A technique is described that motivates students to complete assigned readings of journal articles. The technique requires students to write a summary and critique of each article on an 8 × 5 in. index card. Students completing the readings receive two types of tangible benefits: extra course credit and use of their notecards during subsequent tests. Objective assessment of the technique in two classes indicated that students turned in notecards for 73.7% of the readings, and only one student failed to submit any notecards. Students responded positively to the technique on an end-of-term survey.
This article describes an assignment for use in courses covering human factors psychology. The assignment requires students to identify a poorly designed object they encounter in their daily lives and to suggest an alternative design that would be more effective and user-friendly. This exercise allows students to experience the type of thinking and decision making involved in human factors psychology. Students prove to be creative with their designs, and they evaluate the assignments favorably.
We describe a classroom procedure that induces cognitive dissonance in students by pointing out inconsistencies between their behaviors and attitudes. Given that experimental tests of the concept of dissonance can sometimes be difficult to explain, enabling students to experience dissonance may make the teaching task easier. In an assessment of the exercise, most students reported feeling some dissonance and positively evaluated its effectiveness.
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