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Psychology Department Research Published

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Posted on Friday, March 24, 2006

The curriculum research of several Westminster College psychology professors has been published in the March issue of the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) quarterly magazine and featured on the cover.

 "Multi-level Integration of Student Research in a Psychology/Neuroscience Curriculum" was written by Drs. Sandra K. Webster, Mandy Medvin, Jamie McMinn, Kirk Lunnen, Sherri Pataki, and Alan Gittis.

 "Westminster has had a senior research requirement for over 30 years for psychology and related interdisciplinary majors," Webster said.  "During the past decade we did significant restructuring of the curricula to allow for earlier, more student-led and student interactive research involvement.  We also restructured the senior research requirement to provide more faculty involvement.  Our new structure has produced research teams, with each member having his or her own project, but the projects related through methods and/or topics.

 "Having completed eight years of the revised curriculum, we are in a position to describe its outcomes in terms of student/faculty collaborative research and student outcomes.  We have national comparative data for our students that supports our claims that the research rich undergraduate curriculum benefits our student learning."

 Webster, who has been with Westminster College since 1983, is also the Faculty Development Officer.  She earned her undergraduate, master's, and Ph.D. from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.  Contact Webster at (724) 946-7359 or e-mail websters@westminster.edu or visit www.cur.org for more information