Method matters: The importance of understanding the creation of the skillful psychology student.

Abstract

Most psychology students will enter the workforce upon graduation, and therefore they need to develop skills that will prepare them accordingly. Since its inception in 2018, instructors, advisors, students, and researchers have used The Skillful Psychology Student (SPS) document to augment and study psychology students’ career readiness. However, little detail exists about the data collection processes that informed the creation of this document. Given the widespread use of the SPS, understanding the methods that guided this document’s development is essential to recognizing its empirical foundation. Additionally, instructors can incorporate such methods into their courses and curricula in order to help maximize student success in the workforce. In the present article, we describe three specific methods that informed the creation of the SPS. We discuss why these methods matter, and how the utilization of these methods can also benefit students on their journey to become workforce ready.

Improving Student Skills and Career Readiness Through Targeted and Embedded Instruction

“…Members of the Committee on Associate and Baccalaureate Education Working Group of the APA have outlined 17 skills designed to prepare psychology students for the workplace, split into five broad categories: cognitive, communication, personal, social, and technological (Naufel et al, 2018). Furthermore, Naufel (2021) has developed the Assessment of Skillful Psychology Student Skills questionnaire, in which students can self-report how much they feel they have developed these skills on a 1 ( not at all ) to 5 ( a great deal ) scale.…”

“…Employers want students to have behavioral skills that could translate to many jobs. And more recently, the American Psychological Association (APA) has outlined a series of specific skills that psychology students can bring to 21st century employers (Naufel et al, 2018). Students, too, have been concerned with this kind of preparation, noting that their coursework should improve the odds that they will be employed after graduation (Halonen & Dunn, 2018).…”

Syllabus factors: Perceptions of instructor and course impacted by graphics and skills descriptions.

“…In 2013, they released guidelines for five key workforce-ready skill domains for undergraduate students: scientific inquiry and critical thinking, ethical and social responsibility in a diverse world, communication skills, knowledge base, and professional development. The APA's Committee on Associate and Baccalaureate Education Skills (Naufel et al, 2018) articulated five important skill domains for psychology majors: cognitive, communication, personal, social, and technological. If skills are presented as learning goals in psychology syllabi, students might better understand how the skills they are learning in their classes are sought by potential employers and graduate admissions committees.…”

“…We randomly assigned each participant to read one of eight syllabus versions that varied by length (shorter = 9-12 pages; longer = 20-23 pages); inclusion or absence of nine small, illustrative graphics; and inclusion or absence of a 2½ page skills-based syllabus section (Appleby et al, 2019). This section focused on the five primary skills for psychology majors recommended by the APA (Naufel et al, 2018) and emphasized in the course. All syllabi utilized green font for the title, with blue headers and red for emphasized phrases.…”

Persuasion Wars as a Useful Tool for Teaching Social Influence: A Replication With Direct Measure of Pedagogical Effectiveness

“…More recent research on teaching psychology curriculum supports the notion that team-based learning is generally an effective way of teaching students in terms of produced learning outcomes (e.g., measured by standardized exams and course grades) (for review see: Jakobsen & Daniel, 2019; Liu & Beaujean, 2017). When taken together, these findings seem to be especially important since the skill of collaboration defined as “working effectively in a team by cooperating, sharing responsibilities, and listening and responding appropriately to the ideas of others” (Naufel et al, 2018, p. 1) is one (among 17 in total) of the most desired skills by employers—as found by American Psychological Association’s Committee on Associate and Baccalaureate Education (Naufel et al, 2018). Therefore, it is crucial to develop and evaluate teaching methods that may help students to improve these skills.…”