Introductory Psychology teaching primer: A guide for new teachers of Psych 101

Introductory psychology is perhaps one of the most difficult courses to teach within the psychology curriculum. Not only does it involve covering the breath of the discipline, something that instructors trained in specific areas are not naturally prepared to do, it also involves teaching students who vary in interests and who lack proficiency in essential skills such as quantitative and informational literacy. Many students take the introductory psychology course primarily to satisfy general education requirements, and only a portion of students carry on to major in psychology. Unlike students in upper level psychology classes, intro students have had little, if any, prior exposure to psychology. Given the importance of the introductory psychology class in American education (approximately 1.7 million students take this class every year) it is perhaps prudent for the premier organization for the teaching of psychology, the Society of the Teaching of Psychology(STP), to provide guidelines for this course and prepare an explicit statement to aid teachers of this course. STP’s Executive Committee charged the Early Career Psychologists group to create a primer to aid those teaching introductory psychology. This document is the result of their labors.