Teaching Critical Thinking in Psychology: A Handbook of Best Practices

Report 2

Personal Mission Statements as

Tools for Developing Writing

and Reflection Skills

Lawrence Benjamin Lewis and Elizabeth Yost Hammer

Researchers and teachers have begun to explore the unique challenges the first year of

college presents to students (see Feldman, 2005, for a review). Often driven by hopes

of improved retention rates, many universities have responded by creating “first year expe-

rience” (FYE) initiatives (Upcraft, Gardner, & Barefoot, 2004). At our university, we

collaborated with our Writing Across the Curriculum Program to create an FYE assign-

ment, writing a personal mission statement, aimed at preparing our freshmen to succeed

in their first year and in the psychology major.

First-year psychology majors taking introductory psychology in their first semester

complete a one-hour “seminar” attached to their intro course. There are many types of

writing assignments in psychology classes that encourage personal reflection (e.g., Butler,

Phillmann, & Smart, 2001; Connor-Greene, 2000; Fallahi, Wood, Austad, & Fallahi,

2006; Henderson, 2000; Miller, 1997). In this writing-intensive seminar, students work

with faculty and (junior or senior level) peer writing assistants to craft a personal mission

statement for their time in college.

This writing assignment is due in four stages. First, they write about their academic

goals, drawing on the mission and goals of the university for inspiration. Second, they

write about career goals, drawing on academic and professional resources. Third,

they discuss personal goals including extracurricular activities, community service, and

personal development (e.g., life priorities, important core values). Finally, pulling these

elements together, they write an integrated, comprehensive personal mission statement.

This assignment allows students to become familiar with the goals and services of the

university as well as encouraging them to think critically about their education and life

goals. It also provides career advice early in students’ undergraduate careers. The use of the

mission statement assignment for first-year psychology students has been successful in

fostering college-level writing skills and introducing such issues as setting academic goals,

career exploration, and personal development in the context of the overall mission and

goals of university education.

Teaching Critical Thinking in Psychology: A Handbook of Best Practices Edited by D. S. Dunn, J. S. Halonen, and R. A. Smith