Essentials of Understanding Psychology 11th Edition

Book Preface

Students First

If I were to use only two words to summarize my goal across the eleven editions of this introduction to psychology, as well as my teaching philosophy, that’s what I would say: Students fi rst.

I believe that an effective introduction to a discipline must be oriented to students— informing them, engaging them, and exciting them about the fi eld and helping them connect it to their worlds.The difference between this and earlier editions, though, is that now we have an array of digital tools available that allow students to study more effectively, and learn the material more deeply, than was ever before possible.

BETTER DATA, SMARTER REVISION, IMPROVED RESULTS

Students study more effectively with Smartbook .

• Make It Effective. Powered by Learnsmart, SmartBook™ creates a personalized reading experience by highlighting the most impactful concepts a student needs to learn at that moment in time. This ensures that every minute spent with SmartBook™ is returned to the student as the most value-added minute possible.

• Make It Informed. Real-time reports quickly identify the concepts that require
more attention from individual students— or the entire class. SmartBook™ detects the content a student is most likely to forget and brings it back to improve longterm knowledge retention. Students help inform the revision strategy.

• Make It Precise. Systematic and precise, a heat map tool collates data anonymously collected from thousands of students who used Connect Psychology’s Learnsmart.

• Make It Accessible. The data is graphically represented in a heat map as “hot
spots” showing specifi c concepts with which students had the most diffi culty. Revising these concepts, then, can make them more accessible for students.

PERSONALIZED GRADING, ON THE GO, MADE EASIER

The first and only analytics tool of its kind, Connect Insight™ is a series of visual data displays—each framed by an intuitive question—to provide at-a-glance information regarding how your class is doing.

• Make It Intuitive. You receive instant, at-a-glance views of student performance matched with student activity.

• Make It Dynamic. Connect Insight™ puts real-time analytics in your hands so you can take action early and keep struggling students from falling behind.

• Make It Mobile . Connect Insight™ travels from offi ce to classroom, available on demand wherever and whenever it’s needed.