Traditionally, academic success has been defined as the mastery of a conceptual vocabulary or body of knowledge; mastery is demonstrated through effective oral and written communication.
A more complete definition would include the ability to demonstrate mastery by finding personal meaning in the material mastered, and to apply the conceptual vocabulary to personal and collective problem solving. From the perspective of learning community--or collaborative learning--theory, conceptual vocabularies are created, refined, and transmitted across generations by knowledge communities. Becoming an active, participating member of a knowledge community is the best way to achieve and integrate that community's conceptual vocabulary.
Historically in higher education, conceptual vocabularies have been stored in books and professors and transmitted through reading assignments and lectures. (Before the advent of modern universities they were the property of priesthoods, stored on scrolls, and transmitted through sermons and initiation rites.) Modern public higher education has focused primarily on books and lectures as the medium for the transmission of knowledge. Seminars and tutorials have been of central importance primarily in educational institutions intended to educate the elite leadership of modern industrial societies. And yet seminars and tutorials, along with involvement in practical projects, are the most dynamic and effective way to achieve mastery of the conceptual heritage of any particular knowledge community.
In the postmodern era, there are a variety of technologies suited to the storage of the accumulated data and theoretical insights of academic disciplines or knowledge communities: the traditional media of books, journals and professorships, but also film and video, all of which are enhanced and transformed by the flexible, integrative capabilities of the Internet. Higher education can take advantage of all of these media. Furthermore, in a democratic society where an educated citizenry is an indispensable component of effective government, it is not appropriate to reserve the integrative pedagogies of seminars and tutorials for the affluent or well connected. Public higher education must strive for a balance between the generation, storage, and transmission of bodies of knowledge (whose richness and complexity is enormously enhanced by information technology) and the education of citizens who are able to value, integrate, and use these stores of knowledge.
Psychology 307 is designed as a learning community that focuses on enhancing the individual and collective skills of learners while transmitting the foundational knowledge of the knowledge community of humanistic-existential-transpersonal psychology.
The body of knowledge that is the focus of Psychology 307 is a conceptual vocabulary incorporated in a list of Key Terms, along with familiarity with the major theorist who were responsible for generating or refining most of these terms.
Mastery is evaluated by means of:
Resources available to students in order to help them achieve mastery include:
In order to do well in this class, a student must focus on both the mastery of ideas and on effectiveness of written and oral communication. Students should systematically focus on mastering the conceptual body of knowledge incorporated in the list of Key Terms from Day 1, not one week before the final. They should focus on understanding and communicating these ideas effectively, both with their peers and in their written assignment and class presentations
Working with other students to understand and communicate the foundational ideas of humanistic-existential-transpersonal psychology is probably the most effective way both to understand the material and to learn how to communicate about it effectively, both orally and in writing. Group writing assignments are included in order to encourage students to investigate together the elements of effective written communication. Lectures are available on request to students who find that a helpful format for organizing their thoughts.
Most students who have worked with this format report enhanced self-confidence in their ability to understand the ideas of humanistic-existential-transpersonal psychology, in their writing skills, and in their effectiveness in organizing their studies.