Theories of Learning - PSY 565

THEORIES OF LEARNING SYLLABUS - PSY 565
Fall, 2008 (20093)
Section 301: T, 6:00 - 8:50;   278 Old Main

Professor: Dr. Robert S. Ryan
Office: 385 Old Main
Office hours: Tues. 9:30 am - 11:00 am; Wed. 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm, and Thurs. 9:30 am - 11:00 am. You are welcome to drop in at my office, 385 Old Main, any time to try to catch me. I can usually take a few minutes to help you unless I am tied up with something very important or time sensitive. It doesn't have to be during my office hours. You can drop in any time I'm not teaching or in a meeting (go to my website and use the link to my teaching schedule and to my calendar for the current month to see my classes, meetings, and other commitments - note: the calendar may erroneously show items occurring on holidays - working to fix that). However, if you are going out of your way to see me, whether during my office hours or not, then it is always best to call me at 683-4457 right before you want to come, just in case I am not available because of something unexpected. For example, I could be with another student who just stopped in. If you call or visit my office during a time you thought you could catch me and find that I am not there right at that moment, don't assume I'm not available. I could have just stepped away from the office or my phone for a few minutes. So always wait at least a few minutes and try again.
Phone: (as of 9-12-08 Changed to): 484-646-4325
E-mail: rryan@kutztown.edu
Website: http://faculty.kutztown.edu/rryan
Required Text: Ormrod, J. E. (2004). Human Learning (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

This syllabus provides a summary of Classroom Policies. Please see the complete statement of classroom policies on my web page.

Course objectives: This course covers behaviorist, social, and cognitive theories of how humans accomplish complex learning in the classroom. It will provide students with knowledge of how to apply well established principles to instructional practice. It emphasizes current research findings over historical approaches and learning for understanding over simple associative learning. Among the many important topics covered are applied behavior analysis, modeling, social cognitive theory, memory processes, the nature of knowledge, metacognition, problem solving, and transfer.

Students will:

Academic Honesty: It is my intention to uphold the academic honesty policy of Kutztown University and all other student conduct standards as described in the online student handbook, "The Key". "Academic dishonesty involves any attempt to obtain academic credit or influence the grading process by means unauthorized by the course instructor". It is the responsibility of students to be aware of this policy and abide by it at all times.

Students with Disabilities: The Office of Human Diversity, located in 220 Stratton Administration Center, provides many services for students with disabilities. If you have a documented disability please let me know as soon as possible so that I may provide whatever accommodation you require.

Attendance: I take attendance in order to help me learn names and to keep a record of attendance. No points towards your grade are added or subtracted due to attendance, but poor attendance will surely hurt your ability to do well on tests.

If you miss a class: If you miss a class, see me the next day. You may have missed an unannounced quiz or oral quizzing, and it is important to make it up immediately.

Excusable absences: Any time you miss a test you are given a grade of zero. To replace the zero with a grade, first, you should make up the test immediately (the next day). Secondly, however, in order to be allowed to have your grade count, you must provide written documentation that your absence was necessary.

Communication: Kutztown email is now the standard means of communication between faculty and students. If I need to contact the whole class (especially important in the winter) I will send an email to the class list. The class list contains the Kutztown email address of everyone registered for the course. You should check your email regularly. If you do not wish to use your Kutztown email, then you need to set it to forward to whatever email you actually use. Go to KU's web based iPlanet email system at https://mail.kutztown.edu/. Enter your user ID and password for your Kutztown email. Click "Options", then "Settings", then, in the Mail Forwarding box, type your preferred email address, and click "Save Changes". If you have not activated your KU email, then you need to do so by following the instructions at http://www.kutztown.edu/infotech/email.pdf.

Grading: The grade for the course will come from several non-cumulative tests, all weighted equally. Tests may consist of any combination of objective (multiple choice; true/false) and subjective (short answer; essay) questions. Grades come from these sources only. There is no extra credit beyond the research participation (or alternative) extra credit described below.

The grade on any individual test will be shown as a percentage grade. It can be converted to a letter grade according to the following breakdown:

98% - 100% = A+
93% - 97% = A
90% - 92% = A-
82% - 89% = B+
73% - 81% = B
65% - 72% = B-
60% - 64% = C
< 60 = F

Calculating grades: Your grade for the course is the average of the various test grades that you will receive.

Research Extra Credit:Peer reviewed research journals present detailed descriptions of studies that researchers have conducted. Therefore, a good way to learn about how research in psychology is done, and what is learned from it, is to read such an article and to turn in a report summarizing it. The report is to help you become familiar with the research as if you were a person who had participated in the research as a subject. However, because you will not have experienced what the subjects experienced first hand, you will need to carefully read several sections of the paper, particularly the method section, which will explain in detail the subjects' experience. Some papers are quite readable even for an introductory student, but others are far too technical. Therefore, I have place on e-reserves at the Rorhback Library a set of papers that are appropriate for an undergraduate's level of ability. To access them, go to the library website. Follow the links to e-reserves. If you search by instructor, select Ryan, then select PSY 011 (they are listed under General Psychology because the General Psych instructors also use those papers as an alternative to the research participation requirement). Finally, click on PSY011 for Ryan for this semester and select a paper.

You can earn up to 3 additional percentage points on your final course grade by reading and summarizing research studies. Some journal articles contain reports of more than one study. Therefore, you may be able to earn more than one point from any given journal article. In order to receive the credit, you must turn in the report by the last day of regular classes. Be sure to read the information on my web site about writing the report (click here for the information ) before writing it. Each report will be worth one additional percentage point on your final course grade.

There are also studies conducted here at Kutztown University. Some students taking General Psychology are required to participate in some number of them (or to do some alternative) as part of their course requirements. They participate by signing up for the studies through a new web based subject pool sign up system. There may even be opportunities for you to earn your extra credit points by actually participating as a subject in such studies if there are enough opportunities available. However, you should not try to sign up for such a study, and you will not be given credit for participating unless you are told in advance that such an opportunity is available for you. (One way you could create such opportunities for yourself and other students would be to volunteer to work with a professor and design a study yourself, and then post it on the web based sign up system.)


Schedule
(Subject to change as needed)

 

·         8/26  - Ch 3   - Behaviorism and Classical Conditioning

        9/2 - NO CLASS - Following the Monday schedule

·         9/9  - Ch 4   - Instrumental Conditioning (Premack principle)

·         9/16  - Ch 5   - Applications of Instrumental Conditioning

·         9/23  -     - Test on Classical and Operant Conditioning
         - Ch 7   - Introduction to Cognition and Memory

·         10/7 - Ch 8   -  Long Term Memory I : Storage


·         10/14  -  Ch 9 - Long Term Memory II: The Nature of Knowledge
 Concept Learning, Knowledge Structures, and Expertise


·         10/21  -    Test on Memory - Ch. 8 & part of Ch. 9 that we covered
Ch 9 - Neural Network (Connectionist) Models of Knowledge 

·         10/28 -  Ch 12 - Metacognition and Study Strategies
                        Schmidt & Bjork (1992)

·         11/4 - Ch 13 - Problem Solving 

·         11/11   - Test on Complex Learning
          Ch 13 -  Transfer

·         11/18   -  Ch 13 -  Transfer

·         11/25  - Ch 14 - Social Processes in Knowledge Construction 

·         12/2  - Ch 15 - Motivation and Affect

·         12/9 - Final Exam - 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm - Transfer, Social Processes, and Motivation