Helping Our Students Thrive: The Case for Developing Skills for Success in Introductory Psychology

As instructors, we always knew that some of our students struggled to succeed in college. Now, during the global pandemic, our students face far greater personal and professional difficulties while also having to adjust to learning during synchronous and asynchronous virtual activities. In this interactive session, I make the case that this “perfect storm” of challenges provides a unique opportunity to help our students learn about psychology and also thrive by embedding development of success skills within our courses. Research shows that student success courses can enhance students’ abilities to succeed in college by helping them develop personal, professional, and academic skills. However, not all students take student success courses and even if they do, developing the skills they need to succeed in all three of these domains takes repeated practice over long periods of time. Importantly, these success skills, for example, how to reduce stress, manage time, and study effectively in various course formats, are all related to concepts that are taught in introductory psychology. With simple changes to our courses during times when we discuss specific concepts, for example coping strategies, self-regulation and prospective memory, and principles related to the science of learning, we can help our students apply psychological concepts to their own lives. In this way, students can develop the toolbox of success skills they need to improve every aspect of their lives and truly thrive, even during a pandemic.