Associate Professor Jeff Holmes and Professor Barney Beins (Psychology) presented a symposium entitled "Swimming Upstream: Why Students Struggle to Apply Psychological Science" at the annual conference of the American Psychological Association in Washington, DC on August 6th.
Professor Beins discussed how students may develop an understanding of scientific principles but still have difficulty identifying the scientific status of specific studies in his presentation Teaching Scientific Literacy: Facts are Easier than Conclusions. Professor Holmes discussed the related issue of distinguishing between students' acquisition of knowledge about what scientists do, and their motivation to think scientifically on their own in his presentation Is Literacy Enough? Scientific Knowledge Versus Scientific Thinking. Professors Beins and Holmes were joined in their symposium by Professor Richard Miller from the University of Nebraska at Kearney. The discussant was Professor Jane Halonen from the University of West Florida.
In addition, Professor Beins presented an invited address entitled "Psychology: Gateway to Critical Thinking and Scientific Literacy."
He also participated in a symposium on the liberal arts into psychology education. The symposium was entitled "Reading Outside the Box: Novel Approaches to Psychology." His talk was entitled Psychological and Nonpsychological Readings: An Integrative Exercise in the Liberal Arts. He was joined by Professor Holly Tatum from Randolph College, Professor Dana Dunn from Moravian College, and Professor Mark Sciutto from Muhlenberg College. The discussant for the session was Professor Dave Wimer, who graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Psychology and subsequently earned his Ph.D. at the University of Akron. He now teaches at Penn State University.
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20110817121629372