Teaching Psychology and Law

Abstract

Given the recent proliferation of undergraduate psychology and law courses, there is an increased need to empirically evaluate effective methods of teaching psycholegal material. The current study used a between- and within-subject design across four higher education institutions ( N = 291 students) to evaluate the effectiveness of incorporating experiential learning activities in undergraduate psychology and law courses. Students who participated in the experiential activities performed significantly better than did control students on exam questions related to some, but not all, of the activities. In addition, experiential students consistently rated aspects of the course as more enjoyable than did control students. Results suggest that the inclusion of experiential learning activities has the potential to improve student performance and increase interest and motivation.