Teaching Research Methods Within The Classroom - 1288 Words

Abstract Psychology undergraduates are required to study research methods within their course. Psychology undergraduates are required to study research methods within their course. Within this are many different statistical definitions which have been considered the most challenging aspect of the curriculum. An individual undergraduate psychology student took part in this study. The study aimed to increase the accuracy and fluency of the recall of these definitions by applying an intervention phase of reading through SAFMEDS cards aloud previous to recalling them in one minute. The SAFMEDS cards were made up of key statistical concepts taken from a study guide which is core to the research methods module. Results indicated that the†¦show more content†¦This is more of a requirement now as students are being given greater opportunities within their course due to the new resources being put into psychology departments. Part of this means that students are now able to conduct their own research within the third year of their degree, meaning they need a deep level of understanding for statistics in order to accumulate adequate conclusions from their results. Precision teaching (PT) has proved to be an effective tool when aiming to teach students material fluently and accurately. Lindsley (1990) showed that students in precision teaching classrooms who were told to keep records of their own academic and non-academic performance and use these records to guide their performance and eventually lead to more academic success due to the visual representation they had. This element of precision teaching is particularly useful as learners who improve this way are susceptible to fluency based procedures which often consist of SAFMEDS or packs of cards similar to this. SAFMEDS are typically used to help students become fluent in definitions and basic concepts, in this experiment they are being used to improve a base of knowledge on research methods within psychology.