Today's psychology textbooks make reference to hundreds of studies and thus can't provide much detail about any individual research effort. Students reading the pre-digested, usually one sentence summary of findings have no sense of what the investigators had to do to collect their data. They don't pay attention to the diversity of research techniques, methodologies, and designs. Students often don't grasp that current scientific understanding of a phenomenon is not the recording of facts but a "work in progress", subject to debate or reinterpretation as new findings become available. To help to remedy this situation I have my Biopsychology students read and work through current research reports in groups of about four in preparation for a 16-minute presentation of the study. Group presentations are spread throughout the semester and are linked to course topics whenever possible. Students also submit, individually, written summaries of the journal article to assure that they achieved understanding of the full study, not just the particular portion that student presented. Over a semester, then, a class of 36 would be exposed to the detailed methodology of 9 to12 recent studies as well as how these new studies extend or go beyond the findings included in our text.

Recommendations:
1) Whenever possible I pre-select a few dozen journal articles for students to choose from. That way I can choose articles most appropriate for novice journal article readers, articles that relate to the various topics covered in the course, studies that make use of different methodologies, and studies represent the different subareas of the field (e.g. in Biopsychology I would hope to include some representing traditional physiological psychology, as well as some from psychophysiology, neuropsychology, behavior genetics, evolutionary psychology, and cognitive neuroscience). Because I do give students some choice, the final 12 or so articles student groups select may not represent the entire field but will provide a good mix. Because Biopsychology is changing so rapidly, I chose to go with recent research reports, but could also envision courses where a selection of classic or well-known studies may be more appropriate. I am also considering specifically selecting journal articles discussed in the text next semester so that students can compare the author's representation of the results to the original source.
2) When possible I then link particular articles to the topics in the course syllabus so that choosing a particular article also means you are choosing to present during a certain range of course dates.
3) Groups are provided with a basic framework for their presentation as well as guides to selecting and reading journal articles (see Assignment handout).
4) Groups are required to either prepare overheads or a Powerpoint presentation to organize their content for the class and are encouraged to incorporate the most useful table or graph of results from their article into their presentation.
5) Groups are asked to relate the new research from their journal article to what is presented in our text.
6) All groups are required to submit several reasonable multiple-choice questions on the research they presented, one or two of which will be included on the next exam.
 

In an end-of-semester assessment 36 out of 38 students indicated that they thought the assignment was worthwhile and should be used again in the future. They reported that they felt they had learned a lot from the experience and enjoyed working in groups. Many expressed a sense of accomplishment from making sense of a biopsychology journal article.
 

Useful Links for the Group Presentation of a Journal Article Assignment

*Strategies for Reading Journal Articles  http://unilearning.uow.edu.au/reading/1d.html
*Reading Reports of Empirical Studies   http://www.artsci.gmcc.ab.ca/courses/psyc208/Reading/Reading.htm
*Reading and Evaluating an Empirical Journal Article http://www.unc.edu/~ahussong/readart.pdf
HOW TO READ A SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL ARTICLE http://www.fiu.edu/~collinsl/Article%20reading%20tips.htm

Primary vs. Secondary Sources   http://libraries.mit.edu/guides/courses/fall2002/9.00/primary.html
Evaluating Sources: Scholarly Journals vs. Popular Magazines         http://www.lib.umich.edu/ugl/classes/lhsp125wilson/evaluate.html

Extensions of this Assignment:
Cyberlab for Psychological Research http://www.frostburg.edu/dept/psyc/mbradley/group_presentation.html
Dr. Bradley begins with all members of a group reading and outlining a journal article, then follows with a second assignment where each member must find a second related study to outline and share with the group. Finally the group presents this body of research (~ 5 studies) to the class as a whole.
Journal Club Notes and Schedules http://www.nku.edu/~bardgettm/Psych%20311%20Poster%20notes.htm
Dr. Bardgett has individual students present journal articles in the form of poster presentations.

Sample Group Presentation Rubric http://horgan.ww.k12.ri.us/DMS/shuttle/mpptrubric.htm
Evaluating Group Presentations http://departments.mwc.edu/spkc/www/Handouts/eval_group_presentations.htm