Incorporating Black Images and References to Increase African American Student Performance in Introductory Psychology

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Incorporating Black Images and References to Increase African American Student Performance in Introductory Psychology

The racial diversity of students has risen nationally. The percentage of Black /African American students has also increased as more of them can access education. Even though they can access education, their performance cannot be compared to the White college students who seem to be performing better. In fact, of all these races, the Black students who have graduated college are the least. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a strategy to ensure that African Americans also successfully finish school.

One of the ways to do this is by coming up with a teaching method that is culturally responsive or somewhat culturally relevant. Such a teaching method should make use of the students ‘cultural resources. Historically Black Colleges and Universities have been doing this. Over time there has been an increase in the number of racially undergraduate students graduating with degrees in psychology. This number is still significantly low as compared to the other races. It has remained to be significantly low to date.

Psychology educators reported that they face several problems when it comes to incorporating cultural diversity. The issues faced staying the same ones three decades later. One of the issues that psychology educators are facing is time constraints. The traditional course content does not allow for the incorporation of such since it is not flexible enough.

Therefore, a pilot study was conducted to analyze whether the incorporation of diverse cultures would see more Black students succeeding. The study used two sets of course materials, namely White imagery slides and Black imagery slides. White imagery slides are the slides that contain the images of people who appear to be white or of European descent. The slides containing people who appeared to be of African descent were referred to as the Black imagery slides.

There were sixty participants involved in this pilot study. All of them were African American undergraduate students between the age of eighteen to thirty-six years. Forty-eight women and twelve women were involved. All the participants were enrolled in four introductory psychology sections at HBCU, located in the Southeast Region of the United States. Thirteen students who identified as a race instead of African Americans were eliminated later on.

This pilot study was conducted through the quasi-experimental research design. The independent variable was the racial imagery slides that were used in each introductory to psychology class. The same psychology professor with years of experience taught all the sections. The potential effects of time were minimized by holding meetings of each section at the same time alternatively.

The professor came up with all the slides to be used in each of the sections. The slides were either Black or White Imagery depending on the section that it was used in. It occurred throughout the whole semester, which was fifteen weeks. The same topics were discussed on the same dates. The Institutional Review Board approved this pilot study. A research assistant was there to assist the psychology professor, who was the main researcher. The assistant was responsible for collecting data to ensure that there was no bias. The assistant approached the students at the beginning of the semester to inform them about the research. They were also made aware that the instructor would not know who decided to participate or not. The students who chose to participate signed a consent form. Those who chose not to were given an alternative assignment to do. At the end of the semester, the assistant was responsible for calculating the final course grades and submitting them to the evaluation professor.

At the beginning of the semester, the students who agreed to participate filled a demographic questionnaire. It collected information on their gender, age, race, and college classification. The students who participated were to be awarded a two percent extra credit. The final exam result was based on three examinations, one last test, class participation, online homework, written answers to exam review sheet questions, completion of a given project, and a brief report.

In general, the students exposed to black images performed better than those exposed to white imagery. This pilot study is enough proof that incorporating racial diversity to the introductory psychology course would favor the black students. The racial content should not take up any additional time. It should also be relevant to the traditional course material. A black student in an introductory to psychology class that makes use of black imagery is likely to perform better than another student who is in a similar course that makes use of white imagery.

There are a couple of limitations to this pilot study. First, only the final course grades were used to come up with the conclusion. The use of different outcome measures would have led to more accurate results. Other outcome measures that should have been used include attendance, test performance, and many more. Using one psychology instructor is disadvantageous in that his behavior might have varied with the various sections. In the future, many psychology professors should be used to get accurate results. The pilot study is also limited by the fact that the students have different academic abilities.

The researcher would have included people of various races to get a complete result. By using only the black students, the researcher overlooked the people of other races. This research should be carried on further to get better results. Perhaps even the students of European descent will benefit from exposure to the diverse content in introductory psychology.

Reference

Kelly, K., & Patrice, K. (2019). Incorporating black images and references to increase African American student performance in introductory psychology: A pilot study. Journal of Black Psychology, 45(1), 52-62.