of information and people, contributions, etc. I think the book was a great choice.

II. How was this an ineffective learning experience for you?

*Quizzes were not beneficial in learning and did not reflect level of work and knowledge.

*I felt the weekly quizzes focused on mundane facts and left out some important theoretical ideas. Also, many of the quizzes that were supposed to be weekly were dropped. This doubled the information that needed to be retained per quiz and lowered the total # of points for the class.

*Regular rather than irregular quizzes. Essay questions would be nice change.

*Lectures seemed brief and lacked thoroughness. A more varied grading system rather than such weight put on quizzes. Focus learning more what people said that obscure personal facts.

*Took much memorization w/ little being retained. Material covered quickly felt rushed. Felt uncomfortable grading peers’ presentations. Quizzes covered too many details. Too much lecture.

*Don’t like oral presentations. Quizzes required too much factual knowledge, not enough theory.

*Too much time spent on class discussions.

*Too dependent on memorizing facts.

*Nothing was ineffective.

*Memorizing the material. If the material is not personally relevant, the facts of history become skeletons in a closet that have been taken out for a semester and that, at the end of the semester, will be placed back in the closet. What is the most memorable is what is the most personable. Too much emphasis on scientific side of psychology.

*There were limited methods of evaluating subject knowledge, which at times focused on trivial facts. As a student I had a great deal of difficulty being able to show my learning and progress.

*The tests were very anxiety-provoking. I did not like the premise that they were designed to make some fail. I have been a very good student and because of these tests, I may lose the GPA I have worked hard for.

*There was so much information that I often felt rushed through it.

III.  Suggestions for improvement.

*Quizzes are not reflective of what has been learned. Students may know a particular area extremely well and still be penalized on quizzes that do not help into knowledge-Quizzes were not representative of level of student.

*Multiple choice exams are not the best assessment of what I learned. It is stressful that they constitute 80% of my grade.

*Keep a set # of quizzes. Students like to know what kind of points they are working with.

*No improvement needed.

*More clean cut grading on presentations. Quiz every week regardless if it’s one chapter or not. Perhaps find more ways for debates to occur.

*Less lecture. More discussion/debate. Instructor should only grade presentation. Less quizzes just tests (essay). Work in a group for the presentation. Talk about social issues/political issues. Too much competition leads to disinterest in material.

*Change quizzes.

*Either give a weekly quiz or let students know when you will actually give a test. Either change the format or diversify grading system.

*Thank you for encouraging discussion and debate.

*Perhaps a paper, exam or another type of project instead of only weekly quizzes and a presentation.

*Make the material personal: the bridge b/w “History” and Personal History-memorizing quizzes-reluctance of material. For example, every chapter could call for a paper where the “flesh and bone” of the student interests with the facts of history. Present as an equal, the art of psychology because the controversy is still alive on whether psychology is an art or a science; the book is significantly more biased towards science. Present psychology from more contemporary philosophical perspective (deconstructing the work of Jacques Derrida; psychology from dialect. Materialism, or for phenomenology, ok).

*Supplement quizzes with other forms of evaluation and concentrate more on concepts.

*Do not start class off by making it a competition: A and B students. It creates negative atmosphere amongst the students.

*Grades based on other means rather than just quizzes. Presentation grades based on professor discretion-not class opinion (based).

*I liked that the instructor often gave lively accounts of theories and the lives of these discussed. I think the fact that he is a well read person in the field on psychology, made him an excellent choice in teaching the history of the field. He was able to bring in info to fill in small gaps not covered by the comprehensive book.

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SPRING, 2007

1. What did the instructor in this course do that most contributed to your learning and appreciation of course content?

• PowerPoint presentations
• I liked that the Power Points were available to students. I really enjoyed your enthusiasm.
• He integrated personal stories and little known facts into the lectures, which I feel makes the class more interesting and helps me to remember the material
• Weekly Lectures
• Breadth and depth of material
• In class discussions were generally great, if not entertaining-great choice of topics and prodding into debate on Dr. Choca’s part
• I liked Dr. Choca’s humor and personal stories. I also liked the added information we got about the theorists.
• He sought out background information to make the material more engaging
• Dr. Choca is extremely enthusiastic about the subject! His personal experience, vast knowledge, and insights about the topics made psych 638 one of my favorite course yet!
• Sometimes interesting facts
• Lectures included personal and professional experience
• The slides were very detailed, descriptive; textbook very effective. Choca was thorough in his lectures, answered  every question, was respectful of students
• Good lectures
• I liked the book and found it very informative and useful. The PowerPoint was also very helpful
• Lectures were clear and interesting on a topic that can be very boring
• Added personal stories/vignettes –made it interesting
• Gave examples and really well prepared lecture slides
• Chose a good text, lectured in a clear and interesting manner, consistent quizzes to handle information being learned
• Excellent Power Points provided ahead of time
• Loved tone of class set by music from period discussed, appreciated instructor availability outside of class time, willingness to help, power points and notes

 2. What other aspects of the course (e.g. text books, hand-outs, organization, online access etc) positively contributed to your learning?

• Text was good
• Textbooks and slides
• I liked the text book
• I thought the text book was well laid out and easy to follow. It also did a good job of providing general information and the right amount of detail
• Power points
• Discussions, additional info provided in presentations/anecdotes
• I really enjoyed having PowerPoint presentations. The book was good as well
• Some of the blackboard reading assignments were very interesting (Skinner, etc)
• The textbook was great! It was easy to read and comprehensively covered the schools of thought
• Textbook was great. Class discussions were good and helpful when they occurred
• Textbook
• I liked the additional readings
• Textbook
• Textbook-excellent
• The textbook was good
• Texts, lectures
• Text was good overall
• Good text

 3. What changes would you recommend in the instruction, organization, and materials provided in this course?

• I think that the lectures should coincide with the text. If you look at Dr. Choca’s syllabus he is talking in class about completely different topics than are discussed in the book and this offers us no time in class to go over the question or comments before being quizzed
• Post slides on blackboard and match lectures with topics for that weeks readings
• Trying to match the book to the lecture better-maybe not asking questions about details of their life but more about their ideas and contributions
• Maybe more class discussions
• More explanations on the material from the book would be helpful
• Sync the chapters covered and lectures-it got disorienting at times
• Put the notes on Blackboard after class so we can access them
• Maybe the option to forgo three quizzes and instead turn in outlines of integrated class notes and chapter
• The weekly quizzes were difficult, different/or more assessment methods would be useful in determining our grades ( i.e. papers, weekly reaction summaries)
• I would like to see it be more interactive (class discussions) rather than dictate
• Lectures more congruent with textbook
• Supplement the quizzes with other assignments
• Add other grading criteria in addition to quizzes to tap into students’ various abilities
• Provide slides online
• Match the lectures with the book more; don’t do quizzes over 3 chapters-too much material, 2 at the most!
• The supplemental readings contributed little
• Just because this was a large course, we should not have been penalized for that in how we were graded (i.e. the presentation portion of the class was eliminated and the entire grade was based on quizzes) There should always be multiple measures of a students progress in a course (i.e. tests, presentations, papers etc) The course should have included another measure of students attributes.
• Use additional methods of assessment. While psychometrics indicate “norms” of performance, some of use don’t learn or demonstrate our learning via tricky quiz questions every week

 4. Please provide any other comments about this course below:

·        Yes your quiz score distribution is psychometric, but being that we are not ranked, if we work for A’s and deserve A’s, we should get A’s

·        Maybe you should only turn off the front lights and keep the back ones on so it isn’t so dark that it is hard to take notes

·        I really enjoyed the course and the instructor

·        The course broadened my perspective on the field of psychology.

·        That one matching quiz combing two weeks destroyed my hope of getting an A. It was very inconsistent to the other quizzes.

·        Great class! Wonderful Professor!

·        Have not had HX. Class based on multiple choice and memorization since 6^th grade. Need essays to integrate this info.

·        Dr.  Choca is a very good lecturer-keeps things interesting and relevant

·        Looking at the syllabus –there were no clear course objectives- I think it is important for us as students and as psychologists to be able to identify why the APA wants us to learn this material, how it will be helpful for us as practitioners, what we are responsible for learning as students, and how we are encouraged within the psych. Program here at RU to think critically and reflect meaningfully on material, and continue to build upon material learned in other classes, etc.

Assessing Course and Instruction:

 Overall mean for COURSE ORGANIZATION AND PLANNING is: 3.94

            Comparative mean for four-year institution: 4.28

Overall mean for COMMUNICATION is: 4.20

            Comparative mean for four-year institution: 4.33

Overall mean for FACULTY/STUDENT INTERACTION is: 3.94

            Comparative mean for four-year institution: 4.33

Overall mean for ASSIGNMENTS, EXAMS, AND GRADING is: 3.06

            Comparative mean for four-year institution: 4.13

Overall mean for COURSE OUTCOMES is: 3.07

            Comparative mean for four-year institution: 3.71

Overall mean for STUDENT EFFORT AND INVOLVEMENT is: 3.67

            Comparative mean for four-year institution: 3.70

OVERALL EVALUATION: 3.38

            Overall for four-year institution: 3.99