Teaching Psychology in a Rural College.

This paper summarizes the experiences of a teaching psychologist who is frustrated with the lack of resources for research at rural colleges. Rural college administrators often reject proposals for psychological research, choosing to commit their institutions purely to teaching. Because psychological laboratories are too expensive for marginally funded rural institutions, instruction too often degenerates into watching, listening, and endless trivial pursuits. Similarly, collegial relationships are often isolated, adversarial, or competitive. The paper discusses the call for a return to "psychology's empirical heritage" by working in and with problem-laden local rural communities. His suggestions include: (1) assigning research projects to student teams; (2) emphasizing the use of library skills, writing, data analysis, problem-solving, and computers; (3) fire the textbook vendors; (4) exposing students to classic psychological literature; and (5) modeling psychology's admirable traditions by reading, writing, computing, learning, and working cooperatively with colleagues. (TES)