The 2010 Membership Survey
Researchers: Greg S. Goodman, Kelvin Seifert, Laurie Hanich, Sandra Deemer
Clarion University of Pennsylvania IRB # 112-08-09
The Teaching Educational Psychology – Special Interest Group (TEP-SIG) of the American Educational Research Association represents a unique amalgam of teachers of educational psychology, researchers in the field of educational psychology, and educational psychologists who work in other areas and settings.
Beginning in 2009, the TEP –SIG leadership team of Greg S. Goodman, Sandra Deemer, Laurie Hannich, and Kelvin Seifert designed a survey to assess the scope of the TEP-SIG membership, to learn about group members’ teaching of educational psychology, and to determine how TEP-SIG can serve members more effectively in the future. To help the 2010 TEP-SIG leadership continue to be cognizant of the membership’s needs and concerns based upon valid data, the initial survey was reconstructed in the spring of 2010 and distributed in the summer of 2010.
The 2010 TEP-SIG survey was re-designed through a group process with the freshly
constructed leadership team: Sandra Deemer, Laurie Hannich, Henry Brzycki, Zsuzsanna Szabo, Stacy DeZutter, Greg Goodman, and Kelvin Seifert.
The goals of the survey were to obtain both previously collected data and new information about the membership, to share knowledge of TEP-SIG’s peer professional activities, and to plan future directions for the group. Some of the survey research questions included:
1. What demographics describe and define the membership?
2. What is the current level of interest in participation within the TEP-SIG and its affiliate
journal or other functions?
3. What activities are teachers of educational psychology currently engaged in as they
practice their professional duties within the classroom and beyond?
In constructing the 2010 survey, these researchers were guided by the assumption that
educational psychology in general, and TEP-SIG in particular, may be the quintessential
example of the diverse interests and foundations of education itself. Education is interdisciplinary and draws its influence from psychology, sociology, anthropology, philosophy, and other established fields of study (Goodyear, et al., 2009). Educational psychology extends all of those foundations and also enjoys its own multifarious roots melding constructivism, behaviorism, humanism, and psycho-bio-social perspectives into a complexity of theories describing how people learn (Ruble, 2010).
The data in Tables 1-3 represent the responses of 39 of the members of the TEP SIG, out of
a total membership at the time of the survey of 122. All members received an invitation to
participate in the survey via the Listserv. Twenty-two responded to the initial call to follow a
link to Survey Monkey, a website that facilitates the construction of online surveys (http://www.surveymonkey.com). An additional 17 members responded following a second call. The final response rate was therefore 32% (39/122).
Table 1. Members’ Demographics
1. Primary academic affiliation?
a) School or College of Education 79.5%
b) Liberal Studies, Arts & Sciences 12.8%
c) Other 7.7%
2. Size of university or college?
a) >10,000 students 43.6%
b) 5000-10,000 33.3%
c) <5000 23.1%
3. Type of institution?
a) PhD granting, comprehensive university 56.4%
b) Masters, state university 17.9%
c) Four-year college 23.1%
d) Other 2.6%
Table 2. Members’ Relationship to Educational Research
8. Publication required for promotion/tenure?
a) Yes, absolutely essential 76.9%
b) Yes, required 12.8%
c) Important but not required 7.7%
9. Percentage of members having published:
a) A few peer reviewed journal articles 31.6%
b) One peer reviewed journal article 15.8%
c) Several peer reviewed articles & books 15.8%
d) Several peer reviewed articles & one book 28.9%
e) Currently looking for a publisher 10.5%
Table 3. In which journals have you published?
a) Journal of Educational Psychology 30.0%
b) Contemporary Educational Psychology 23.3 %
c) Teaching Educational Psychology 20.0%
d) Educational Psychology Review 13.3%
e) Learning and Individual Differences 10.0%
f) Educational Psychologist 6.7%
g) Learning and Instruction 6.7%
h) British Journal of Educational Psychology 3.3%
Four open-ended questions in the survey queried the membership for information concerning
current teaching and the TEP SIG itself. Concerning the first of these questions, —“Please
describe any unique aspects of your educational psychology course content and or students” —34 of the TEP SIG members shared their experiences. The responses are listed below:
1. Three unique aspects: 1) using the teaching educational psychology, teaching best practice of self referential teaching and learning for deeper learning increasing student learning outcomes and abilities to apply concepts; 2) integration of positive psychology body of work
into educational psychology; 3) using the Self Theory in Teaching and Learning when teaching pre-service and Master teachers K-12 adolescent motivation strategies. And: Field Experiences, small group work, Student produced videos and blogs, workshop style with peer to peer coaching of lesson plans.
2. It has to match very selective state standards and can not deviate.
3. A central component of my Human Development course is service
learning—students volunteer at various organizations that serve
developmental needs in some way, and we discuss their experiences
in class. Students also write papers and give presentations on their experiences.
4. Field experience both for exposure to diverse students and for data gathering (Piaget-type tasks, locus of control scale, moral development scenarios) that we use in assignments throughout the semester.
5. Field experiences Small group work Micro teaching.
6. Field experiences, small group work, case analysis.
7. Small groups for workshops; individual final projects; group discussions.
8. field placement—blocked together with a social foundations of modern
education class.
9. integrate arts-based experiences connected to studies of works of art that
illuminate psychological concepts.
10. About course content: great diversity; students: large groups Teaching
methodologies: group work; problem-based learning; project-based learning.
11. small group work, service-learning for early teacher preparation for work
with diverse learners, use of P-12 teacher/ pre-service teacher database to
allow each to match needs and skills in field placements, action-research
in graduate class in a 50 percent online venue, student design and
implementation of class activities in small groups in graduate class.
12. field experiences, small group work, revealing beliefs and assumptions.
13. distance learning.
14. Field observations and analysis, small group work, video analysis, lesson creation activities.
15. making short films embedding psychology theories.
16. For undergraduates, educational psychology is taught in large lectures, i.e., 100-130 students.
17. Fieldwork Small group work.
18. Small group work.
19. (a.) Students complete research-based assignments requiring collection of data from child or adult participants. (b.) Students collaborate and share data for group based assignments using web2 technologies such as GoogleDocs to upload and share data files and analysis techniques.
(c.) Students complete reading assignments in collaborative small groups, using website to upload and share materials.
20. Students are primarily pre-service teachers; but include alternative license teachers, Deaf interpreters, and library science/media specialists. Students participate in small group activities within the course.
21. Project proposal, reflection paper, exams, group work, workshops.
22. Experiential learning Problem based Cooperative Portfolio as assessment
Instrument.
23. 15-hour clinical experience for pre-service elementary education teachers.
24. I use a combination of lecture, large group discussion, small group work/
discussion, hands on activities, field experiences (tutoring in urban environment), and assignments designed to apply material.
25. 30 hours of field experience tutoring diverse students; small groups work in-class, jigsaw learning activity out of class.
26. cases small group work.
27. Depending on the section, I include service learning, data collection in their field placements that we then analyze in class, and many experiential
learning opportunities.
28. Service learning: Tutoring in urban, high poverty schools Lots of collaboration & choice of assignments.
29. Lecture—Whole class Small groups Field research.
30. A field experience is attached to the class. I use small group discussions within a large lecture format.
31. Each class has a field experience attached. We focus on helping students reveal and challenge their beliefs about the teaching-learning process with theory and research as they design and develop authentic teaching projects.
32. Homework portfolio; YouTube video creation; documentary creation; constructivist based midterm based on theories.
33. Include as requirements: 1) two classroom observations (elem and sec) in urban public schools; 2) research project with final paper and oral presentation; 3) several cases for discussion and analysis; 4) many experiences with dyads, triads, small groups; oral reports on articles plus other techniques.
34. Field experience—Research Debates Students Powerpoint Presentations Creating articles on given topics for a class journal.
Using a simple coding structure to organize the responses, the five most commonly cited
elements of course content identified by the survey respondents were: 1) small group work, 2)
field experiences, 3) integrating elements of educational psychology theory into course activities, 4) using a workshop style, and 5) micro-teaching. Overall impressions revealed a heavy emphasis upon experiential learning processes.
As the TEP-SIG leadership continues work to improve the group’s productivity and resources
for its constituency, data opportunities such as this survey provide important sources of
information. The leadership team thanks the survey respondents for their time and effort to
provide all of us with these data.
References
Goodyear, R. K., Brewer, D.J., Gallagher, K.S., Tracey, T.J.G., Claiborn, C.D., Lichtenberg,
J.W., & Wampold, B.E. (2009). The intellectual foundations of education: Core journals
and their impacts on scholarship and practice. Educational Researcher, 38 (9), 700-706.
Ruble, C. (2010). Annotated bibliography. In G. Goodman (Ed.), Educational Psychology Reader. New York: Peter Lang Publishing.
There were thirty four (34) responses to the open ended question; “Please describe any unique aspects of your educational psychology course content and or students.” Embedded within these responses are numerous best practices for teaching educational psychology. This is notable in that this is the mission of our AERA SIG. We are considering a special issue of the TEP Journal in which each best teaching practice described in this survey could be expanded upon and highlighted. Our members are very committed to sharing these best teaching practices that are the foci of our effectiveness in our specialized field. Therefore, it would seem that many would like to describe in expanded detail their particular best teaching practice in the form of a short article worthy of our scholarly Journal. This special edition could then be turned into a TEP Handbook of Best Teaching Practices which could be published for wider distribution to the academic community.
The TEP SIG 2010 Membership Survey has produced robust results for members to use in determining how they would like to make a difference in our profession, and make a larger contribution to both our profession and our students. Please consider contributing to our growing SIG – we welcome any and all suggestions! Thank you!
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