Blog #4 - Discipline-Specific Writing and Assessment

Thinking about writing in the field of psychology, I had many opportunities to express myself.  Psychology is a heavy reading and writing field and it was no different for me.  However, my desire to know more about psychology was fostered by my father who also loved to learn about why humans do certain things.  My first exposure to psychology was in a Psych 1010 class at the LDS Business College.  It was an engaging class that required only summaries about each chapter we read.  I can't say that I enjoyed the writing, but I did enjoy the reading.  When I went to Southern Utah University, I took all psychology classes except for a couple in the two years that I attended.  A few of my classes had us take essay-based exams.  Studying for these exams was a very worthwhile experience as I had to be able to, in detail, explain the key psychological concepts and give examples in writing.  As daunting as an experience as that was, the information has truly stuck with me much better than multiple-choice exams.  I enjoyed the entire experience.  Usually I haven't enjoyed writing papers in any class; however, a few of my psych classes required a final paper.  I usually chose topics that I was interested in to write about and I enjoyed the process of writing.  I was also quite satisfied about the results of those papers.

 All throughout the experience, I feel like my teachers kept very open opinions as to what I could write about.  I never once felt like any teacher pressured me to write according to their way of thinking.  In fact, it was just the opposite; they fully encouraged me and other students to think critically about the information and formulate our own opinions using research to back it up.  I greatly appreciated this method of teaching because I enjoy thinking critically and analyzing things for myself.    Besides writing, my teachers encouraged me to read daily readings and come prepared to orally discuss the concepts as a class.  Overall, the two ways I expressed myself in my discipline were through writing and oral discussions.  Few classes has multiple choice tests, but not many of them did.

I feel like my education in my discipline has helped give me ideas as to how I can assess and give students the opportunity to express themselves in my class.  Although very basic, they are also very empowering. One paper that I want to incorporate in my curriculum will be a detailed paper about their future and what they hope to accomplish in their lives and how they want to be remembered.   I also hope to make many group activities and writing assignments in a way that encourages my students to think for themselves and analyze the concepts taught in class.  It changed my life and I am sure that it truly can change the lives of some of my students.