Materials

I lectured from notes that reflected one of four presentation conditions. Lectures without the pair-share and with the instructor self-disclosure condition specifically included several examples in the form of relevant personal experiences. One example of life-span development I used was my cousin Jay, the product of permissive child rearing, who burned my family's toothbrushes in a gas heating vent. I related another example about the pregnant, diabetic wife of an unnamed faculty colleague. Seven months into her pregnancy, the woman drew gasps of shock and could no longer drive her car. Lectures without either the pair-share or instructor self-disclosure condition stuck to the facts, presenting definitions of concepts without adding illustrations from my experiences.

For example, when discussing Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, I defined each need level and provided a summary of the therapist's goals for mental health. I did not include specific examples of people who had or had not achieved self-actualization. Lectures with the pair-share but without the instructor self-disclosure condition stuck to the facts without giving examples, but included periodic stops to ask ask students to think of examples from their own experiences and to share them with another student. Finally, lectures with both the pair-share and the instructor self-disclosure conditions included my personal examples as well as periodic stops to ask the students to share in pairs.

The dependent variable was measured with relevant portions of two mid-term exams. Both exams covered reading assignments as well as lecture topics and included several essay questions and multiple-choice questions.