Teaching the Replication Crisis and Open Science in Introduction to Psychology

The discipline of psychology has found itself in a so-called “replication crisis”, with large-scale replication attempts failing to support many seminal findings. For example, the Open Science Collaboration Project (2015) successfully replicated only 36% of 100 randomly selected psychology studies. In a bid to reform the discipline, a set of new practices and cultural norms have been advanced under the umbrella of ‘open science’ with a common goal to increase the replicability, reproducibility, transparency, equity, and accessibility of research. Yet, to ensure sustained research reform, the history of the replication crisis and open science must be taught within the higher education curriculum. In this chapter, we aim to reduce the burden placed on educators in developing resources to teach this topic by presenting a brief overview of the replication crisis and open science and providing three case studies for embedding this into large lectures, interactive small-group practice classes, and assessment.