Practice What We Teach: Improving Teaching and Learning in Psychology

In traditional research areas within psychology, effective researchers stay up-to-date with the latest advances and new methodologies within a specialty area. Failure to do so limits one’s effectiveness and potential impact on advancing that field of study. In our view, teachers of psychology possess the same responsibilities to stay current and incur the same risks if they fail to do so. Psychology educators should not only employ scientifically validated principles of learning and evidence-based pedagogies but should use the methods of psychological science to test the effectiveness of their teaching practices empirically. We articulate and document these complex issues in this manifesto and urge more psychology educators to become leaders in innovative and effective teaching by leveraging our disciplinary understanding of the fundamentals of teaching and learning. We provide pragmatic steps and resources to aid more faculty, especially early career instructors, in becoming scientist-educators.