ABSTRACT
Considering the number of good undergraduate textbooks in experimental methodology, one may wonder why instructors might use supplementary instructional materials, particularly professional and scholarly journals that report original research. The answer is that judicious use of carefully chosen journal articles may provide students with insight into the application of methodological principles to realistic research endeavors and encourage students’ independent exploration of original research. Reading scholarly journals is commonplace for graduate students; encouraging such activity for undergraduates may prompt their interest in pursuing graduate study in psychology. One key element for using scholarly journals in undergraduate classes is the careful selection of articles. In this article, we suggest some ways of increasing the value of using journal articles, based on 6 years of experimentation in the classroom.
