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 The National Conference
on Undergraduate Education in Psychology
A Blueprint for the Future of Our Discipline
by Diane F. Halpern, PhD
Undergraduate education is big business, with a record 15.9 million
students enrolled in U.S. colleges in 2007—the largest number ever,
which is matched with record enrollments worldwide. The number of students
in college is expected to continue to increase at a rapid rate into the
foreseeable future. The reasons for the increased enrollments in higher
education are obvious: A college degree has become the passport to the
middle class, and our future as a country and as a participant in the
increasingly complex global puzzle depends on the success of our students.
There are many critical questions for the varied stakeholders in higher
education. What do college students need to learn and be able to do so
that they and their children can enjoy a world of peace, a healthy and
long life, and economic stability? How can we arrange learning activities
so they will have the knowledge and wisdom to deal effectively and ethically
with complex issues? What are our students’ lives like, and what
can they expect for their own future?
Many of us who are the administrators or professors for today’s
college students are out of touch with the realities of our students’ lives.
When I saw a recent television commercial that instructed me to STM to
my DWP to download the Desperate Housewives video game to my iPOD, I thought
that maybe I would qualify for membership in “the clueless.” (Let
me add that I am writing this from Hong Kong, where I am living for a
few months, and these instructions were on an English language channel
from mainland China. And, no, it was not a bad translation.)
As a group, our students vary along every dimension we can categorize,
but there are summary data that we can use to glimpse into their collective
lives. The annual Freshman Survey from UCLA (Higher Education Research
Institute, 2007) found that about 25% are “frequently bored in
class, almost 80% frequently or occasionally drink alcohol, almost 20%
work full-time, so it is not surprising that 65% frequently or occasionally
oversleep and miss class. Data from other sources, such as the creative
class project devised by Michael Wesch, an assistant professor of anthropology
at Kansas State University, found that college students spend much of
their time multitasking—more specifically, checking e-mail, IM-ing
(instant messages for those of you whose lives are not a constant blur
of communication technology), facebooking, and shopping while in class,
while doing homework, and while doing almost everything else. They read
about half of the class material, and many will graduate deeply in debt,
a fact that will constrain their job choices to those that pay well. Our
students are entering a world with global problems that include pollution,
poverty, racism, and terrorism, just to name a few. In light of all of
the changes in the lives of our students and what they need to be able
to do, how has higher education changed to meet these challenges? Besides
such gradual changes as reducing the percentage of tenure-track faculty,
increasing class sizes and the number of courses offered online, and ratcheting
up the research requirements for faculty at many institutions, my answer
is “Not much.”
It is against the changing landscape of rapid change in our students’ lives
and in the knowledge and skills they will need to know that APA’s
Board of Educational Affairs is sponsoring a National Conference on Undergraduate Education in Psychology. Approximately 80 psychologists dedicated to quality undergraduate
education will convene June 22–27, 2008, on the beautiful campus
of the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA. We sincerely thank the
university for their generous support.
Attendees at the National Conference on Undergraduate Education in Psychology
will seek answers to critical questions for the future of our discipline.
The popularity of psychology as a major continues to increase. It is the
major of choice for students who are considering many different career
paths after graduation, and there are few students who will graduate from
college without at least one course in psychology. Most of the problems
facing America and, indeed, much of the rest of the world are behavioral
in nature and will require behavioral solutions.
Most of the problems
facing America and,
indeed, much of the rest
of the world are behavioral
in nature and will require
behavioral solutions. |
Heart disease, cancer,
and stroke are the principal causes of death in the Western world, due,
to a large extent, to lifestyle variables such as overeating, lack of
exercise, smoking, and stress. Drug addictions, racism and sexism, environmental
pollution, violence including terrorism, child abuse, and separation and
divorce are among the many maladies plaguing our society whose causes
can be found in behavior. An aging population and an explosion in information
technologies present both opportunities and challenges for American society.
We want to prepare undergraduate students who will tackle these issues
and find solutions that will alleviate the problems.
Nine working groups are planned for the conference, each addressing a
central theme. Participants have applied to attend and were selected in
January 2008 from a stellar list of psychologists, each of whom has made
a deep commitment to undergraduate education. We will address a wide range
of topics, including the following:
- The use of new learning technologies (e.g., automated tutoring systems)
- Applications from the science of learning
- Increased diversity in our students and faculty
- Learning outcomes assessment
- Models of curricula
- Quality in instruction
- New ethical concerns created by a revolution in our biological and sociocultural understanding of psychology
We are planning on several outcomes, including a book to be published
by APA, Undergraduate Education in Psychology: A Blueprint for the Future
of the Discipline, and videos of debates on such “hot topics” as:
- Affirmative action for men
- What to do about grade inflation
- How to accommodate the increasing number of students who request special
accommodations for learning and testing
- Whether we can have quality education with online learning
- Whether course content should be tailored to the interests of students
The nine themes revolve around questions we must answer to create a
world-class educational program that provides students with the workplace
skills needed in the information age and a solid academic background that
prepares them for advanced study in a wide range of fields. On behalf
of our stellar steering committee (a true dream team), I welcome your
ideas and concerns. (Diane Halpern may be contacted at diane.halpern@cmc.edu).
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