Course of the Month
Course: Psychology 385 Applications of Learning with Dr. Jamie Dyce
How would you describe what the course is about?
This is about taking the principles of learning and applying them to areas of human concern. So I say to students: 'I promise I won't be talking about giraffes, rats, monkeys or bears'. It's all about people.
Some specific areas that learning is applied to: You look at something like classical conditioning, in some instances can form partial explanations for certain types of psychological disorders.
Also, a number of disorders seem to fall within an operant paradigm. For example, impulse control problems, substance abuse problems, even anxiety disorders as well.
What are the necessary pre-requisites for this course?
PSYCO 104, 211 (STAT 141 or 151), 281, 381*
(copied from Winter 2009 syllabus)
What do you use for supplemental materials?
This course is a bit different than most. Instead of a textbook that student's usually buy I've created a course pack to be purchased with the material they require: I've created DVDs, which I show in class, and pre-recorded audio of all my lectures for students to go over. In addition to the DVD's and pre-recorded lecture audio in the course pack, students can download the powerpoint slides I show in class off of my personal website.
Years ago I used to use text, but the way that the course is taught you could really take 2 tactics in teaching this course:
- You could take it from the perspective of a technique
- You could talk about it from the perspective of disorders and the various treatments
I take the latter approach. So I talk about disorders, and then treatments associated with it. So it's kinda like 339 (Abnormal Psychology), but we're adding on a significant therapy part to it.
What format do you use to teach this course?
I lecture for good parts of it with powerpoint slides, but I also use the DVD's that I've created. This becomes part of the course. For example, after this next exam, we're going to get into the topic of personality disorders, which I lecture on, but then I have a separate DVD that they watch and take notes.
How much detail is in the notes you give to students?
It's hard to judge what that would be... I can tell you that we have a court reporter in class for a student who is deaf, and kind of a running joke is "So how many pages did I speak tonight". It's usually in the ballpark of about 100 pages of text in a night (Dr. Dyce typically teaches this course as a night class). So in a 3 hr class I've gone through about 100 pages worth of speaking, and this is in addition to the powerpoint slides.
What does the course consist of for assignments or exams?
Because of the class sizes, essay questions are very difficult to test on, for two reasons:
One - and this is a personal philosophy - not everybody accepts this, but I think with the essay questions with a class that big, say 100 people, it takes forever to grade them.
And two, I tend to avoid them because of the subjectivity of the grading, in some cases. So it's straight multiple choice. I do that more from a... really from a more practical point of view. It's not ideal, but that's how it has to be. And the other part of it is that they write a paper in this course, sort of the more involved writing part to it.
(I know that in some of your other courses you have separate exams for lecture and textbook; how do you deal with that in this course?) Well I have taught this course as a night class for the past 10 years, so in a 3 hr block, I don't have to split anything.
Midterm 1: 30%
Midterm 2: 30%
Final Exam: 30%
Paper: 10%
(non-cumulative)
Do you use a curve or set grade levels?
Well, it's actually both, but not at the same time. My grading system is criterion based, so say between this and this there will be this grade. However, if in fact grades are too high then curving occurs - and this doesn't occur too often. I'd say I've probably taught close to 50 courses here, and that maybe 5 courses I've had to do that, and I haven't had to do that recently.
Students with interests in what area of psychology would enjoy this course the most
I would say that students that are interested in applied work. For students who want to go into things like school, clinical, and counselling psychology, this type of course would fit for them well. If students are more interested in an experimental bent, they will be very disappointed. At the top of the class I tell them this is the nature of the course: If you are expecting more of an applied type of experience with this you will probably enjoy it. If you are expecting something which is experimental you will not enjoy this course. This course is not like 381 (Principles of Learning) at all; it goes in a very different direction.
What is "fun" about this course
I would say that the nature of the teaching is fun. Because every class (between semesters) is different, you have different types of students, and this is partly what makes it interesting because you are dealing with different people with different interests. And for me, I just enjoy the material; it's an interesting thing to study. Also, I have enjoyed teaching this course in the evening as opposed to the first thing in the morning - the first thing in the morning is a nightmare for me, I'm not thinking properly, but in the evening I'm ok.
From a student’s perspective, I think that partly why many students in the department find it interesting is because it's very different than perhaps other courses that they have taken - it's in a different direction. I think that might be the appeal. I think that partly why it's 'novel' for students is because it is very applied. I'm a registered psychologist so I have a particular slant on how I would deliver material. The types of things I would talk about vs someone who is an experimental psychologist - and really this department is largely experimental psychologists one way or another, and what I mean by that is not registered - so it's a different sort of orientation and I think that may be part of it.
What is this course useful for in terms of students' future academic careers?
Again, students who are interested in school, clinical, and counselling psychology would find this type of course useful.
Just to put this in perspective, to my knowledge, the educational psychology department does not offer - and I could be wrong about this, but the last time I checked - the ed psych department does not offer a course in cognitive-behavioral-therapy(cbt), which is actually shocking quite frankly. They don't have a course like this, or haven't had for a long time, maybe that's more accurate.
So this type of course helps students get really the basics of conducting cbt, so by the time your done you have a really good sense of the nature of disorders, sort of the big pcture, but also sort of what you can potentially do about it.
And I think the 3rd part of this is sometimes when people take these types of courses it's about applying it to themselves, I think that may be a 3rd whole other factor.
What are some difficulties students typically have in this course?
I think it's the sheer amount of material, I think that's something which they find overwhelming, although that's perhaps not unique to this course.
What might be a little bit challenging is if they don't have a really good applied background, that might be somewhat challenging, but not necessarily. For example abnormal psychology (339) and personality (233), are very good grounding for this type of course, it kinda fleshes things out.
What advice would you give to students to succeed in this course?
Study frequently. Most of the students I've noticed here are very motivated and tend to do well, it's the type of course where you can't leave material until the very end, but really that's the sort of thing that can be applied to any course. Just consistently go at the material, if you have questions speak up, because that's why we as professors are there, to hopefully address this; clarify things.
Are you planning on taking new students into your lab in the upcoming term as volunteers, independent study students, or honors students?
I don't have a lab here and have no aspirations of doing so.