Evidence based implementation of instructional innovations to improve the teaching of all the undergraduates at UC Davis.
Instructional Innovations.
Making use of current communication technologies to improve student access to and understanding of course content.
Student Demographics.
Not all students are the same. I am tracking student demographics and academic performance to understand what differences impact likelihood of thriving at university.
Current research questions:
What are beneficial instructional interventions to help all students improve their ability to think critically about internal validity?
What is the pattern of critical thinking skill development during an undergraduate degree?
Do students with different academic preparation develop critical thinking skills differently?
What are the academic risk factors to developing critical thinking skills?
Instructional Innovations.
Making use of current communication technologies to improve student access to and understanding of course content.
Student Demographics.
Not all students are the same. I am tracking student demographics and academic performance to understand what differences impact likelihood of thriving at university.
Current research questions:
What are beneficial instructional interventions to help all students improve their ability to think critically about internal validity?
What is the pattern of critical thinking skill development during an undergraduate degree?
Do students with different academic preparation develop critical thinking skills differently?
What are the academic risk factors to developing critical thinking skills?
Chapters and Modules:
Cross, V. (2019). Developing a good research question. In PsycLearn: Research Methods in Psychology.
Washington DC: American Psychological Association.
Cross, V. (2019). Introduction to non-experimental research. In PsycLearn: Research Methods in Psychology.
Washington DC: American Psychological Association.
Cross, V. (2019). Gathering self-report data. In PsycLearn: Research Methods in Psychology.
Washington DC: American Psychological Association.
Cross, V. (2019). Conducting non-experimental research. In PsycLearn: Research Methods in Psychology.
Washington DC: American Psychological Association.
Cross, V. (2019). Measuring variables: Validity and reliability. In PsycLearn: Research Methods in Psychology.
Washington DC: American Psychological Association.
Cross, V. (2019). Internal validity: Designing experiments to determine causation. In PsycLearn: Research Methods in Psychology.
Washington DC: American Psychological Association.
Cross, V. (2019). External Validity. In PsycLearn: Research Methods in Psychology.
Washington DC: American Psychological Association.
Cross, V. (2019). Creating and reading graphs and charts. In PsycLearn: Research Methods in Psychology.
Washington DC: American Psychological Association.
Cross, V. (2009). Food: Preferences and disgust. Child Development ToolKit. NY: Worth.
Cross, V. (2009). Making the most of life during adulthood. Child Development ToolKit. NY: Worth.
Cross, V. (2009). Perceptions and reality in older adulthood. Child Development ToolKit. NY: Worth.
Cross, V. (2009). Romantic love and the brain. Child Development ToolKit. NY: Worth.
Cross, V. (2009). Thinking critically about developmental science: Autism. Child Development ToolKit. NY: Worth.
Cross, V. (2009). Today’s college students. Child Development ToolKit. NY: Worth.
Huffman, L. & Cross, V. (2009). Self-Awareness and the rouge test. Child Development ToolKit. NY: Worth.
Robertson, C. & Cross, V. (2009). Autism. Child Development ToolKit. NY: Worth.
Articles:
Woods, V.E., Geller, E, & Cross, V. (2021). An Adventure in Remote Instruction: Research Methods in Psychology.
Online Teaching ebook published by the Society for the Teaching of Psychology.
Cross, V. (2021). Teaching and Learning as Psychological Processes. Human Development. doi: 10.1159/000518406
Cross, V. (2017). Critical thinking and first-generation college students. In R. L. Miller & T. Collette (Eds.)
Teaching Tips: A Compendium of Conference Presentations on Teaching, 2015-16. http://teachpsych.org/ebooks/
Bohannon, J., Gratz, S. & Cross, V. (2007). The effects of affect and input source on flashbulb memories.
Applied Cognitive Psychology, 21(8), 1023-1036.
Murphy, T. & Cross, V. (2002). Should students get the instructor's lecture notes?
Journal of Biological Education. 36(2), 72-75.
Cross, V. (2001). READY for some decision-making help? EDUCAUSE Review, May/June 2001, 64.
Cross, V. (2000). Review of David Brown's Interactive learning: Vignettes from America's most wired campuses.
Recommended Reading EDUCAUSE Quarterly, 23 (1). 64.
Downes, J., Holdstock, J. & Symons, V. (1998). Do amnesiacs forget colours pathologically fast? Cortex, 34(3), 337-355.
Mayes, A., Downes, J. & Symons, V. (1994). Do amnesiacs forget faces pathologically fast? Cortex, 30(4), 543-563.
Bohannon, J. & Symons, V. (1992). Flashbulb memories: Confidence, consistency, and quantity.
In E. Winograd & U. Neisser (Eds.), Affect and accuracy in recall: Studies of “flashbulb” memories. (Vol. 4., pp. 65-91).
New York: Cambridge University Press.
Bohannon, J. & Symons, V. (1988). Conversational conditions of children’s imitation. In Biennial Conference on
Human Development. Charleston, SC.
Limited Distribution Publications:
Cross, V. (2017) Assessment of student critical thinking skill development. Psychology Undergraduate Program Review, 23-26.
Cross, V. (2017). Assessment of program learning objectives: Fostering critical thinking in a lower division course.
UC Davis Special Visit Report, 129-135.
Cross, V. (2001). New Alliance Creates Online Research and Publishing Innovations. IT Times (December 2001) Davis, CA.
Papers and Posters:
Cross, V. (2022, January). What’s my type? Hooking students into stats. (presentation canceled). Demo Demo at
National Institute on the Teaching of Psychology.
Cross, V & Pilegard, C. (2021, October). Please help! How can we make sure that granting students’ exception
requests does not create inequities? Paper presented at the Society for Teaching of Psychology.
Cross, V. (2021, September). Striking the Balance: Policies that Allow Flexibility While Nudging Good Decisions.
Paper presented at the University of California Psychology Teaching and Learning Conference.
Paquette-Smith, M. & Cross, V. (2021, September). I remember that!: Using retrieval practice to strengthen students’
understanding of factorial design. Paper presented at the University of California Psychology Teaching and Learning Conference.
Woods, V. & Cross, V. (2020, October). Critical Thinking, Reflective Practice, and Metacognition: A SOTL Approach.
Paper presented at the Society for Teaching of Psychology.
Pilegard, C. & Cross, V. (2020, September). The Three S’s of Course Design: Syllabus, Structure, & Support. Paper presented at the
University of California Psychology Teaching and Learning Conference.
Woods, V. & Cross, V. (2020, September). Mustering & Maintaining Student Morale. Paper presented at the
University of California Psychology Teaching and Learning Conference.
Cross, V. (2020, January). Order effects in collaborative testing. Poster presented at the
National Institute on the Teaching of Psychology, St. Pete’s Beach, FL, USA.
Cross, V. (2019, October). Buffer points and skip days: Points and percentage grading systems. Poster presented at the
Society for Teaching of Psychology, Denver, CO, USA.
Cross, V. (2019, September). Cracking skulls: Teaching, measuring, and tracking critical thinking skills. Paper presented at the
University of California Psychology Teaching and Learning Conference, Santa Barbara, CA, USA.
Cross, V. (2019, January). Sounds yummy! A delicious way to teach factorial design. Demo Demo presented at the
National Institute on the Teaching of Psychology, St. Pete’s Beach, FL, USA.
Cross, V. (2018, October). Just in time teaching: The effect of video explanations on student performance. Paper presented at the
Society for Teaching of Psychology, Phoenix, AZ, USA.
Cross, V. (2018, July). Teaching, measuring, and tracking critical thinking skills. Paper presented at the
Biennial International Seminar on the Teaching of Psychological Science, Paris, France.
Cross, V. (2018, January). Development of critical thinking skills across a degree. Poster presented at the
National Institute on the Teaching of Psychology, St. Pete’s Beach, FL, USA.
Cross, V. (2017, April). Closing the performance gap in critical thinking with first-generation college students.
Paper presented at the Western Psychology Association, Sacramento, CA, USA.
Cross, V. (2016, January). Critical thinking and first-generation college students. Poster presented at the
National Institute on the Teaching of Psychology, St. Pete’s Beach, FL, USA.
Cross, V. & Atkisson, C. (2015, July). Speeding up critical thinking. Paper presented at the
Vancouver International Conference on the Teaching of Psychology, Vancouver, BC, CA.
Post, E. & Cross, V. (2007). Just click it: Using personal response systems to advance your learning goals.
Paper presented at the Western Psychological Association, Vancouver, Canada.
Cross, V. (2001). The READY project. Paper presented at EDUCAUSE, Indianapolis, IN.
Symons, V., Maddock, R., Portnoy, D., Honda, K. & Yonelinas, A. (1998). Memory for emotionally arousing words.
Poster presented at the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, 5th Annual Meeting. San Francisco, CA.
Bohannon, J., Symons, V., Hull, R., & Schmidt, S. (1990). Flashbulb memories of the Challenger disaster:
The effect of affect on memory consistency and quality. Paper presented at Emory University
Cognition Series (U. Neisser & E. Winograd, chairs). Atlanta, GA.
Symons, V. & Bohannon, J. (1990). Three year longitudinal observation of flashbulb memories: Affect but not rehearsal
predicts consistency. Paper presented at the Annual Conference on Everyday Cognition. Morgantown, WV.
Bohannon, J. & Symons, V. (1988). Relation of adult speech to children’s imitations.Paper presented at the
Conference on Human Development. Charleston, SC.
Campus Presentations:
Cross, V. (2020, July). Using Zoom to build rapport. Video presented at the Summer Institute on
Teaching and Technology, Davis, CA.*
Cross, V. (2020, July). Configuring Canvas for clarity. Video presented at the Summer Institute on
Teaching and Technology, Davis, CA.*
Cross, V. (2020, January) Using video to support student learning. Invited presentation at the Faculty Forum,
Academic Technology Services, Davis, CA.
Cross, V. (2019, May) Teaching with interactive video. Invited presentation at the Faculty Forum,
Academic Technology Services, Davis, CA.
Bousquet, K., Sazsma, M., & Cross, V. (2018, December). Predicting performance in a lower-division psychology course.
Poster presented at the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Conference, Davis, CA.
Cross, V. (2018, September). Using Googleforms to address bottlenecks. Paper presented at the Summer Institute on
Teaching and Technology, Davis, CA.
Cross, V. (2018, May) From Curiosity to Assessment: Teaching, Assessing and Tracking Critical Thinking Skills.
Invited presentation at the Program Outcomes Assessment Symposium, Undergraduate Education, Davis, CA.
Cross, V. (2018, April) Mobile technology in the classroom. Invited presentation at the Faculty Forum,
Academic Technology Services, Davis, CA.
Jones, A. & Cross, V. (2018, February) Go critical thinking. Audioblog.
Cross, V. (2017, December). Thinking critically with academic risk factors. Paper presented at the
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Conference, Davis, CA.
Cross, V. (2017, September). Student presentations without tears. Paper presented at the Summer Institute on
Teaching and Technology, Davis, CA.
Cross, V. (2016, December). Narrowing the gap in critical thinking skills. Paper presented at the Scholarship of
Teaching and Learning Conference, Davis, CA.
Cross, V. (2015, December). Communication and grading in large classes. Invited presentation at Discussing
Online Learning and Collaborative Education faculty forum. Davis, CA.
Cross, V. (2015, September). Student-centered learning in a hybrid course. Paper presented at the Summer Institute on
Teaching and Technology, Davis, CA.
Cross, V. (2002). Learning styles, Presentation styles, and instructional objectives. Paper presented at the
Western Region Teaching Symposium, Davis, CA.
* recognized as the most watched videos for SITT 2020.