4

Teaching of Psychology, 35: 147159, 2008
C Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

Copyright
ISSN: 0098-6283 print / 1532-8023 online
DOI: 10.1080/00986280802201976
TOPICAL ARTICLES
Review of ToP Teaching Strategies: Links to
Students Scientific Inquiry Skills Development
Thomas J. Tomcho
Salisbury University
Rob Foels
Amherst College
Diana Rice
Geneva College
Jeremy Johnson, Tad P. Moses, Douglas J. Warner, Rebecca A. Wetherbee,

and Tiffany Amalfi
Syracuse University
A major function of instruction in psychology is to convey
complex phenomena in a manner accessible to students.
Instructors using well-designed teaching activities can help
to make complex material accessible. We content analyzed
teaching activities reported in the first 33 years of Teaching
of Psychology. We identified 15 general teaching strategies in 681 teaching activity articles and coded strategies
potential impact on student development of scientific inquiry
skills. We found that ToP authors have consistently used
learner-centered strategies and have significantly increased
their use of active evaluation strategies. We discuss implications of instructor use of the most frequently encountered
strategies.
Teachers seeking to develop new teaching activities
to convey information and to develop student application of knowledge and skills can turn to a number
of well-respected teachers who have offered guidance
about college teaching (e.g., McKeachie & Svinicki,
2006). Likewise, teachers can read about the latest
teaching activities published in the Teaching of Psychology (ToP). Unfortunately, although the authors
of published ToP teaching activities and psychology
Vol. 35, No. 3, 2008
teaching handbooks (e.g., Benjamin, Nodine, Ernst, &

Blair-Broeker, 1999; Ware & Johnson, 1996) provide
information on specific teaching activities, they do not
provide an overview of strategies instructors can use in
teaching about psychological phenomena. Thus, our
first goal was to identify the types of teaching strategies
teaching researchers use.
An important strategy instructors use in teaching
about psychology phenomena is active learning. Instructors using active learning approaches (e.g., discussion, writing, or experiential activities) provide students with a hands on and minds on experience
(Benjamin, 1991, p. 70). Over the past quarter-century,
educational researchers have advocated for greater use
of active learning approaches when developing teaching activities (e.g., Benjamin, 1991; Halonen, BrownAnderson, & McKeachie, 2002; Mathie et al., 1993;
National Institute of Education, 1984; Sivan, Leung,
Woon, & Kember, 2000). Psychology researchers have
empirically demonstrated that active learning approaches have a positive impact on general learning
outcomes (e.g., Butler, Phillmann, & Smart, 2001;
Yoder & Hochevar, 2005). Thus, our second goal was to
147
determine whether authors of ToP teaching activities

have increased their use of active learning approaches
over the course of ToPs publication history.
In addition to identifying ToP teaching strategies
and their use, we also were interested in how different
teaching strategies may promote student attainment of
specific learning objectives. Indeed, a shortcoming in
the field of psychology teaching in general and in ToP
handbooks in particular is that teaching researchers
provide limited information regarding how instructors use of specific teaching strategies can help students attain the American Psychological Association
(APA) learning objectives (e.g., Halonen, Appleby,
et al., 2002; Halonen et al., 2003). According to the
APA Task Force on Undergraduate Psychology Major
Competencies (Halonen, Appleby, et al., 2002), graduating undergraduates should meet a range of learning
objectives. As a way of assessing student attainment
of APAs learning objectives, Halonen et al. (2003)
provided a developmentally based rubric examining
student proficiency in eight sets of skills in scientific
inquiry (p. 198):
1. Descriptive skills in (a) observation, (b) measurement, and (c) interpretation.
2. Conceptualization skills in (a) recognizing and
applying concepts, (b) recognizing and applying basic theory, and (c) advanced skills
in evaluating, synthesizing, or generating
theory.
3. Problem-solving skills in (a) recognizing, applying, or generating methods skills; (b) recognizing, applying, evaluating or generating statistical reasoning; and (c) bias detection and
management.
4. Ethical reasoning skills in (a) awareness of ethical
standards, (b) evaluation of ethical practices, and
(c) adherence of ethical standards.
5. Scientific attitudes and values incorporating
(a) enthusiasm for research, (b) objectivity/
subjectivity, (c) parsimony, (d) skepticism, and
(e) ambiguity tolerance.
6. Communication skills in (a) selecting appropriate
resources, (b) argumentation prowess, and (c) use
of conventional expression.
7. Collaboration skills in (a) completing projects, (b)
process management, (c) leadership, (d) consensus building skills, and (e) brainstorming.
8. Self-assessment skills in (a) self-regulation and (b)
self-reflection.
Given that instructors use teaching activities to help
students attain learning objectives, greater explication
148
of the potential links between teaching strategies and

learning objectives is warranted. To this end, Halonen
et al. (2003) offered some theoretical guidance on the
scope of learning experiences that may foster attainment of APA learning objectives, suggesting that instructors design learning experiences that enhance the
likelihood that students will be able to absorb, integrate, and apply practical examples to solving problems
scientifically (p. 203). However, more specific information regarding types of teaching strategies that may
facilitate these learning objectives would help teachers develop teaching activities. Therefore, we sought
to extend Halonen et al.s work by proposing potential
links between teaching strategies commonly used by
teaching researchers and student attainment of proficiency in eight sets of scientific inquiry skills.
Thus, we asked three questions: What are the types
of teaching strategies that authors of ToP teaching activities use? Have ToP authors changed their use of
teaching strategies over time? Does instructor use of
specific teaching strategies have the potential to facilitate differentially students development of scientific
inquiry skills?
Method
Search Strategy
To identify the corpus of published teaching activities in psychology, we reviewed every issue of ToP
published from 1974 inclusively through 2006. We examined each article to identify those that reported on
a teaching activity regarding substantive psychological topics. After we identified the relevant articles, we
content analyzed the teaching activities to determine
authors teaching strategies.
Inclusion Criteria
We content analyzed 681 teaching activity articles
that met the following inclusion criteria. First, the
teaching activity had to teach about a topic in psychology. We were not interested in broad approaches
per se (e.g., Kellers, 1968, Personalized Systems of
Instruction; see also Eppler & Ironsmith, 2004), assessment approaches (e.g., Halonen et al., 2003; Lawson, 1999), discussions of course or textbook content
(e.g., Jackson, Lugo, & Griggs, 2001; Perlman & McCann, 1999), theoretical articles about teaching approaches (e.g., Buskist, 2002; Sikorski, 2004), or students perceptions of teacher behaviors (e.g., Epting,
Teaching of Psychology
Zinn, Buskist, & Buskist, 2004). Second, the author of

each teaching activity article needed to describe the
activity in sufficient detail to allow for a content analysis of its teaching strategy.
Coding Procedure
Taxonomy development. We developed a taxonomy to identify the range of all possible teaching
strategies that exist in the ToP literature. Expanding on
McKeachie and Svinickis (2006) framework, we identified different types of mutually nonexclusive teaching
strategies. Multiple investigators examined the methods section of each teaching activity article. On several
occasions, we discussed the teaching strategies that we
identified in the teaching articles. We discussed what
both instructors and students did to identify the characteristics that defined each type of teaching strategy.
To determine whether the teaching strategy list was exhaustive of content, we provided the list to an independent reviewer with extensive teaching experience. The
lead investigator and the independent reviewer agreed
that we had identified all relevant teaching strategies.
Teaching strategy identification. After we established a taxonomy of the types of strategies that
exist, we then identified which strategy or strategies
were evident in each of the articles. During the initial period, we worked together coding articles that
evidenced different and multiple teaching strategies to
reach agreement on how to identify teaching strategies. Then, multiple raters coded a random sample of
30 articles resulting in an interrater agreement of .89.
We divided the remainder of the teaching activity articles among the authors for independent coding. The
majority of authors participated in conference discussions to clarify potential teaching strategies if raters had
questions about the teaching strategies in a particular
article.
Strategies and learning outcomes. After we
identified the types of teaching strategies, two lead authors independently coded the degree to which learnercentered teaching strategies (i.e., all strategies except
teacher demonstration) may facilitate undergraduate
student proficiency in each of the eight APA skill
sets (Halonen et al., 2003) using the scale anchor
points 1 (low potential) to 5 (high potential). We designated teaching strategies using the following scale
point labels from Halonen et al.s rubric: low potential
strategies may facilitate Basic Introductory Psychology levels of proficiency, moderate potential strateVol. 35, No. 3, 2008
gies may facilitate Developing levels of proficiency,

and high potential strategies may facilitate Integrating
Advanced Undergraduate levels of proficiency. Two
coders achieved an interrater kappa agreement of .91
for all ratings. Coders used discussion to resolve coding
differences to achieve consensus.
Results
Teaching Strategies Taxonomy
and Frequency of Use
We identified 15 general teaching strategies in our
content analysis; two of these strategies (i.e., writing
and presenting) could take one of two forms. Table 1
provides a functional description of each of the strategies, ordered by percentage of use, along with representative references, and frequency of occurrence. ToP
teaching researchers most frequently used strategies
involving discussion, interactive participation, active
evaluation of psychology concepts, experiential approaches, and non-self-reflective writing assignments.
We found that ToP teaching researchers incorporated
several teaching strategies into teaching activities, with
a range from 1 to 10 strategies. The mean number of
strategies within an activity was 3.3 (SD = 1.9). The
modal number of strategies was two. Less than one fifth
(n = 115) of the activities relied on a sole teaching
strategy.
Use of Teaching Strategies Across Time
We conducted a series of regressions examining
whether author use of teaching strategies has changed
across the history of ToP. The mean number of teaching activities published per year was 20.6 (SD = 8.8;
range = 338). Due to a significant positive correlation between year and the number of teaching activity
articles published, r(32) = .87, p < .0001, we controlled for number of articles published per year in our
analyses. Specifically, we calculated the percentage of
authors using each strategy by year prior to conducting a series of regressions. For the majority of teaching
strategies we identified in this review, we found that
year did not have a statistically significant effect on
author teaching strategy use, Fs(1, 31) < 3.0 (range <
.013.0, mean Cohens d = 1.4), ps > .09. However,
we found three significant results. First, ToP teaching researchers have significantly decreased their use
of observational approaches to teach about psychological concepts, F(1, 31) = 5.53, p = .03. Second, ToP
149
Table 1.
Teaching Strategies: Functional Descriptions, Representative Articles, and Frequency of Use
Strategy
Discussion
Interactive
participation
Active evaluation of
psychology
concepts
Experiential
approach
Writing: Non-selfreflective
Observation
Teacher
demonstration
Self-reported
survey
Presentation:
Group or
individual
Role play
Creative
expression
Writing:
Self-reflective
Interview
150
Functional Description
Students participate in conversations, debates, or
dialogue with each other and the instructor regarding
comprehension, application, analysis, or integration
of course material or topics.
Students participate in the learning activity rather than
being passive recipients. Similar to cooperative
learning (Marr, 1997).
Students observe, discuss, or write about
psychological concepts. Students provide a specific
evaluation of the concept or material. Examples of
evaluation include (a) integrating new concepts with
existing information, (b) critically evaluating others
work, or (c) evaluating how psychological concepts
apply to their own experiences.
Students participate in activities such as service
learning, collaborative research, or some type of
fieldwork in which the students gain practical
experience and that generally leads to the
generation of some output (e.g., a research or writing
product) beyond the immediacy of the activity.
Students generate written work utilizing APA writing
style. This may be broadly theoretical or empirical in
nature and may involve summaries of existing
literature, integrating multiple perspectives,
theoretical or empirical papers.
Students observe participants behavior on videotape
or unobtrusively in real time to facilitate their
understanding of psychological phenomena or
behavioral coding practices.
Teacher-led activities intended to more explicitly or
concretely inform about a topic through illustrations.
Students complete surveys to assess their attitudes,
beliefs, or knowledge concerning psychological
phenomena.
Students either in a group or individually provide their
class with an oral (and sometimes accompanying
written) presentation of information relevant to a
psychological phenomenon. Typically a summary or
description of a student-based project.
Students role play individuals different from who they
are, or role play a response to an imagined event, to
gain a greater understanding of psychological
phenomena.
Students produce some type of creative output not
easily categorized, such as making a brain model out
of clay.
Students incorporate their personal thoughts, beliefs,
or attitudes regarding the referent psychological
phenomena or published article or write about their
experiences from the vantage point of a particular
psychological theory.
Students practice communication skills either with
each other or with individuals outside of the course
as part of the activity.
Representative Articles
Frequency
311
46
293
43
Barber (1994); Boyce and

Geller (2002)
251
37
Chute and Bank (1983);

Watson, Hagihara, and
Tenney (1999)
250
37
Carkenord and Bullington

(1993); Fleming,
Piedmont, and Hiam
(1990); Lawson (1994)
215
31
Badura (2002); Eaton and

Uskul (2004)
Koschmann and Wesp
(2001)
Dyck and Gee (1998);
Hom (1994)
Cogan and Cogan (1984);
Whitbourne and
Cassidy (1994)
Group: Bleske-Rechek
(2001); Boyatzis (1998);
Kite (1990)
Individual: Barnes (1985);
Dodd (1988)
Banyard and Fernald
(2002); Deffenbacher
(1990); Tomcho and
Foels (2002)
Daehler and Miller (2004);
Daniels (1979);
Rabinowitz (1989)
Bristow, Provost, and
Morton (2002); Gillem
(1999)
188
28
169
25
108
16
Group: 69
10
Individual: 65
10
66
10
66
10
63
55
Bogart (1999); Carlsmith

and Cooper (2002);
Connor-Greene and
Greene (2002)
Felsten (1998); Hamilton
and Knox (1985)
Schwanenflugel (1987);
Tomcho, Wolfe, and
Foels (2006)
Table 1.
Teaching Strategies: Functional Descriptions, Representative Articles, and Frequency of Use

(Continued )
Strategy
Functional Description
Computer simulation
Students engage in a simulated experience that

promotes a better understanding of psychological
phenomena, data analyses, or methodological
approaches.
Keeping a journal
Students keep a written, audiotaped, videotaped, or

Web-based log of their experiences, thoughts, or
feelings regarding a psychological topic. Students
apply or analyze their own or others behaviors from a
particular theoretical vantage point.
Students create a compilation of work samples to
demonstrate technological or scientific skills.
Creating a portfolio
teaching researchers have significantly increased their

use of computer simulation approaches to teach about
psychological concepts, F(1, 31) = 6.59, p = .02. Third,
ToP teaching researchers have significantly increased
their use of active evaluation approaches to teach about
psychological concepts, F(1, 31) = 5.88, p = .02.
Potential Links Between Teaching Strategies
and Scientific Inquiry Skills
Table 2 presents teaching strategies and how their
use by instructors has the potential to facilitate scientific inquiry skills. Recall that we used Halonen
et al.s (2003) rubric to rate teaching strategies as having low to high potential. Two experienced teachers
rated the potential of all teaching strategies except
teacher demonstration to facilitate student development of eight broad scientific inquiry skills comprised
of 27 specific skills. Thus, these two teachers made 432
total ratings, of which 146 were high, 136 were moderate, and 150 were low. As expected, teachers rated
teaching strategies with high levels of learner-centered
emphasis (e.g., discussion or experiential approaches
rather than observational approaches) as having high
potential to facilitate scientific inquiry skills.
Table 2 shows that strategies are likely to have potential to facilitate differential student acquisition of
scientific inquiry skills. In general, instructor use of the
teaching strategies identified in this review appear to
have the highest potential to facilitate students descriptive skills (1a, c), conceptualization skills (2a, c),
and communication skills (6ac). In contrast, instructor use of the teaching strategies identified in this review appears to have the least potential to facilitate students collaboration skills (7be) and self-assessment
skills (8a, b). In addition, we found several strategies
Vol. 35, No. 3, 2008
Representative Articles
Frequency
Bibace, Marcus,
Thomason, and Litt
(1987); Dermer
(2004); Lambert and
Lenthall (1988)
Barton (1982); Kowalski
and Lakey (2004);
Sternberg (1999)
53
34
Larkin, Pines, and

Bechtel (2002)
to have high potential to facilitate the development of

many student skills. Specifically, we identified instructor use of discussion and experiential approaches as
most likely to have a high potential to facilitate student
development of 20 of the 27 specific scientific inquiry
skills. Instructor use of active evaluation of psychology concepts and non-self-reflective writing teaching
strategies are similarly likely to have a high potential
to facilitate student development of 18 and 15 of the
27 specific scientific inquiry skills, respectively.
Discussion
Regarding the types of teaching strategies that ToP
teaching researchers use, we found that teaching activities published in ToP typically used at least one
of 15 general strategies. Moreover, more than 80%
of teaching activities incorporated multiple strategies,
with discussion, interactive participation, active evaluation of psychology concepts, experiential approaches,
and non-self-reflective writing activities each used in
more than 30% of the activities.
Many of these teaching strategies parallel suggestions of authors regarding college teaching in general
(e.g., Bourner, 1997; Vermette & Erickson, 1996), as
well as findings from other disciplines (e.g., Wentland,
2004). For example, Bourner (1997) suggested several
teaching strategies including interactive participation,
discussion, and experiential approaches, and we identified these strategies in our content analysis.
We found mixed results regarding whether ToP
teaching researchers use of teaching strategies have
changed across the history of ToP. We found that ToP
teaching researchers use of most teaching strategies
has remained similar across the history of ToP, with
the exception of observational approaches that have
151
Table 2.
Teaching Strategies Potential to Develop Scientific Inquiry Skills

Potential to Develop Scientific Inquiry Skills
Goals
1. Descriptive skills
a. Observation
b. Measurement
c. Interpretation
2. Conceptualization skills
a. Concepts: Recognition
& application
b. Recognize & apply

basic theory
c. Evaluate, synthesize,
generate advanced
theory
152
High
Discussion, active evaluation of

psychology concepts,
experiential approaches,
writing: non-self-reflective,
observation, writing:
self-reflective, interview,
computer simulation, keeping a
journal
Experiential approaches, writing:
self-reflective, interviews
Moderate
Low
Interactive participation,
self-reported survey,
creative expression,
role-play
Individual presentation,
group presentation,
creating a portfolio
Discussion, active
evaluation of psychology
concepts, writing:
non-self-reflective,
computer simulation,
keeping a journal
observation, self-reported
survey, role-play,
individual presentation,
group presentation,
observation

individual presentation, group
presentation, writing:
self-reflective, interviews,
computer simulation
Self-reported survey,
role-play, creative
expression, computer
simulation, keeping a
journal, creating a portfolio

self-reported survey, individual
presentation, group
keeping a journal
self-reflective, computer
simulation, keeping a journal
role-play, individual
presentation, group
keeping a journal
observation, role-play,
computer simulation
Creating a portfolio
Observation, self-reported
survey, role-play,
interviews, creative
expression
observation, creative
simulation
Table 2.
Teaching Strategies Potential to Develop Scientific Inquiry Skills (Continued )

Goals
High
3. Problem-solving skills
a. Methods skills:
Discussion, experiential
recognition,
approaches
evaluation, generation
Moderate
group presentation, writing:
keeping a journal
group presentation,
computer simulation
Low
b. Statistical reasoning:
recognition,
application,
evaluation, and
generation

writing: non-self-reflective
c. Bias detection and

management

presentation
Self-reported survey, writing:

keeping a journal

interviews, writing:
self-reflective
self-reflective
approaches, interviews
presentation, group
presentation, interviews,
computer simulation
observation, creative
expression, keeping a
role-play, creative
simulation
observation, interviews,
keeping a journal, creating
a portfolio
presentation, group
presentation, computer
simulation
observation, writing:
self-reflective, creative
Discussion, individual
presentation, group
simulation, keeping a
journal
survey, role-play, creative
expression, creating a
portfolio
4. Ethical reasoning
a. Awareness of ethical
standards
b. Evaluation of ethical
practices
c. Adherence to ethical
standards
5. Components of
scientific attitudes
and values
a. Enthusiasm for
research
Active evaluation of psychology

concepts, experiential
approaches, writing:
writing: self-reflective,
interviews, creative
(Continued on next page)

Vol. 35, No. 3, 2008
153
Table 2.

Goals
High
b. Objectivity and
subjectivity
c. Parsimony

psychology concepts, writing:
non-self-reflective
d. Skepticism

psychology concepts
Moderate

concepts, writing:
observation,
self-reported survey, role-play,
presentation, creative
Experiential approaches,
observation,
role-play, creative
computer simulation, keeping a
expression, creating a
journal
portfolio
Experiential approaches, writing: Interactive participation,
non-self-reflective, writing:
observation,
creative expression, keeping a
journal
presentation, group
simulation, creating a
portfolio
Role-play, individual
presentation, group
observation,
e. Tolerance of ambiguity Discussion, active evaluation of

interviews
6. Communication skills
a. Resource gathering
Discussion, interactive
Role-play, interviews, creative
skills: selectivity,
participation, active evaluation
expression, keeping a journal
relevance, currency,
of psychology concepts,
evidence
self-reflective, creating a
portfolio
b. Argumentation skills: Discussion, interactive
Role-play, interviews, computer
organization,
awareness of
of psychology concepts,
audience,
persuasiveness
self-reflective, creating a
portfolio
c. Conventional
expression: use of
interviews, computer
APA format, grammar,
of psychology concepts, writing:
appropriate
non-self-reflective, self-reported
supportive visuals
survey, individual presentation,
group presentation, writing:
self-reflective
154
Low
survey, computer
simulation
survey, creative
expression
Observation, role-play,
creative expression
Table 2.

Goals
7. Collaboration skills
a. Project completion
skills
High
experiential approaches, group
presentation, creative
expression, creating a portfolio
b. Process management Interactive participation, active

concepts, group presentation
c. Leadership
Interactive participation, group

presentation
d. Consensus-building
skills
participation, group
presentation
e. Brainstorming
participation, group
presentation
8. Self-assessment skills
a. Self-regulation: work
completion skills
presentation, creating a
portfolio
b. Self-reflection:
thinking about
thinking
Vol. 35, No. 3, 2008

concepts, experiential
non-self-reflective, creating a
portfolio
Moderate
Low
Discussion, active
survey, writing: self-reflective,
concepts, writing:
computer simulation, role-play,
keeping a journal
interviews, individual
presentation
Discussion, interviews,
Experiential approaches, writing:
creative expression
survey, role-play, individual
simulation, keeping a journal,
approaches, interviews
concepts, writing:
Experiential approaches
concepts, writing:
creative expression, computer
writing:
concepts, observation,
writing: self-reflective, creative
expression, keeping a journal,
simulation
writing:
creative expression
Discussion, individual
presentation, group
journal
participation, observation,
writing: self-reflective,
survey, role-play, interviews,
creative expression, computer
simulation
155
declined, and computer simulation and active evaluation of psychology concepts, both of which have
increased.
We found that two experienced teachers independently rated several teaching strategies as having high
potential to help students attain proficiency in scientific inquiry skills. However, one potential concern
with our coding procedure is that the specific teaching
strategies we identified may not be mutually exclusive
and, in fact, may exhibit similar characteristics in some
cases. For example, an activity that incorporates both
interactive participation and experiential approaches
may involve some of the same actions on the part of
the student. We believe, however, the two strategies
differ in that they seek to accomplish different goals;
the former attempts to involve students in the learning process, whereas the latter further incorporates a
specified student product.
Implications of Frequently Used
and High-Potential Strategies
Discussion. Students engaged in discussion
can develop descriptive, conceptualization, problemsolving, ethical reasoning, communication, and collaboration skills. Some authors have noted that discussion is valuable when the goal is learning to think
critically (e.g., Dunkin & Barnes, 1986). Moreover,
discussion as a teaching strategy is used by teachers in
online courses that rely on chat rooms and cyberlearning communities to facilitate instruction (e.g.,
Newlin & Wang, 2002). Unfortunately, instructor use
of discussion as a teaching strategy is disproportionate
to research supporting it. An exception to this pattern is Halperns (2006) work that offers data supporting the idea that structured discussion can improve
students critical thinking skills. Thus, teaching researchers should identify in their teaching activities
how they facilitated discussion (e.g., Harton, Richardson, Barreras, Rockloff, & Latane, 2002) and how they
assessed whether discussion was effective.
Active evaluation of psychology concepts.
Instructor use of this strategy may develop students descriptive, conceptualization, problem-solving,
or ethical reasoning skills, and scientific attitudes
and values. Evaluation can involve evaluating source
material; recognizing fallacies; identifying components of arguments; distinguishing among assumptions,
emotional appeals, speculations, and defensible evidence; and generate and evaluate solutions (Halonen,
156
Appleby, et al., 2002, pp. 1112). Teaching researchers

have significantly increased their use of this approach
in developing teaching activities. Unfortunately, the
limited amount of research on active evaluation of psychology concepts as a teaching activity in psychology
is, like discussion, disproportionate to its actual usage.
However, like discussion, we believe that as a strategy,
students active evaluation of psychology concepts has
the potential to develop several important proficiencies and that researchers should focus more attention
on this topic.
Experiential approaches. Students engaged in

this activity may develop an awareness and application
of psychological phenomena both inside and outside
of the classroom. Inside the classroom, students using
experiential activities engage in such actions as conducting a research project, a clinical or developmental
case study, or a cognition or behavioral learning experiment. In any of these activities where students
apply their knowledge, they may develop scientific
attitudes and descriptive, conceptualization, problemsolving, ethical reasoning, communication, and collaboration skills. Outside the classroom, students engaging in experiential approaches may encompass service
learning. Instructors can enhance course content by
including service-learning activities (Bringle & Duffy,
1998; Chapdelaine & Chapman, 1999; Dunlap, 1998;
Kretchmar, 2001; Pezdek, 2002). Thus, depending on
the focus of the activity, instructor use of experiential
approaches may help students develop several APA
learning objectives.
Writing activities. Students may derive multiple benefits from writing, including improved critical
thinking skills (e.g., Rickabaugh, 1993), enhanced student sociocultural awareness (e.g., Marchel, 2004), and
greater integration when engaged in service learning
activities (e.g., Dunlap, 1998). Writing assignments
also can provide feedback about learning (e.g., Hettich,
1990) and can be incorporated into class experiences
to stimulate active learning during class (e.g., Butler
et al., 2001). These writing experiences may take the
form of assignments wherein students practice developing writing skills or summarizing materials. Therefore,
instructor use of writing activities may help students develop descriptive, conceptualization, problem-solving,
ethical reasoning, communication, and self-assessment
skills.
Constraints on the Use of Strategies

Wentland (2004) noted instructors should consider
many factors when choosing strategies to design a
teaching activity. Beyond the constraints that a given
psychological concept may impose, teaching strategies
may be influenced by time constraints, the degree to
which instructors want individual work versus group
interaction, whether it is a student- or teacher-oriented
activity, the feasibility of incorporating technology,
and the level of student attainment of Bloom, Engelhart, Furst, Hill, and Krathwohls (1956) taxonomy of
educational objectives. Instructors also might consider
APAs learning objectives for undergraduate psychology majors (Halonen, Appleby, et al., 2002; Halonen
et al., 2003) when selecting a teaching strategy. Instructors using teaching strategies involving discussion,
active evaluation of psychology concepts, experiential approaches, or writing, either alone or in some combination, may facilitate student development of multiple
scientific inquiry skills (Halonen, Appleby, et al., 2002;
Halonen et al., 2003).
Conclusion
Our results provide a frame of reference for instructors developing future teaching activities. Future teaching activity researchers should include a more explicit
discussion of the type of teaching strategies they employ
and the potential link between their use of teaching
strategies and their learning objectives. These actions
will help demonstrate empirically which strategies are
most effective in producing specific learning objectives.
As our analysis shows, multiple strategies exist to help
instructors convey psychological phenomena, and the
use of specific strategies may have high potential to facilitate student development of scientific inquiry skills.
Thus, we suggest incorporating several teaching strategies within the context of instructional constraints,
resources, and learning objectives.
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Notes
1. Thomas J. Tomcho collected some of these data while
he was a faculty member at Syracuse University and
Delaware State University.
2. We thank Jaime Weinger, Evan McCaffery, and Mahua
Baral for their help with data entry.
3. Send correspondence to Thomas J. Tomcho, Psychology
Department, Salisbury University, Salisbury, MD 21802;
e-mail: tjtomcho@salisbury.edu.
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Teaching of Psychology, 35: 147159, 2008

C Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

Jeremy Johnson, Tad P. Moses, Douglas J. Warner, Rebecca A. Wetherbee,

teaching handbooks (e.g., Benjamin, Nodine, Ernst, &

determine whether authors of ToP teaching activities

of the potential links between teaching strategies and

Zinn, Buskist, & Buskist, 2004). Second, the author of

gies may facilitate Developing levels of proficiency,

Teaching Strategies: Functional Descriptions, Representative Articles, and Frequency of Use

Barber (1994); Boyce and

Chute and Bank (1983);

Carkenord and Bullington

Badura (2002); Eaton and

Bogart (1999); Carlsmith

Teaching Strategies: Functional Descriptions, Representative Articles, and Frequency of Use

Students engage in a simulated experience that

Students keep a written, audiotaped, videotaped, or

teaching researchers have significantly increased their

Larkin, Pines, and

to have high potential to facilitate the development of

Teaching Strategies Potential to Develop Scientific Inquiry Skills

b. Recognize & apply

Discussion, active evaluation of

Discussion, active evaluation of

Discussion, active evaluation of

Teaching Strategies Potential to Develop Scientific Inquiry Skills (Continued )

Discussion, active evaluation of

c. Bias detection and

Discussion, active evaluation of

Self-reported survey, writing:

Discussion, active evaluation of

Active evaluation of psychology

(Continued on next page)

Teaching Strategies Potential to Develop Scientific Inquiry Skills (Continued )

Discussion, active evaluation of

Discussion, active evaluation of

Active evaluation of psychology

e. Tolerance of ambiguity Discussion, active evaluation of

Teaching Strategies Potential to Develop Scientific Inquiry Skills (Continued )

b. Process management Interactive participation, active

Interactive participation, group

Vol. 35, No. 3, 2008

Active evaluation of psychology

Appleby, et al., 2002, pp. 1112). Teaching researchers

Experiential approaches. Students engaged in

Constraints on the Use of Strategies

Barber, N. (1994). Reducing fear of the laboratory rat: A

Carlsmith, K. M., & Cooper, J. (2002). A persuasive example

Vol. 35, No. 3, 2008

Sikorski, J. F. (2004). Teacher of teachers: An interview

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