the psychology homework assignments

the psychology homework assignments

Effective Strategies for Designing and Implementing Psychology Homework Assignments

1. Introduction to the Importance of Homework Assignments in Psychology Education

The COVID-19 pandemic caused psychology instructors worldwide to quickly learn and embrace effective technology-based teaching tools that help facilitate student learning and engagement. College and university instructors were required to immediately switch to remote/distance/online learning in an effort to stem the spread of COVID-19 and support academic continuity in college and university courses. The pandemic accelerated and induced widespread adoption of videoconferencing software and other technology-based resources among instructors who were previously undecided or uninterested technology users.

Psychology and other college/university instructors have long known the benefits of setting and implementing effective homework assignments: setting individual time and attendance expectations, helping students understand basic material in class and utilize higher-order thinking skills; and increasing student understanding and performance on future quizzes. Assignments extend classroom learning and create a bridge between students’ out-of-classroom experiences and in-class concept application. With the recent onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, technology-enhanced novel homework assignments have been shown to help college and university students develop course-specific and college-wide competencies.

2. Key Principles for Designing Engaging and Effective Homework Assignments

A variety of principles from current theory and research regarding student engagement, learning, and motivation may be applied to the design and implementation of homework assignments in psychology courses. For example, supporting students’ perceptions of autonomy, competence, and relatedness is likely to increase both engagement with and transfer of learning from homework to other course activities and contexts. Even the simplest of homework assignments and interactions can be meaningful and engaging if they tap into students’ intrinsic motivation to learn about course content; help to satisfy basic psychological needs; help students to make sense of course material in ways that are meaningful, interesting, and related to their lives; provide students with clear, specific, and relevant feedback on their work; foster positive interactions with the instructor and other students; are perceived to be part of a course structure that is both supportive of learning and stimulating.

Most psychology courses offer other opportunities small group and whole-class discussions, labs, exams, and in-class activities where we can further cultivate students’ motivation and interest. In some cases, however, the homework assignments that we develop and scores are their only major interaction with the psychology course and faculty. Indeed, from a motivational perspective, homework assignments may be especially salient and influential because they provide an opportunity for students to link what they are studying to their feelings, beliefs, and perceptions about the course and the meaning and value of the work that they are doing within the course. Therefore, when assignments are connected meaningfully to students’ learning goal of understanding, students are more likely to see course topics as personally meaningful relations to their feelings, beliefs, and perceptions of the relevance and value of the material.

3. Innovative Approaches and Technologies for Implementing Psychology Homework Assignments

We have seen that effective homework assignments and feedback strategies can significantly improve student attitudes toward and performance in psychology homework assignments. However, integrating such strategies into a large lecture course may seem time-consuming, particularly given competing teaching, research, and service demands.

In designing homework assignments, a big time-saver can be through leveraging the power of technologies for student-student and student-instructor interactions. Lecture courses should use course management systems or other technologies that facilitate the sharing of class-wide information (e.g., online syllabus, overheads, etc.). Many college textbooks now have extensive ancillary student and instructor websites. One often neglected resource of online homework systems is the instructor feedback reports. Our primary advice is to aim for brevity balanced with information-rich feedback that is distributed across all students and class periods. In total, feedback is a strategy that can increase interest in and the educational benefits derived from all psychology homework assignments.

The literature suggests that web logs (computer-based journals) are an effective way to have students write more often and in a different style than teacher-produced prompts. Paraphrasing is often a very useful tool to assess and improve student comprehension. Facilitating student-student interactions outside of the classroom can also have pedagogical efficiencies. We were initially wary of adding structure and verifying follow-through on this activity given our large class size, but many of these concerns were unwarranted.

Preliminary assessment strategies are designed to increase both student engagement with and comprehension of the subsequent content. Many active learning techniques are especially effective when initially rated by the student and/or peer rather than an expert. As discussed in our examples of innovative psychology homework assignments, these strategies are also a method for creating and reinforcing social norms. These strategies have been developed specifically with introductory psychology classes in mind and can be used effectively for other content areas with educational goals shaped accordingly. They are independent activities and often form the building blocks of major group presentations.

4. Assessment and Feedback Strategies for Maximizing Learning Outcomes

Assessment and feedback are core components of any educational effort and represent an essential opportunity for students to learn and improve. The following strategies are designed to encourage learning and enhance mastery and retention of material by students in their homework assignments. The external scaffolding and foundational learning support provided through the completion of professionally developed readings, lecture content, and other preparatory activities are key to maximizing the opportunity for learning and enhancing the quality of foundational learning support.

The examples of these externally developed preparatory activities in psychology classes include the following: (a) a set of targeted items considered foundational that students complete over the online e-book reading or view associated lecture video clips; (b) the requirement to read online lecture content and/or view recorded lectures, and then answer study guide questions (or recommended that they do) relevant to the material prior to class; (c) learning modules or self-assessment tests available as supplemental resources developed for information retention; (d) a requirement to generate concept maps that are linked to the course objective and content. These concept maps are submitted to include domain-specific vocabulary words and enriched word banks formatted for use in exercises, quizzes, and/or exams.

5. Conclusion and Future Directions in Psychology Homework Assignments

The emphasis of this chapter was to describe the use of homework in psychology courses and highlight issues to consider when developing psychology homework assignments. Instructors should explicitly address learning goals, assignment type, duration, completion timing, and course features when creating homework assignments that instructors expect to enhance performance. Recommendations for homework assignments in psychology courses should be most beneficial if they are based on variables that influence homework effectiveness. Overall, recommendations for consideration should be offered as a guide to help informally set the stage for homework effectiveness.

Of course, like all areas of research, a great deal remains to be learned about the best way to design psychology homework assignments. What are the cognitive processes involved in doing homework? Are there any learning or transferrable skill benefits in students completing homework assignments involved with cognitive processes? Further research should be conducted to examine the role of these variables in the overall effectiveness of psychology homework assignments. Also, some topics provided here are not addressed when discussing in-class activities, teaching tips, and technology usage, so future research should focus on these and other influential factors that may enhance homework effectiveness.