Using What Works in Educational Psychology Courses

This article describes the use of What Works in educational psychology courses. What Works, a U.S. Department of Education (USDE, 1987) publication, is a distillation of research in the field of education. Students in educational psychology courses can be given a short test based on the content of What Works at the beginning of the semester to reveal their common misconceptions about “what works” in education. This approach leads to a discussion of other not so obvious research findings, research methodologies, and information databases, such as those available through the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC).