astronomy

Wilbert J. McKeachie

Wilbert J. McKeachie is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Wilbert J. McKeachie rather than just read about it. In short: Wilbert James "Bill" McKeachie (August 24, 1921 – June 12, 2019) was an American psychologist. He served as president of the American Psychological Association, the American Psychological Foundation and the American Association of Higher Education.

Key takeaways

Wilbert J. McKeachie belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Wilbert J. McKeachie to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Wilbert J. McKeachie from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Wilbert James "Bill" McKeachie (August 24, 1921 – June 12, 2019) was an American psychologist. He served as president of the American Psychological Association, the American Psychological Foundation and the American Association of Higher Education. He was a longtime faculty member at the University of Michigan and the initial author of McKeachie's Teaching Tips: Strategies, Research, and Theory for College and University Teachers, a widely read book on college teaching that was first published in 1951 and more recently in its 14th edition in 2013.

Biography

Early life McKeachie was born the son of a teacher in Clarkston, Michigan. He was awarded a scholarship to attend Michigan State Normal College, now Eastern Michigan University, where he majored in Math with History and English minors with the hopes to become a high school teacher in 1942. Simultaneous powerful educational experiences were his work on a General Motors assembly line and playing piano and singing with bands in bars. He briefly served a minister in rural Upper Peninsula Michigan after completing his bachelor's degree. He also married his wife Virginia (Ginny) Mack, whom he met in his senior year of college before he left for his service in the Navy during World War II. In 1945, following McKeachie's service in the war as a radar and communications officer on a destroyer in the Pacific, he enrolled in graduate school at the University of Michigan to study psychology. At Michigan, a most crucial formative experience was his participation as a teaching fellow in introductory psychology under Harold Guetzkow. His interest in research in teaching was heightened by his role as coordinator for the introductory course's research projects and extended into his doctoral research exploring social-psychological factors in college classrooms.

Career In 1949, McKeachie earned a PhD from the University of Michigan, where he joined the faculty for the rest of his career. During his time at the university, he served 10 years as Chair of the Department of Psychology, authored numerous books, monographs, chapters, and articles. In 1950, McKeachie distributed a manual to his teaching assistants that covered educational strategies. The manual evolved into McKeachie’s Teaching Tips. He was also involved in the collaborative founding of the Combined Program in Education and Psychology and establishment of the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching at the university. McKeachie served as the 1976 president of the American Psychological Association (APA). He had been the president of the Society for the Teaching of Psychology (APA Division 2) in 1955–1956. McKeachie was president of the American Psychological Foundation (APF) and he delivered the APF's Arthur W. Staats Lecture for Unifying Psychology in 2011. He also chaired divisions of the American Association of University Professors, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Center for Social Gerontology. McKeachie was an editorial board member for twenty journals. His career was recognized by a number of awards and many honorary degrees from the University of Cincinnati, Denison University, Eastern Michigan University, Hope College, and Northwestern University.

Honors and awards E. L. Thorndike Award, APA Division 15 APA Centennial Award for Outstanding Contribution James McKeen Cattell Fellow Award, Association for Psychological Science

Later life Dr. McKeachie continued to teach until the age of 85, when he had his hips and shoulder replaced. He said that the surgeries were a result of a 50-year career as a fast-pitch softball pitcher; he cited his three softball no-hitters in 1976, the year of his APA presidency, as proud moments. He had two daughters as well as a granddaughter and a great-granddaughter. He died in June 2019 at the age of 97.

Legacy The Society for the Teaching of Psychology created the Wilbert J. McKeachie Teaching Excellence Award in 1980. Through 2004, it was awarded to an early career teacher or a graduate student. The award has recognized graduate students since 2005, as a separate award honors early career teaching.

Selected works

Books McKeachie’s Teaching Tips (first published in 1951 and most recently revised in a 14th edition in 2013)

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Wilbert J. McKeachie

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Wilbert J. McKeachie claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Wilbert J. McKeachie before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Wilbert J. McKeachie ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Wilbert J. McKeachie

In research: Wilbert J. McKeachie appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Wilbert J. McKeachie in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Wilbert J. McKeachie is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1921 births, 2019 deaths, Eastern Michigan University alumni, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Wilbert J. McKeachie outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Wilbert J. McKeachie in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Wilbert J. McKeachie means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Wilbert J. McKeachie out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Wilbert J. McKeachie in simple terms?

Why does Wilbert J. McKeachie matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Wilbert J. McKeachie?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Wilbert J. McKeachie.