(3/19/18)
I. Description of Mertens’ Arranged Independent Study System: “Shadowing”
I regularly work with students on an arranged independent study. In the first independent study course I generally have students work on material used to teach other students. I use the term “shadowing” slightly different from most; the student works with me on things I am doing as a teacher. In some shadowing the student just observes.
This course can be taken for any number of credits. For each credit, the student spends one hour a week working with me and one hour a week working on their own project that the student and I agree upon.
II. Things to Do in “On-Your-Own Hours”
Objective: The student is exposed to a variety of areas related to facets of college teaching, from the development of fun topics related to teaching, to the practical, to the mundane, to the esoteric, to the daily aspects of teaching.
Topics to explore might include: W(We can talk about the topic of your hour outside of class)
– daily life applications of behavioral principles
– learning in all areas of life
– historic aspects of learning principles
– extraordinary claims
– hard look at traditional abstract concepts
– careers in psychology
– critical thinking/analysis
– equity issues (gender/race)
– Graduate Record Exam preparation
– religion/science
– or just continuing things I am working on
III. Means to Learn: My major means to accomplish the objectives of this independent study is for the student to work to produce academic products. Generally, I try to get products which can be used or further developed by other students. For example, the student and I might agree on a topic for a paper, or continue to work on developing an existing paper, or to work on a set of questions already started in a given area to be taught, etc. The means to work on these topics might include
1. Writing questions on a reading; I have students report on readings by developing good questions on the reading material.
2. Improving existing sets of materials, papers, etc.
3. Reading psychology related articles, and taking notes on the reading.
4. Library work.
5. Computer work.
6. Working on demonstrations of various psychology related activities.
7. Other agreed upon tasks
IV. Mechanical Aspects of Developing a Critical Analysis of the Area of Teaching: The more mundane/mechanical aspect of a critical analysis of what teaching involves is accomplished by doing. I have the students daily help with teaching tasks. All of these teaching related tasks are done with supervision.
V. Amount of Work In Course Is Measured In Hours of Quality Work: There are no tests, so hours of quality work become the grading criteria. Generally 6 hours a week is the amount needed for an A: 3 hours of work done on your own and 3 separate hours of scheduled meeting times. We set up daily meeting times to hand in work and to talk about the tasks. Six hours a week is less than the general rule, “2 hours out of class for every class hour,” which usually amounts to 9 hours per week for a 3 credit course. The student gets credit for time spent learning any skills needed to do the tasks. The small number of assigned tasks allows for many opportunities to go beyond the call of duty.
VI. Why should a student do independent study courses or get similar “extra” learning experiences? (General and specific to my IS)
Here are seven reasons. These reasons relate to to my IS system, and some relate to others. A mnemonic for these 7 reasons is SLIM GCM.
1. SYSTEM – LEARN IT AS YOU DO IT: The student can learn more about the system used in my courses in more detail as they help make it happen.
2. LEARNING: The general objective of independent studies is to learn something about learning. It is not “reading and test” type learning, as in other IS courses. The student does other activities during my independent study.
3. INTERESTING TOPICS: Possibly the independent study topic the student has a special interest in.
4. MATERIAL FOR LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION: This type of course hopefully can provide an opportunity to give the instructor some material for writing a letter of recommendation for graduate school and/or work. Students can do something worthwhile for the writer of their letters of recommendation to write about.
5. GRE (GRADUATE RECORD EXAMINATION) OPTION: I will allow students to do some of their work for the independent study on finding or improving the GRE material available. We can talk about this option when the student gets into the independent study, or before if they wish.
6. CREDENTIALS: “Extra” course work or experiences can show graduate schools or a potential employer the student cares enough to do more than the minimum to get by. The student did activities to get an excellent or better repertoire.
7. MY LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION REQUIREMENT: Part of my requirement for a letter of recommendation is that the student has worked with me on an independent study. I want something for us to write about when we write their letter of recommendation. I require 3 other extensive contacts (e.g. 3 courses, extensive work experience, etc.) in addition to this independent study course. Hopefully in this more extended contact, the student will demonstrate I have something worthwhile to say when working with them to write their letter of recommendation.