Reflections on the Process of Writing an APA-Style Research Paper Rebecca M. Wood, Alexandra Hebert, Kristina Schultz, and Kristina Soultatos

The Class Psychology 361: The Psychology of Early Childhood Students: 90% education majors

The Observation Use the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (Revised*) to evaluate the quality of a local pre-K program. Goals: Research skill : naturalistic observation Evaluate the quality of pre-K Apply research about the importance of pre-K to a real-life situation *Harms, T., Clifford, R. M., & Cryer, D. (2005). Early childhood environment rating scale (Revised Ed.). New York: Teachers College Press.

The APA-Style Paper Abstract Introduction Method Results Discussion Reference section Table

The Pieces 1.Find two peer-reviewed articles regarding the importance of pre-K and summarize them. Include an APA-style reference section and in- text citations (article assignment; 5/250 points) 2.Fix mistakes in the article assignment, include corrections in a memo to the instructor, and use the article summaries to help build a complete introduction section. Also, make a skeleton of the headings for the rest of the paper and include a corrected reference section (Draft 1; 22.5/250 points)

3.Summarize ratings given by the student and his or her partner on the ECERS-R in an APA-style table (Draft 2; 22.5/250 points). 4.Correct mistakes in the introduction section, headings, and references, and complete the paper (Final ECERS-R Paper; 50/250 points).

The Process Student confusion about the assignments, especially Draft 1. ▫Sample paper distributed ▫Instructor’s questions: More samples? Format of samples? Students’ inexperience with APA style ▫Resources were given at the beginning of the semester, with numerous examples ▫Instructor’s questions: How to effectively teach APA- style? Anxiety management?

Discussion of student feedback Themes ▫The feedback on writing did help some students think about their writing and apply what they learned to other courses. The memo seemed to facilitate this. ▫Confusion over Draft 1 ▫APA-style is confusing ▫General anxiety ▫Article assignment is low-stakes. Is it too low stakes?