Authentic Learning in Psychology
Erica Kleinknecht, Ph.D.
Professor of Cognition and Development, College of Arts & Sciences, Pacific University Oregon. Western Psychological Association 2023 recipient of the Outstanding Professor Award
My students call me "Prf. K." and I've been teaching undergraduate Psychology for over 20 years. My course array includes Intro, Cognition, Development, and Senior Capstone Seminars. My research specialties center on applied cognition and feature memory, metacognition, and the positive impact of gaming and game design on cognition and learning in middle childhood.
Teaching for authentic learning intends to implicitly address the ever-present question in learners’ mind: “Why am I being asked to do this?”. Broadly construed, the purpose of higher education is to prepare students for a future of work and citizenship and fulfillment. While faculty implicitly believe that everything they teach matters, students do not always share such broad-based trust in the preparatory system! When the value is made more clear, as authentic learning aims to do, then students get a healthy boost to their achievement motivation. It is learning where students are challenged to:
Engage in problems or projects with real-world relevance
Address [clarify] ill-defined problems
Work on complex tasks through sustained investigation
Examine tasks through different perspectives with the support of diverse resources
Collaborate with other learners
Reflect on their learning experiences
See how the work is applicable to a variety of subject areas
Note the connection between the work and the assessment of it
Create a meaningful product
Note a variety of solutions and possible competing outcomes
Student Made Websites & e-Books
spot held for future classes
spot held for future classes
spot held for future classes
Developmental Science offers parents a freeing perspective on how to best nurture children: Being a parent is like being a gardener (e.g., Gopnik, 2016). In the spirit of this powerful metaphor, in this class students created a collection of family field guides designed to help parents build and nurture healthy ecologies where the family system can thrive.
Everything is connected. Memory is a core Psychological construct. We can use our Science to Help. In this class as students learn about the fundamentals of Memory Science, they create Wise Interventions to help folks enhance their cognitive tool kits.
Fiction precedes science: We dream technology up and then make it a reality. Though AI / tech is human made, we fear it when it we don't understand it. The purpose of this project is spin the AI narrative to remind us that when we understand its capabilities and limits, AI is friend, not foe.
Mind Matters. Want to refine your cognitive tool kit to improve your memory? Ever wonder why you remember all the wrong things and not the right things? What does emotion do to memory in the long term? How much brain power do you use on a daily basis? Are our brains really like computers [and if so, what's wrong with mine?!?]? Answers to these questions and more await you in the pages linked below. Click the links and expand your mind - you will be better off because of it, we promise!
Humans of all ages seek meaning - it’s a natural tendency. As children are immersed in their local cultures, they extract meanings from what they see, hear, and experience. Practices rooted in narrative -- conversations, stories, and media -- facilitate this meaning-making process. Click the links on this site to see how students suggest we harness the power of narrative in the service of raising just kids.
Memory is adaptable. Because it bends to our needs, we should use it with care. Each project featured this suite of sites offers visitors food for thought on the key take away from modern memory science. When we know where memory bends, we can shape it to our advantage and protect ourselves from harm.
Test your knowledge against the latest science by digging into the content shared on the site, where Cognitive Psychology students interrogate the truth about how our minds work. These truths are showcased here as podcasts, memes, videos, infographics and more. Our goal is to help bring your knowledge out of the 19th and 20th centuries and into the 21st.
PSY 344: Social and Personality Development, Winter 2022. Working in groups students connected with parents to ask them about their experiences. Building on these crowdsourced responses, each group created a series of informative media (infographics, videos, and podcasts) with parents' remarks in mind. This set of engaging media is beautiful, informative, and fun! As you peruse you will learn about the Mommy Wars and how to combat pop-culture pressure to conform by instead focusing in on what your children need from you to thrive.
PSY 353: Cognitive Development. Fall 2021. Working in teams, students created original media to illustrate principles of inclusivity. On this site you will find attractive infographics and original children's books - the books are accessible and ready to be read with your children! Each site comes with a handy discussion guide as well, with tips for how to discuss inclusivity with children.
Developmental Science has much to offer parents, teachers, medical and mental health professionals. Working in teams, students prepared fast-fact infographics and short write-ups for a variety of audiences. Click the link above to see (and benefit from) their pro-tips.
Cognitive Science is rapidly advancing our understanding of cognition and learning. Burgeoning knowledge makes sorting out fact from fiction in the age of mis/dis-information a real challenge. Working in teams students took steps to dispel common misconceptions. Click the link above to test your knowledge.
Senior Capstone/ Advanced topics in cognition (Psy 3/480). While we most often associate "self help" with the application of clinical coursework, as it turns out a key root of therapy is cognition. In the second semester of our "covid-year", students used their knowledge for good: they chose a situation and created a self-help program to address that situation. Follow the link to this class website, where you can find the collection of projects. Each project includes and e-book and an actual, usable workbook.
PSY 353: Cognitive Development. In this collection of collaboratively written essays, students tackle the pressing social issue of racial justice, equity, and inclusion. Each essay offers readers advice on how to raise children in the spirit of anti racism, sexism, and ableism.
PSY 314: Memory and Mind. In this collection of collaboratively written essays, students tackle the pressing social issue of racial justice, equity, and inclusion. Each essay offers readers advice on how to improve their practices of anti racism, sexism, and ableism.
PSY 355: Educational Psychology for Elective Learning. In this collection of single-authored essays, students apply course content (topics in educational psychology) to a variety of teaching related contexts.
PSY 353: Cognitive Development. In this collection of collaboratively written essays, students tackle common debates about childrearing and education.
PSY 416; Cognitive Science. In this collection of essays, students share their their best two of three essays, written to help assuage fears of the singularity. AI's rapid advancement is incredible, but we don't need to fear the loss of humanity's autonomy just yet.
PSY 206: Cognitive Psychology. In this collection of collaboratively written essays, students present carefully created wise interventions for a variety of situations.
In the summer of 2020 I wrote a post on my Wordpress blog (cognitioneducation.me) titled "What does Authentic Learning Look like, in Psych?" In that post I shared some of my favorite assignments designed to get students thinking beyond memorization, and mused about how to transform my tried and true assignments to the digital format necessitated by the pandemic. At that time, I was faced with a year of teaching virtually (synchronous, on-line) and paperless. A daunting task, but a welcome challenge. Skipping ahead to the present, I am reflecting on my virtual, paperless year (actually, year and a half counting SP 2019) and planning my next academic year. With the pandemic far from over, we faculty must remain "ready" to pivot again. In that spirit, I have created this site to organize and showcase my vision for authentic learning in Psychology. Please enjoy their work, and feel free to contact me should you have any questions: eko at pacificu dot edu. I'm always happy to chat about teaching!
