Can Journaling Help Psychology Majors Achieve Learning Outcomes?
Abstract
For our study, we posed the question: Can journaling, which has been shown to enhance students' learning (e.g., Blake, 2005; Mills, 2008), help psychology majors achieve the learning outcomes outlined in the American Psychological Association's Guidelines for the Undergraduate Psychology Major ? The participants for our study were 30 psychology majors enrolled in a 200-level developmental psychology course during the fall 2012 semester at Agnes Scott College. Over the course of the semester, each student wrote a total of 38 one-page journal entries, each on a different assigned topic within developmental psychology. During the last class, the participants completed a paper-and-pencil survey in order to obtain their feedback on the journal entries, as they relate to APA's Guidelines for the Undergraduate Psychology Major . The students reported that the journals helped them most with achieving the learning outcomes of Knowledge Base , Application, Critical Thinking , Personal Development , and Values .
Location
Concourse
Recommended Citation
Brown, Carrie and Cook, Rachel, "Can Journaling Help Psychology Majors Achieve Learning Outcomes? " (2013). SoTL Commons Conference. 29.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/sotlcommons/SoTL/2013/29
Can Journaling Help Psychology Majors Achieve Learning Outcomes?
Concourse
For our study, we posed the question: Can journaling, which has been shown to enhance students' learning (e.g., Blake, 2005; Mills, 2008), help psychology majors achieve the learning outcomes outlined in the American Psychological Association's Guidelines for the Undergraduate Psychology Major ? The participants for our study were 30 psychology majors enrolled in a 200-level developmental psychology course during the fall 2012 semester at Agnes Scott College. Over the course of the semester, each student wrote a total of 38 one-page journal entries, each on a different assigned topic within developmental psychology. During the last class, the participants completed a paper-and-pencil survey in order to obtain their feedback on the journal entries, as they relate to APA's Guidelines for the Undergraduate Psychology Major . The students reported that the journals helped them most with achieving the learning outcomes of Knowledge Base , Application, Critical Thinking , Personal Development , and Values .
