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This article was downloaded by: [McMaster University]On: 24 November 2014, At: 13:05Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH,UK
The Journal of GeneticPsychology: Research andTheory on Human DevelopmentPublication details, including instructions forauthors and subscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vgnt20
Graduate Schools Ought toTrain Teachers of PsychologyVirginia M. Staudt aa Department of Psychology , Hunter College , NewYork , N. Y. , USAPublished online: 04 Sep 2012.
To cite this article: Virginia M. Staudt (1957) Graduate Schools Ought to TrainTeachers of Psychology, The Journal of Genetic Psychology: Research and Theory onHuman Development, 90:2, 271-274, DOI: 10.1080/00221325.1957.10533024
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00221325.1957.10533024
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The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 1957, 90, 271-274.
GRADUATE SCHOOLS OUGHT TO TRAIN TEACHERS OFPSYCHOLOGY'"
Department of Psychology, Hunter College
VIRGINIA M. STAUDT
In recent years, prompted by a variety of reasons including licensing andcertification legislation, many psychologists have been reflecting upon effective means of creating better understanding of psychology among the public. One obvious area for instituting improvement has been overlookedfrequently in many quarters, namely, the improvement of undergraduateinstruction in psychology. Such improvement must begin at the beginning,that is, with the improvement in the preparation of teachers of undergraduate psychology.
Each year thousands of students take the one-and-only course in psychology which they may ever take, usually the required introductory or general psychology. In this course a powerful influence for good or for badmay be exerted. It is, therefore, of prime importance that college teachersof courses such as this be well trained. College students should be able tofind in their instructor of psychology not simply a research specialist, someone who has earned the M.A. or Ph.D. degree, or someone who is merelyteaching to fill in time until the degree is obtained or until a more lucrativeposition in psychology develops. The college teacher of psychology shouldbe a person who has been trained to teach psychology. The calibre of histeaching should be high. It seems that in psychology this is even more urgent than in certain other subjects about which there are fewer misconceptions and which the student admits ignorance of more readily. The subjectmatter of the science of human behavior has become so vast and so complexin recent years that the need for learning how to present the ever-growingbody of knowledge effectively is greater than ever. It seems obvious thatgraduate departments ought to offer some preparation for teaching, butmost graduate schools to date have almost completely overlooked their responsibility in this regard. Yet these same schools want well-trained students from the very colleges where they send their inexperienced graduatesto teach. It might be well for graduate departments to check the rosterof their alumni to determine how many of these alumni are now in teach-
-Received in the Editorial Office on February 27, 1956.
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ing posts in the nation's colleges and universities and to consider in whatspecific ways they feel they have prepared them for their posts, besides giving them content courses. Such a check on the vocational aspects of thegraduate program in psychology is as important for teacher preparation asfor preparation of counselors, clinical workers, and research workers.
No graduate department of psychology would claim today that mere reception of the master's degree or doctorate in psychology makes a persona clinician or counselor without training in special skills. The graduateschool rightly concerns itself with offering adequate preparation to clinicians,counselors and the like. I t provides courses in clinical practice, counselingtechniques, and research methods but in most instances it fails to offer anyhelp or direct preparation to prospective teachers. The fact that an individual has received the M.A. or Ph.D. seems to be considered adequatepreparation for the potential teacher according to the present standards ofmost graduate departments of psychology. Most of us know better than tosubscribe to such a belief.
A considerable number of the students who attend graduate schools uponattainment of their degrees do some college teaching, either full time or parttime. Why do most graduate schools not assume responsibility for thepreparation of these future teachers of psychology except in a very remoteor indirect way? Why do those who want to teach not get some specialtraining, even if not as intensive, as that of their colleagues who want tobe counselors and clinicians? There seems to be a tacit assumption on thepart of administrators of graduate departments of psychology that theirstudents who have sat in the lecture halls of learned professors will automatically acquire the best teaching techniques and thus become good teachersof psychology themselves. While it is true that sometimes the student mayabsorb and imitate the good teaching qualities of his graduate professors, hestill finds himself stranded and in a predicament when confronted with theconcrete problems of planning courses, selecting textbooks, constructing examinations, and arranging demonstrations and field trips. Occasionally sucha new teacher can call upon a trusted friend at his old graduate school. U sually he hesitates to admit his inadequacy at the institution where he hasaccepted a job.
Very frequently the newcomer to teaching carries to his college class thetechniques of graduate-level instruction which have been his immediate experience. He fails to amend these for his less mature students. He cramsfar too much into single lectures. He dwells too much on his own specialtyand may fail to present adequately the over-all essentials of his course. He
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VIRGINIA M. STAUDT 273
is often totally inept at organizing his material and resorts to using the notesfrom his recently taken graduate course, offering his students a mere digestof that material. Sometimes, too, the young college teacher may make histeaching incidental to his own research, using the classroom as a kind of recruiting station for subjects to participate in his experiments. It is obviousthat in the face of these practices the students are being cheated. What maynot always be so obvious is that psychology as a science in the college curriculum also suffers. The student exposed to poor teaching receives an unfavorable impression not only of the teacher but often inevitably of the subject which was presented by that teacher. Anyone who has taught psychologyat the college level knows how much more critical students are of bad teachingpractices in their psychology teachers than in other subject matter teachers.Probably all of us have heard the old student refrain, "He's a psychologist.He ought to know better." The college classroom is an important locus foreducating our citizenry not only in the contents of psychology, but its usefulness and value. The college teacher of psychology as a teacher, psychologist, and as a person should take this role as public relations officer forhis science seriously and should use his position wisely to inculcate an appreciation for psychology as a science and a profession in his students.
Of course it must be admitted that teachers of psychology as well asteachers of other subjects are entitled to their idiosyncrasies, and surely itmust be granted that, personality-wise, some people will be more effectiveteachers and some teachers will win more friends for their subject and influence more people than others. But in spite of this acknowledged variability as to personality, better preparation of psychology teachers would bean improvement. Such training can easily be provided. Certain basic information, skills, techniques, and principles of teaching psychology can andshould be made part of the repertoire of the individual who wants to teach.The college which hires him should not have to begin to give him basictraining. The graduate school could and should do its part by offering atleast a seminar or short course on problems of teaching psychology. Suchcourses would help to reduce the numbers of inadequately prepared teachersof psychology launched by the graduate schools into the nation's collegesannually.
In the last few years colleges have been undertaking the job of trainingtheir new teachers of practically all subject matter areas. With the assistance of the Ford Foundation valuable seminars are being held in some institutions to train the newcomers to the college teaching profession. Preliminary training in techniques and methods could make these seminars and
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this in-service training even more valuable in the specific institutions wherethey are being conducted. The graduate departments of psychology shouldcome to see and admit their deficiency in teacher training and take steps tcremedy this in the interests of psychology as a science and as a profession.In this way, too, the teaching of psychology will be dignified as a professionalong with the other more practical pursuits in psychology. It might alsoserve to dispel the rather fallacious notion that anybody can teach. Withincreased dignity and recognition accorded to the teaching of psychology itmight become possible to attract more competent and more zealous teacherswho are needed now and for whom there will be an even greater need ifcollege populations soar to the anticipated levels in the next few decades.More effective teaching should result in increased understanding of andappreciation for psychological science.
Department of PsychologyHunter CollegeNew York, N. Y.
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