Jordan P. Lippman et al.
192
course evaluation did not differ except for ratings on the following items: “The required
readings were valuable” and “You have learned and understood the subject materials in
this course.” Ratings on both of these questions were higher in the articles-only class.
Students offered comments about the best and worst aspects of the required readings
and reading worksheet activities. Student reaction to using journal articles in lieu of a
textbook for the Summer 2004 class was mixed but generally positive. For example, one
student noted: “I liked the fact that there was no textbook, because we were exposed to
more actual experiments and case studies that people did than would probably be possible
from a textbook.” However, some students noted that some articles were too long or hard
to understand; for example, one student said: “Some of the reading assignments were a
little hard to read. It was hard to determine what the results were and what they meant.”
Overall, though, the general consensus of students seemed to be that although the articles
were interesting and helped them to learn the concepts in class, it would have been useful
to have a textbook to which they could refer. As one student noted: “I happen to like using
the articles instead of a textbook. ... Only thing is when sometimes I have questions and
I do not have a textbook to refer back to for clarification.”
Conclusions and Applications to Other Courses
Students in undergraduate psychology classes can learn critical subject matter equally well
with primary source readings or with textbooks. As suggested by Levine (2001), the use of
journal articles can promote critical thinking and understanding of the psychological
research process. In addition, reflection on and analysis of journal articles helps students
to develop scientific reasoning skills, such as making predictions and evaluating results,
while integrating their prior knowledge with course content.
The applicability and feasibility of using journal articles as the primary reading
materials for undergraduate psychology courses may be limited by class format and
characteristics. For example, both classes in this comparison were small by UIC standards.
Practicalities of grading with limited teaching assistant support and engaging all students
in discussions of the articles may limit the effectiveness of this technique in large classes.
However, Kershaw has used a modification of this technique in introduction to psychology
courses at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, which average 65–75 students.
The articles chosen for the latter class tend to be easier and more general than the articles
used for the cognitive psychology course. In addition, instead of using a standard reading
worksheet that emphasizes methodology and theory, Kershaw created reading worksheets
for each article that directed students to particular sections in their book to help them
answer questions.
Cognition in Daily Life Exercise
We created the cognition in daily life exercise to help students think critically about
psychological theories by getting them to analyze their daily experiences in light of them.