By Jennifer Pinkney Pastor
Many of my assignments require high level strategies to complete, but sometimes students may require direct instruction and guidance to master specific skills. For example, writing papers using APA style of references and citations can be a challenge for some students. In the past, I have found that the reading materials and guidelines that I give to students to help them with APA style is still insufficient for some. I will address this problem by working with students in class with exercises and group activities that give them practice on writing APA references and citations. I will do this periodically throughout the semester and give them feedback, rather than cover the topic briefly as I used to when they were writing their required paper for this class. This scaffolding activity should build mastery for this skill over time and help students learn APA style.
To integrate students’ experiences into my course, I often ask students to reflect upon an assigned question and write about how it can be applied to their own experience or the experiences of others in their community. To take this one step further, I would like students to actively experience critical thinking on the mistakes science can make, and how science attempts to correct its past mistakes. For example, I will ask students to review new research that debunks the findings of previous research in psychology, specifically, the efficacy of antidepressants and whether or not they actually work. I will ask students to further assess this question in the context of their own lives and in the lives of people in their communities. I will ask them to generate new questions about the efficacy of antidepressants such as:
What really causes depression? It is due to stress, trauma, or anger based on the inequality and oppression certain groups are likely to experience more than others? Or, is depression really the result of a chemical imbalance? What are some indigenous ways of combatting depression? What strategies have cultures created to combat depression? What impact might a growth mindset vs. a fixed mindset have on the development of depression in an individual? Etc. Etc.
