Scientific Blogs as a Psychological Literacy Assessment Tool

• Published in: Teaching of psychology Vol. 50; no. 1; pp. 69 - 76
• Main Authors: Pownall, Madeleine, Havelka, Jelena, Harris, Richard
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.01.2023; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Blogs; Creative Thinking; Curricula; Educational evaluation; Electronic Publishing; Evaluation; Foreign Countries; Instructional Effectiveness; Internet; Literacy; Literature Reviews; Majors (Students); Mixed methods research; Perspective Taking; Psychological Evaluation; Psychology; Summative Evaluation; Undergraduate Students; Web 2.0 Technologies; Web Sites; United Kingdom; assessment; mixed-methods research; writing; scholarship of teaching and learning; curriculum; assessment and feedback; psychological literacy
• ISSN: 0098-6283; 1532-8023
• DOI: 10.1177/00986283211027278

Introduction: Psychological literacy is a pedagogic approach that promotes the application of psychology knowledge to address societal, ethical, and cultural problems. Statement of the Problem: Psychological literacy is considered to be a core outcome of a psychology undergraduate degree, and scholars have called for more “psychologically literate” forms of summative assessment to reflect this. Literature Review: Throughout the pedagogic literature, scientific blogs have been proposed as a form of assessment that encourages reflection, creative thinking, and perspective taking. Teaching Implications: Here, we discuss the utility of blog writing as a summative assessment which fosters psychological literacy by encouraging students to engage with the interplay between subject knowledge and real-world applications. Conclusion: We reflect upon our experiences of embedding of scientific blogs in two final-year modules at a UK university and offer a commentary in the context of psychological literacy undergraduate outcomes.