Psych Course Heads Research Project
By JOHN DENNY
Emerald Staff Writer
A research program designed
to distinguish personality char
acteristics which tend to make
college students learn more ef
fectively through one type of
instructional format than an
other is currently being conduct
ed through the University’s In
stitute for College Teaching.
The project is based on the as
sumption that no single college
instructional procedure will be
best for all students, but that
there is an interaction between
the personality of a student and
the optimal method of teaching
him.
Research is done with data col
lected from personality question
naires, comprehensive examina
tions, and scholastic records of
nearly 900 University students.
Much of the data was collected
last spring from students enroll
ed in two psychology courses
which could be taken as a com
pletion of the University General
Psychology sequence.
The two experimental courses.
Personality and Individual Dif
ferences and Developmental Psy
chology, were of approximately
the same level of difficulty.
Different Methods Used
Four teaching methods were
used in different sections of both
courses:
• One group of students were
taught through traditional lecture
instruction with frequent quizzes.
Students in this group met twice
each week for lecture and once
each week for sectional instruc
tion. This group had four quizzes,
which accounted for 40 per cent
of their grade.
• A second group also met
twice each week for lecture and
once each week for sectional in
struction. This group had four
papers based on text material
due during the term, instead
of four quizzes. The papers count
ed for 40 per cent of the course
grade.
• A third method was a self
study, frequent quiz form of in
struction. Students met only once
each week for sectional instruc
tion and did not have scheduled
lectures. Four quizzes adminis
tered during the term made up
40 per cent of a student’s grade
• A fourth, and the least
structured of the experimental
teaching methods, was a self
study, frequent paper form of
instruction. Students met once
each week for sectional instruc
tion, and they also had no sched
uled lectures. The students were
required to complete four pa
pers based on text readings dur
ing the term. The four papers
counted as 40 per cent of a stu
dent's grade for the course.
Students in all eight of the
experimental groups (four groups
in each of the two General Psy
chology courses) were given a
Folk Society Presents
An Alfresco Festival
There will be a four-hour open-j
air festival of jazz, poetry, flam-1
enco, and folk-song at 5 pm.
Wednesday on the Student Un
ion Terrace.
Budget...
(Continued from page 1)
Goldschmidt said that you can’t
expect X hours of work from a
person and not pay him for that
amount of work.
In other business, the Commit
tee:
• Approved salaries of $678
each for the SU Directorate Sec
retary and the SU Board Secre
tary.
• Approved a 5>o,uuu increase
in the Student Union Budget for
Summer Assistants. Under this
program, the ASUO President,
SU Board Chairman, and SU Di
rectorate Chairman are given free
room and board in the SU for
20 hours of work a week in the
SU during the summer. This in
crease would allow the ASUO
vice president to be included in
the program.
Jack Cross, SU director and
committee member, said that this
program gave these students a
chance to learn more about the
workings of the SU and by al
lowing them to go to summer
school, helped to reduce academic
pressure.
• Approved a $1,300 request
for the Ore-Nter, a booklet about
the University and student activi
ties which is sent to all incoming
freshmen.
• Heard a request from the
Migratory Labor Program for
$5,000. The program heard last
week from the U.S. Office of Pub
lic Health that its request for
$30,000 to operate the program
was turned down.
PATRONIZE YOUR
• ADVERTISERS •
The festival, wnicn is an out
growth of the University Folk
Society’s Friday concerts which
began a few weeks ago, will be
an experiment in alfresco culture.
Jazz wll be provided by the Fes
tival Jazz Sextet, flamenco by Bob
Clifton, and folk-songs by regular
performers at the Folk Society’s
Bottom-of-the-Bowl concerts.
Poets reading their own work
or the work of others include *
Ralph Salisbury, Steve Tudor, !
Rafael Gonzalez, and Lawson In
ada, all from the English depart
ment. Some of the poetry will be
given instrumental backing.
If the venture is a success, it
is hoped there will be an annual
Festival continuing next year with
a more ambitious program.
Campus Briefs
Alpha Lambda Delta initiation will be
held tonight on the second floor of Gerling
Any girl wishing to take the swimming
test to fulfill her requirement may sign up
in the woman’s PE main office in Gerlinger
for the tests which will be given at 4 p.m.
today and Wednesday.
Canoe Fete Barrel deposit refunds can
now be picked up by all living organizations
in the SU Business Office.
Skull and Dagger members, both old and
new, will meet at 6 p.m. Wednesday in the
SU. Room number will be posted.
Latin American students will hold their
last meeting of the school year at 7:30 p.m.
today in the SU.
The women’s softball intramural cham
pionships game will be played today at 5
p.m. on Gerlinger Field. Vying for the
championship will be Off-Campus, winner
of the Tuesday night league, and Chi Ome
ga, winner of the Thursday night league.
A film of the championship game of the
Women’s Softball International Series, in
which Australia beat the United States’ en
try 1-0, will be shown in the social room of
Gerlinger Hall at 4 p.m. today.
Oregon Christian Fellowship will meet at
9 p.m. today in the SU. The topic will be
“Emotional and Personal Problems—Some
Practical Helps.” Wildon Ferry, a coun
selor from Salem, is the speaker.
There will be an important meeting of
Theta Sigma Phi members, and all those
students interested in joining, at 6 :30 today
in the SU. Room number will be posted.
WHAT WILL YOU WITH YOUR PERSONAL
POSSESSIONS WHEN SCHOOL IS OUT?
PACKING—By experts
SHIPPING—One piece or van load—anywhere
STORAGE—Reasonable low rates
Agent for North American Van Lines
Eugene Moving & Storage Co.
260 Ferry Street Phone 345-0151
comprehensive midterm and a
comprehensive final examination.
The exams together accounted
for 60 per cent of students'
course grades.
All students enrolled in third
term General Psychological cour
ses completed 30 structured per
sonality, motivated, and attitude
inventories. The inventories now
provide over 500 personality scale
scores for each individual. The
inventories were distributed at
section meetings and were com
pleted both at the meetings and
in students’ homes. The inventor
ies did not count toward a stu
dent's grade.
Classes of Criteria
Four broad classes of criteria
were obtained from each student
in each of the two courses.
• A gross measure of morale.
Students filled out anonymous
questionnaires, expressing their
degree of satisfaction with the
course, at six times during the
term.
• Indication of satisfaction with
the course as a whole and with
each aspect of course instruc
tional format. Students were
asked to fill out a 52-item inven
tory dealing with their satisfac
tion with the course. These rat
ings, taken at the end of the
term, were made, in part, to dis
cover any general discrepancy
in course evaluations under anon
ymous as compared to non-anony
mous conditions.
• A measure of tho amount of
course-related but non-graded ex
tracurricular reading done by a
student during a course. This
questionnaire was administered
after the course final examina
tions. Twenty Scientific American
reprints were made available to
all students as extracurricular
reading material.
All examination questions hav
ing to do with the reprints were
pretested on samples of students
from another college where the
students were required to read
the material. Questions were
worded so that they would be
easy for students who had read
reprints, but difficult for students
who had done no extracurricular
reading.
• Knowledge of course con
tent. This criteria was measured
by the mid-term and final com
prehensixe examinations. Both
objective and essay questions
were included in the comprehen
sive examinations.
This research project is one
of the first studies of college
instruction which has measured
the effectiveness of various teach
ing methods in motivating stu
dents to carry out extracurricu
lar study.
Unique Program
The program is unique in that
it is the first college teaching
study which has included a com
prehensive battery of personality
measures.
Also being considered in the
research program are college ap
titude scores, cumulative GPA,
and course grades received in pre
vious General Psychology cour
ses.
Currently, research data is be
ing prepared for computer analy
sis. and University records arc
being checked to obtain relevant
information on past high school
nnd college performance.
Some of the results of the re
search program will be known
next fall.
The average grade of students
enrolled in each of the experi
mental teaching classes was ap
proximately the same for ull
eight sections. This had been the
case in past research programs
and was an expected result in the
present program.
It is the personality character
istics of individuals in the top of
their experimental groups that
this research program is attempt
ing to identify.
If, in the current study, sim
ilar personality traits are found
to be common to individuals
learning most effectively through
a specific method, the results
! of the research program will
undergo further study and will
possibly bo applied, in practice,
to grouping students Into more
homogeneous classes, each of
which might profitably be taught
by some different instructional
process.
Contributors of this research
project include I,cwis R. Gold
berg, research director and
course instructor; Edwin S. Shl
man, Gale H. Roid, and Stephen
G. Ashton, research assistants;
Miss Judith Gibbs, secretary; Wil
liam A Bricker, Leslie A. Davi
son, and Velio Sermat, course
instructors; Raymond Barnett,
Richard R. Jones, Miss Charlotte
Rui, and Miss Audrey Skaife,
teaching assistants.
The research program is being
funded through July 1 by the
University through its institute
for college teaching. Presently
the program is requesting funds
from the Office of Education for
the continuance of work after
July 1.
Frosh Soon Allowed
To Live Off-Campus
The University Office of Stu
dent Affairs will initiate an ex
perimental program in off-campus
living for a small number of un
married freshmen men entering
the University in the fall of 1966.
The program is being under
taken as part of the University's
continuing evaluation of its pres
ent housing policies. The mount
ing pressure of student enroll
ment is causing the University to
examine carefully the educational
advantages that have been so
often claimed for residence hall
living.
While the case often made for
residence hall living is that it
makes it possible for students to
become easily integrated into the
academic life of the University,
there is little real evidence as to
the actual effects of residence
hall living.
The freshmen who will be al
lowed to live off campus next fall
will be chosen at random from
those who have parental permis
sion to do so. Those chosen will
be permitted to take up residence
in approved housing not affiliated
with the University.
Though living off campus, the
students will have available to
them all counseling and advising
services the Office of Student Af
fairs regularly provides.
The results obtained will serve
as a guide for future housing
policy.
. . . two fine locations
Pancake
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6 Blocks from Campus
the BEST pancakes
also
Hamburgers
Steaks — Chicken
Shrimp — Salads
Open 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Open Sundays
652 E. Broadway
Parkside Lounge
Quiet, relaxing dining . . .
the finest food in town. Why
not make Stanley's a part
of your evening’s entertain
ment. Drop in for dinner be
fore the show or a snack
afterwards.
Open 6:30 a m. to 12 p.m.
Open Sundays
845 Willamette
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345-6321 821 E. 13th