Teaching theory and applications together: An exploratory teaching program, in the liberal arts

An exploratory approach to teaching and learning is described. The program incorporates real-world projects as class activities, which dramatically alters the traditional motivational structure of both students and professors. The approach is based on the principle that learning is most effective when the goals of instructors and students are congruent. The literature indicates that the traditional liberal arts classroom format makes such congruence unlikely. In this program, the key element to harmonizing student-teacher goals and objectives involves the inclusion of outside clients. They provide projects to be completed by student teams assisted by their professors and adjunct experts. In the process students gain opportunities to learn by doing and assume greater responsibility for course organization. Professors engage their undergraduate students in a manner more like graduate students and become more focused on educational outcomes than on lecture content. We conclude by discussing the major successes and problems incurred in attempting to integrate such a program into a standard liberal arts curriculum.Professor Wichman received the B.A. and M.A. degrees from California State University, Long Beach and his Ph.D. from the Claremont Graduate School. He was on the founding faculties of Delta College in Michigan and California State University, San Bernardino. Currently he is Professor of Psychology at Claremont McKenna College and Director of the Aerospace Psychology Laboratory. Trained in both social and physiological psychology, he conducts research on the effects of stress on aviators and the performance of astronauts while in orbit. As a Sloan Foundation Fellow he worked on the design of the space station. He is author of the bookHuman Factors in the Design of Spacecraft and is currently designing passenger compartments for a new rocket being developed by McDonnell Aerospace. Dr. Wichman holds commercial pilot and flight instructor rating and teaches flying as an avocation. Professor Teeples is Boswell Professor of Economics at Claremont McKenna College, where he has taught since 1970, serving as department chairperson from 1977–1981 and again from 1992–1995. He holds an M.A. degree from the University of California, Berkeley and a Ph.D. from UCLA, both in Economics. At the inception of Claremont McKennas' Practicum Program in 1991, he became its first Director and continues in this position. His published work includesProgram Budgeting for State and Local Government and a variety of econometric studies estimating cost functions for urban water delivery systems and the cost implications of private versus public ownership of water utilities.     

Rituals Improve Children's Ability to Delay Gratification

To be accepted into social groups, individuals must internalize and reproduce appropriate group conventions, such as rituals. The copying of such rigid and socially stipulated behavioral sequences places heavy demands on executive function. Given previous research showing that challenging executive functioning improves it, it was hypothesized that engagement in ritualistic behaviors improves children's executive functioning, in turn improving their ability to delay gratification. A 3‐month circle time games intervention with 210 schoolchildren (M_age = 7.78 years, SD = 1.47) in two contrasting cultural environments (Slovakia and Vanuatu) was conducted. The intervention improved children's executive function and in turn their ability to delay gratification. Moreover, these effects were amplified when the intervention task was imbued with ritual, rather than instrumental, cues.     

Mapping the classroom emotional environment

Harvey and Evans (2003) have proposed that teachers’ emotional skills, as required in the classroom, can be organized into a five-dimensional model. Further research is necessary to validate this model and evaluate the importance of each dimension of teacher emotion competence for educational practice. Using a statistical method for mapping psychological constructs, teachers’ emotional practices were transformed into a ‘map’ with three spatial dimensions, which was supported by comparative validity checks. The nature of emotional practice was further investigated by administering a Q-Sort of emotional practice items to 100 teachers. Ten highly applicable clusters of emotional behavior across six profile patterns with teachers were identified. Authors’ model and the applicability of emotions were generally supported.