Schedule-at-a-Glance 

Sydney Y Wood, Oliver Xia, Victoria Cross University of California Davis We discuss our experience implementing an extra credit assignment aimed at promoting meta-cognition about instructor feedback given on students’ scientific writing. An Intro to Research Methods course at a large public university includes 5 unit exams each building on the previous exams’ topics (Research design and the Four Validities). Students’ knowledge is scaffolded as they answer virtually identical questions in each subsequent exam to evaluate a new research summary. We propose using cover letters(with meta-cognition instructions) to supplement written exam corrections to motivate students to engage with instructor feedback. We also present data on the quality of students' meta-cognition and corrected responses, demographics of those who opt-in vs opt-out of treatment, and impact on post-treatment scores on repeated questions.

Kevin J. Holmes Reed College “Next Wednesday’s meeting has been moved forward two days. What day is the meeting now that it has been rescheduled?” Each time I pose this question in class, some students answer Monday and others answer Friday—and without fail, each group is astonished at the other group’s answer. I leverage students’ curiosity about these contrasting intuitions not only to explain how psychological research on metaphor can account for them, but also to teach core methods and statistics concepts: correlational vs. experimental designs, internal vs. external validity, generating theory-driven predictions, operationalizing constructs, and chi-square tests. The techniques I use may be effective because they invite students to compare relationally similar studies or concepts, promoting analogical learning and schema abstraction.

Ashley Abraham Grinnell College Students in research methods and statistics courses often receive in SPSS. However, Academic and industry trends also suggest a shift away from SPSS and towards the R statistical computing environment (Lindeløv, 2019; Muenchen, 2016). Instructor hesitancy towards adopting R in the undergraduate classroom may be related to the belief that it is too difficult for students. Despite concerns, research indicates that appropriate pedagogical practices when teaching R can improve student attitudes and learning outcomes, creating a push for instructors to take the leap towards R in the classroom (Counsell & Cribbie, 2020). Preliminary results about student attitudes indicate that learning goals related to statistics knowledge rather than R, and a labor-based contract for R assignments, can help mitigate student concerns.

Robert Kelley MiraCosta Community College Twenty-five games, each lasting 2 - 4 minutes, provide students practice with a variety of topics: hypothesis testing (Z test, Single Sample t Test, Paired Sample t Test, and Independent Sample t Test), proportions and the normal distribution, correlations (scatter plots, Pearson's r, APA write-up, examples in the news, etc), linear regression, effect size, etc. The games are posted to a web gaming site, and integrated at p2l.io into a menu of options. Connections are reinforced between statistical concepts and their visual representation. Instructors using the Canvas CMS can have successful completion of the games recorded using Canvas Quizzes.

Jason S. McCarley, Raechel N. Soicher Oregon State University "Statistical reproducibility, the ability to repeat an analysis on a given set of data and produce the same results, is critical to trustworthy science. Here, we describe an instructional resource developed to encourage the practice of reproducible research. The resource includes a reading on the definition, purpose, and prerequisites of reproducibility, and an exercise that asks students to organize and document a set of simulated data for reproducible analysis. Learning outcomes are that students be able to: i) define statistical reproducibility, ii) explain the value of statistical reproducibility, iii) organize and document research artifacts to make analyses reproducible. Supported by an Instructional Resource Grant from the Society for the Teaching of Psychology"

Jerome A. Lewis, Roxanne L. Sullivan Bellevue University It is more important now than ever that we ensure online psychology classes have parity with residential psychology classes as we see increasing numbers of psychology majors completing their courses online. Classes that require applied skills, such as research methods, can be more difficult to achieve parity. We will discuss our journey towards this goal. We will provide details about we orient course design, assignments, and materials to overcome the unique challenges of the online learning environment.

Rainer Scheuchenpflug, Alexander Hörnlein University of Würzburg, Germany We developed different techniques to detect cheating (exchange of solutions between participants; copying solutions from other sources) in timed synchronous online exams (TSO) based on log-file analysis and by providing different problems to different participants through creation of randomized data sets. Log file analysis is rarely used by instructors, but has been shown to be effective. Different data sets helped to identify a total of 19 cheaters in 1924 participants in 10 statistics exams (0.99%) since 2020. So, the common prejudice of “unlimited cheating in synchronous online exams” is not supported by empirical data.

Jordan Wagge, Holly France Avila University The Collaborative Replications and Education Project (CREP) is a framework for supporting students and instructors in completing course-based research projects that contribute to work outside of the classroom. While following in the steps of published scholars by completing direct replications, students also contribute data to meta- or pooled analyses to estimate replicability of effects, and often add their own hypotheses to examine boundary conditions of these effects. As the current Executive Director and Research Assistant for CREP, we will share ways we have implemented CREP and provide suggestions for instructors in different contexts. This work is supported by NSF Award 2141930.

Jason K. Emory University of California, Merced Single-case designs (SCD) as a form of self-assessment of behavior can be an effective pedogeological tool for helping students better understand the research process. In this approach students develop their own research question about an aspect of their behavior and conduct a SCD to measure and improve that behavior. The variables of interest, interventions implemented, and even specific SCD design are selected by the students.. Over the course of the semester, students are scaffolded through the entire process of design and data reporting. Overall, it is proposed here that this SCD project is a useful way to implement self-referential and experiential learning in a methods classroom.

Qin Zhao, Jenni Redifer, Steven Wininger, Thomas Gross Western Kentucky University The proposal describes a research proposal assignment in an undergraduate Research Methods in Psychology course. It represents several best practices in undergraduate education, including student engagement, the high-impact practice of undergraduate research, and promoting critical thinking (AAC&U, 2022; Kilgo et al., 2015). Students choose a research question, conduct a literature review, develop a testable hypothesis, and design the study. Students turn in parts of the proposal separately to receive formative feedback. Importantly, we create a “2 in 1” learning experience by having students present their final proposal both as a poster, delivered in person, and as a PowerPoint presentation, delivered virtually on Blackboard. Based on student feedback and performance, the assignment effectively promotes student engagement and learning.

Rachel Walker University of the Incarnate Word At our university our psychology majors take two Research Method courses. In the first course students create a research question and investigate/summarize articles. In the second course students create a research proposal based on the initial development of their research question. In the past we have found that students and professors struggle at the beginning to determine the research question and to find useful sources. Students tend to have broad research questions while professors try to assist in a variety of topics outside their expertise. These situations impact the professor in providing useful support to the development of the research project. Over time I have modified my strategy to increase the student’s curiosity, skills, and structure of the course.

Helena Paterson, Phil McAleer University of Glasgow We present our experiences of designing assessments for teaching reproducible research methods. We have engaged in a curriculum redesign with a focus on open science over the last 6 years and one valuable resource for designing assessments has been the tools such as pre-registration, registered reports and pre-prints that the community had developed. We discuss present here example of how these have been integrated across the curriculum to enhance student skills both research design, but also in building the skills of writing well.

Madelynn D. Shell, Daniel A. Clark, Andria F. Schwegler Texas A&M University - Central Texas Research Methods can be a challenging class for students and a frustrating class for faculty. However, by strategically planning course sequences and aligning course learning outcomes across the undergraduate psychology curriculum, students can enter the course with solid foundational knowledge and skills. Collaboration across program faculty to provide interleaved and scaffolded practice with content in Writing in Psychology and Behavioral Statistics prior to entering Research Methods creates a more consistent experience across class sections. In addition, this curricular alignment embeds two high-impact educational practices (i.e., writing intensive courses and undergraduate research) into the required curriculum, enabling equitable access to these impactful learning experiences for all program students.