Metrics
14 readers on Mendeley
Journal article
Teaching APA Style: Missing the Forest for the Trees?
Scholarship of teaching and learning in psychology, Vol.8(4), pp.399-403
12/2022
Metrics
84 Record Views
Abstract
Communication is a core outcome for psychology undergraduates upon graduation (American Psychological Association, 2013) and a skill that employers expect (Appleby, 2014). Within research methods courses, students' psychology programs tend to focus heavily on teaching APA style as a way for students to learn the rhetoric of the field (Madigan et al., 1995). As we teach students APA style writing in undergraduate psychology curricula, we may overemphasize APA formatting, just one aspect of APA style, over the skill of communication (e.g., appropriate voice). Hence, we may be missing the forest for the trees. Focusing on mastering APA formatting, which changes over time and is increasingly available as built-in software templates, over learning to communicate in a precise and persuasive way may be a disservice to students. We argue that faculty resources for teaching APA style need more emphasis on the facilitation of scientific voice over formatting. In addition, psychology faculty need more empirically tested support for how to best serve the needs of students beyond graduation in determining how to balance APA format and scientific voice in teaching APA style. The discipline also needs more research to determine how learning APA format influences students' perceptions and enjoyment for the science of psychology.
Related links
Details
- Title
- Teaching APA Style
- Publication Details
- Scholarship of teaching and learning in psychology, Vol.8(4), pp.399-403
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publisher
- American Psychological Association
- Copyright
- © 2022, American Psychological Association
- Identifiers
- 99380550691206600
- Academic Unit
- Psychology; Usha Kundu, MD College of Health
- Language
- English