Contact Information
General Course Information
Topic calendar
References
Grades

Where and When?

• Section 06: MWF 9-9:50; DeGarmo 404. Topic calendar:
  

Course Description & Objective.

Course description. A seminar is a group of advanced students studying under a professor, with each student contributing to class participation through active reading, doing library research, presenting and discussing the material with one another and the professor. The senior seminar course, the pinnacle of one's undergraduate education, examines contemporary psychological issues and problems of the future. Issues vary from instructor to instructor. This section focuses on cognitive psychology, including issues about perception, learning, memory, and language.

Goal. There are two major goals for this course. The first is to promote critical thinking in students; the second is to help prepare the students for their career paths following graduation. Both goals will be addressed through a number of different techniques, including writing critical and review papers, writing proposals, and giving presentations (both oral and in poster format). The topics on which these techniques will be developed will be drawn from both the instructor's interests (cognitive psychology) and input from the students enrolled in the course.

Objectives. My teaching objectives are:

to help students learn to think critically
to help students learn the benefits of thinking critically
to give students a number of different techniques to promote critical thinking
to give students an opportunity to think about some of the current (and perhaps past and future) issues in cognitive psychology and cognitive science
to encourage an exchange of ideas/information among all members of the class.

Evaluation (grading). The evaluation of the students' overall course performance will be based on their participation and on the quality of the participation on the assignments. The assignments consist of a variety of different kinds of tasks (as mentioned above in the Goal section). Roughly the breakdown will be as follows:

5 pts each - critical thinking exercises (e.g., summaries/thought papers of readings)
10 pts - critical thinking outline
20 pts - critical thinking paper
20 pts - grad application & vita/resume
30 pts oral presentation
30 pts poster presentation
60 pts based on class participation in discussions
110 pts - research proposal

includes: anotated bibliography, literature review, peer reviews, and a couple of drafts of the proposal

roughly 300 pts total

Readings.

Levy, David. A (1997). Tools of Critical Thinking: Metathoughts for Psychology. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.	Pinker, S. (1997). How the Mind Works. New York: W. W. Norton and Company.

The initial portion of the course will be to discuss the theory and practice of critical thinking. To assist in this, we will work with David Levy's Tools of Critical Thinking: Metathoughts for Psychology. During the latter portion of the course the class will discuss at several current issues or themes in cognitive psychology and cognitive science. The bulk of the background reading on these issues will be from How the Mind Works, by Steven Pinker. Additional related readings will be selected by the students enrolled in the course (related to the topics found in the Pinker book).

Course Ground Rules.