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Graduate Teaching Certificate Program
Lesson Plans Template
Please use the following template for each of the lesson plans you include in your portfolio. Ensure that
your lesson plans are clear, offering concrete objectives and activities. Feel free to insert visual
representations—such as a map, chart, or power point—of your lesson plan. Ensure that you have
clearly addressed each of the following.
TITLE OF LESSON PLAN: Influences on Prosocial Behavior
LEARNING OBJECTIVES AND GOALS (What do you want students to learn?):
1. Understand motives for prosocial behavior.
2. Understand individual differences that influence prosocial behavior.
3. Gain practice in articulating one’s opinion regarding a debate in psychology.
OVERVIEW OF ACTIVITIES (What do you want students to do? What activities have you planned to meet
you learning objectives? How much time will you dedicate to each activity? Are there specific issues
you will emphasize as you’re leading students through the activities? Be as concrete as possible.):
1. Introduction to prosocial behavior (5 minutes)
a. Activity: Students are asked to complete a questionnaire that assesses prosocial/helping
behavior motives. Students will use a coding scheme displayed on the front projection
screen to code their questionnaire. Final scores will indicate motives for helping.
b. In lecture/discussion format, discuss as a class the validity of the questionnaire and if the
questionnaire result is congruent with the students’ self-awareness of why they help or
engage in prosocial behavior.
2. In lecture/discussion format, review concepts and theories related to prosocial behavior (10
minutes)
a. Discuss helping motives (altruism & egoism), helping norms, and research related to
helping/prosocial behavior in emergencies.
b. Student opinions will be elicited regarding whether or not altruism exists.
3. Video: “Bystander effect: People watch girl being abducted” (10 minutes)
a. Watch Video.
b. In discussion format, discuss if we are more likely to help in today’s society in
emergencies.
4. In lecture/discussion format, review influences on helping (20 minutes)
a. Review logic model of helping (or not helping) in the bystander effect.
b. Discuss individual differences related to helping.
i. Discuss characteristics of the person needing help.
ii. Discuss focus questions for the research article assigned as homework to today’s
class: “Measuring Helping Behavior Across Cultures”.
iii. Students break into self-selected small groups to discuss the challenges when
conducting cross-cultural research.
iv. Discuss as a class gender and personality influence on helping.
5. Assign a questionnaire that students should complete for next class. Pass out hard copies to
class: “Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale”.
6. In-class “mini-writing” reflection assigned and collected. (5 Minutes)
a. Elicit from students the two basic types of helping motives (altruism and egoism).
b. Display prompt as follows for student reflection writing: “Give an example of altruistic
helping—your experience or observation. How might your “altruistic helping” example
be egoistic? What do you think – is there such a thing as purely altruistic helping?
EXPLAIN”.
RATIONALE FOR SEQUENCING AND PACING ACTIVITIES (How you are sequencing (building upon skills
and knowledge students have already developed) activities? How does your pacing of activities reflect
good time management? How will sequencing and pacing this lesson ensure student engagement?):
This lesion is structured as such to initially spark students’ interest in the topic of prosocial behavior by
assessing their own personal helping motives. Next, important information regarding the
conceptualization of prosocial behavior and seminal research regarding prosocial behavior is presented.
Students’ engagement in the topic is again encouraged by eliciting their opinions on the existence of
genuine altruism. In addition, a video is shown to further increase student engagement by
demonstrating the bystander effect in a real-life example. Assigned class readings are discussed as both
a class as well as in small groups. Finally, a mini-writing is assigned to elicit opinions from students that
did not volunteer their opinion verbally class. This sequencing and pacing will elicit high levels of student
engagement throughout the lecture by incorporating a wide-range of activities and presentation style to
appeal to different learning styles or preferences. This sequencing builds upon knowledge that students
have already developed as students are instructed to read assigned course material before class as well
as answer focus questions regarding the reading. As a result, class discussions focus on real-life
applications of course material. The pacing of activities reflects good time management as enough time
is devoted to each component of the class in order to fully explore the concepts while also maintaining
student attention and engagement.
ASSESSMENT (How will you assess the success of the lesson? What outcomes will illustrate that
students have met the goals and objectives of this lesson?):
Objective #1: Understand motives for prosocial behavior.
1. Instructor will elicit informal questions from students.
2. Instructor will elicit student examples of helping motives in their own lives
3. Instructor will elicit student opinions on whether or not altruism exists.
4. Students will be able to accurately describe motives for prosocial behavior.
Objective #2: Understand individual differences that influence prosocial behavior.
1. Instructor will elicit informal questions from students.
2. Instructor will elicit student answers to guided focus questions on assigned reading.
3. Students will understand individual differences that influence prosocial behavior.
Objective #3: Gain practice in articulating one’s opinion regarding a debate in psychology.
1. In-class mini-writing will be collected and graded (on a 6 point scale) to access students’ ability
to articulate their opinion on whether or not true altruism exists.
2. Students will understand the difference between altruism and egoism.
SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS (Include any additional materials, such as citations for reading materials,
assignments, transparencies, power point pages, etc., that will be used in the lesson plan):
Appendix: “Lesson Plan 2_Prosocial Behavior PowerPoint”
Citation for reading: Levine, R. V. (2003). Measuring helping behavior across cultures. In W.
J. Lonner, D. L. Dinnel, S. A. Hayes, & D. N. Sattler (Eds.), Online Readings in Psychology and
Culture (Unit 15, Chapter 9), (http://www.wwu.edu/~culture), Center for Cross-Cultural
Research, Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington USA.
Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIvGIwLcIuw