THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT ASHEVILLE

FACULTY SENATE

Senate Document Number 4910S

Date of Senate Approval 04/08/10

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Statement of Faculty Senate Action:

APC Document 35: Delete PSYC 318; Replace with PSYC 319

Effective date: Fall 2010

1. Delete: On page 247, the entry for PSYC 318:

318 Psychology Applied to Teaching (4)

Applications of psychological theory and research to learning processes and the teaching of children. Emphasis on developmental, behavioral and cognitive psychology, exceptional students, research methods and testing/measurement in educational settings. Includes a required laboratory component. Prerequisite: PSYC 101; EDUC 310. (Students who have credit for both PSYC 220 and PSYC 317 may not receive credit for PSYC 318). Fall and Spring.

Add: On page 247, in place of deleted entry:

319 Educational Psychology (3)

An introduction to the principles of educational psychology. Topics include cognitive development in childhood and adolescence, theories of learning, individual differences, motivation, assessment practices, and moral and autonomy development. Principles of teaching and learning will be applied to understanding and promoting learning in classroom situations. Students who have credit for PSYC 318 or 220 may not receive credit for PSYC 319. Prerequisite: PSYC 100. Fall and Spring.

Impact:

The Psychology Department has offered four sections of PSYC 318 per academic year as a service course to the EDUC program, and it has been required only for teacher licensure candidates (PSYC majors who are not teacher licensure students have not been allowed to take this course). The course is presently staffed by a single faculty member in psychology and can be taught by one additional faculty member. This change will impact the department in two ways. First, as of this year, the EDUC program has discontinued requiring PSYC 318 for K-6 licensure candidates, but they will continue to require PSYC 319 for all other licensure candidates, so any reduction in enrollment in PSYC 319 will be small and will be offset by a possible increase in enrollment if K-6 licensure candidates and non-licensure PSYC majors elect to take this course as an upper-level PSYC elective. Hence we may need to offer an additional section of PSYC 319 each year to meet demand. Second, because PSYC 318 will no longer be available as a lab-course option for PSYC majors who are K-6 licensure students, we also anticipate a temporary increase in the number of PSYC majors who must take either PSYC 317 or 332, the only two optional lab courses presently required for the major. The department is planning to add other lab courses to our lab-requirement menu when we complete the final phase of curriculum revisions in the fall of 2010. In the interim, we will increase our offerings of PSYC 332 and 317 as needed, and we should be able to staff these sections in the short run with little impact on our curriculum overall. For the EDUC program, this change will decrease by one the number of credit hours required for non-PSYC major licensure students, a change that was requested of us by the EDUC program. Finally, we have removed the prerequisite of EDUC 310 from the course to enable PSYC majors to enroll in the course. The reduction in the number of general psychology courses made possible by APC 33 frees staff to teach extra sections of upper division courses, including PSYC 319 and the extra lab courses.

Rationale:

PSYC 318 was originally designed and developed for the EDUC program in 1994 with the intention of reducing the number of credit hours in PSYC required by teacher licensure candidates. Prior to this time, PSYC majors who were also licensure candidates were required to take both PSYC 317 (Developmental Psychology) and PSYC 220 (Educational Psychology). The EDUC program requested that we reduce the number of credit hours attached to this course in an effort to reduce the total number of credit hours required of licensure candidates. For PSYC majors who are not licensure candidates, this change will provide an additional, upper-level elective in a significant field of psychology that we have not offered in our menu of upper-level electives in the past. The removal of EDUC 310 as a prerequisite will allow licensure students additional freedom to enroll in this course as soon as they meet the prerequisite of PSYC 100, but perhaps before they are officially accepted into the licensure program on campus. Our history with this course is that we have waivered EDUC 310 as a prerequisite often for licensure students, with no significant impact on how well students perform in this course.