Barney Beins, chair of the psychology department, gave an invited address and made two symposium presentations at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association in Boston.
The invited plenary talk, given with colleague Ken Keith from the University of San Diego, was entitled, "My Students Believe WHAT? Psychological Myths and Sound Science in the Undergraduate Classroom." This presentation involved the clarification of misconceptions involving psychological phenomena.
Professor Beins also participated in a symposium entitled "Changing Perspectives: Transitioning
from Faculty Member to Administrator (and Back)." His presentation in the symposium was "Changing Perspectives in Parallel Worlds: The Academy and the Disciplinary Organization." His presentation related to his work as director of pre-college and undergraduate programs at the American Psychological Association for two years. The other symposium participants included colleagues from Eastern Illinois University, Ball State University, and the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse.
He also chaired and presented in a symposium entitled "Scholarly Publications in the Twenty-First Century: Expanding Outlets for Dissemination." His presentation was entitled "Electronic Publications: Broadening Opportunities in the Scholarship of Teaching," which related to the emergence of the Society for the Teaching of Psychology as a publisher of e-books; Beins serves as e-books editor for the society. Other participants in the symposium were colleagues from Kennesaw State University, the University of Toronto, and Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.
Finally, he participated in a session on dissemination of the results of the APA's National Conference on Undergraduate Education in Psychology, which took place at the University of Puget Sound in June.
