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Beyond Standard Lectures
To simplify the report and task of keeping track of diary entries, we changed the activity
into the Dear Grandma Letter.
We asked students from Pellegrino’s courses what their favorite component of the course
was in Fall 2006; their two favorite components were the online CogLabs and Dear
Grandma Letter assignments, and no student indicated that the Dear Grandma assign-
ment was their least favorite assignment. We coded students’ explanations of why this
component was their favorite. In order of decreasing frequency the reasons were that it was
easy and enjoyable, they thought linking class content to real life helped them learn the
concepts, and they liked the informal and simple style of writing a letter instead of a
report.
Conclusions and Applications to Other Courses
The cognition in daily life assignments have students think critically about how theories
can (or cannot) explain their daily cognitive experiences. Having students evaluate their
experiences in terms of theories from class leads to increased appreciation of the pervasive-
ness of cognitive phenomena as well as retention and comprehension of the scientific
principles and content.
In terms of practical use of these assignments, we believe it is important to make clear
your expectations of what students are to write, and to simplify as much as possible the
logistics of keeping track of diary entries. Overall, students like the assignment because it
helps them learn the content and think about its relevance to their lives.
This type of assignment could be readily implemented in other courses. Kershaw has
used a shortened version of the memory diary in her introductory psychology course (n =
75 students). As an additional application, students in a social psychology course could
keep a diary of their attribution or stereotyping experiences.
General Discussion
Everyone agrees that students learn best when they are active. After a century of research
into learning, cognitive psychologists have developed an appreciation for the types of mental
activities particularly supportive of effective learning. The challenge is implementation:
How do you engage students in active learning and critical thinking when the setting is a
lecture hall with one professor and 100–200 students meeting for 60–75 mins twice a
week? It requires considerable creativity on the part of the instructor to design activities that
can be effectively implemented within this standard undergraduate course format.
The examples summarized exemplify some tricks of the trade we have found useful.
One of these approaches involves creative use of homework activities to promote critical
thinking. The various diary activities engage students and focus their attention on criti-
cally evaluating their daily experiences. The online demonstration experiments support
the class presentation of particular phenomena, but they also support a semester-long
attention to the methodology of psychological experimentation. The main benefit of these