James Madison University Wordmark

Department of Psychology

Eastern Conference on the Teaching of Psychology
June 19 and 20, 2009

“The Art and Science of Teaching”

ETOP Logo

The Department of Psychology at James Madison University will host the next Eastern Conference on the Teaching of Psychology (ETOP) on Friday, June 19 and Saturday, June 20, 2009. The conference will be held at the historic Stonewall Jackson Hotel and Conference Center in Staunton, Virginia. The conference will offer concurrent symposia and workshops, a poster session, and two invited addresses on issues related to the teaching of psychology. Our target audience includes teachers from high school, 2-year, 4-year college/university, and graduate school settings.

It’s Budget Friendly!

We know that many of you will have limited travel funds this year, so we’ve significantly reduced the registration fees. We will be able to keep the costs down only without making major adjustments to the conference schedule – thanks to our sponsors and the monetary award we received for winning the Culture of Service Award from the APA Board of Scientific Affairs.
We’ve lined up two great keynote speakers this year! They are:

  • David Myers, Hope College
    • Social psychologist David Myers is a communicator of psychological science to college students and the general public. His scientific writings, supported by National Science Foundation grants and fellowships and recognized by the Gordon Allport Prize, have appeared in three dozen academic periodicals, including Science, the American Scientist, the American Psychologist, and Psychological Science. David has digested psychological research for the public through articles in four dozen magazines, from Scientific American to Christian Century, and through seventeen books, including general interest books and textbooks. He is the author of the popular general psychology textbooks Psychology and Exploring Psychology.
  • Barney Beins, Ithaca College
    • Barney Beins is Professor of Psychology and Chair of the Department at Ithaca College. He is a Fellow of APA. He served as president of the Society for the Teaching of Psychology in 2004 and secretary from 1992 to 1994. He has taught at Ithaca College since 1986. Barney has over 130 publications of various kinds and more than 150 presentations. He is author of the second edition of Research Methods: A Tool for Life (published by Allyn & Bacon) and co-author (with Agatha Beins) of Effective Writing in Psychology: Papers, Posters, and Presentations (published by Blackwell). He is currently working with Maureen McCarthy on a combined statistics-research methods textbook. He has also co-edited books on the teaching of psychology.

View the Tentative Conference Schedule

Call for Proposals

We are still accepting submissions for the poster session.  Submissions must be related to the teaching of psychology, including but not limited to teaching techniques, demonstrations or activities for teaching a particular topic, effective uses of technology, assessment strategies, etc. We are particularly interested in proposals that describe innovative practices and include some type of empirical assessment of their effectiveness.    

View the Call for Proposals

Registration

Online registration now available. GET DETAILS

The registration fee includes meals during the conference (lunch on Friday and breakfast and lunch on Saturday) and conference materials.

  • Regular registration received by May 29, 2009 is $75.
  • Registration for high school teachers, community college teachers, and graduate students is only $50.
  • After May 29, the registration fee for all participants will be $90 on a space available basis.

Space is Limited—Please Register Early

Registration is limited to 120 participants. Once we reach 120 participants, additional registrations will be put on a waiting list for openings due to cancellations.

Refund Policy

If you need to cancel for any reason, you will receive a full refund (minus a $2.50 handling fee) if notice of cancellation is received by 12:00 p.m. on Friday, June 12. No refunds will be given after that date.

Lodging and Travel

The conference will be at the Stonewall Jackson Hotel and Conference Center in Staunton, Virginia, located at the crossroads of I-64 and I-81. Rooms are available on Thursday and Friday night at a special conference rate of $88/night plus tax. Reservations can be made by calling 540-885-4848 or 1-866-880-0024 (toll free). Be sure to mention ETOP to receive the conference rate. The conference rate cannot be guaranteed after May 22, 2009, so make your reservations early!

If you plan to drive, directions can be found on the hotel website.

If you plan to fly, the closest airport is the Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport (approximately 15 miles from the hotel). The airport offers a shuttle to and from the hotel for a rate of $35, round trip. Reservations for the shuttle must be made 24 hours in advance. You can make reservations by calling 540-234-8304.

It would likely be cheaper to fly into one of the following airports:

  • Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport, 45 miles from the hotel
  • Roanoke Regional Airport, 86 miles from the hotel
  • Richmond International Airport, 116 miles from hotel

However, there are no shuttles from these airports. Another option is to travel by train. Staunton is served by AMTRAK from both Philadelphia and Washington DC.

For More Information

For more information about the conference, please email Natalie Lawrence at lawrennk@jmu.edu.

Conference Planning Committee

  • Craig Abrahamson
  • Kevin Apple, co-chair for Spring 2009
  • Suzanne Baker, co-chair for Spring 2009
  • Kenn Barron
  • David Daniel
  • Charles Harris
  • Jessica Irons
  • Natalie Lawrence, Chair
  • Bryan Saville
  • Tracy Zinn