The brain is like a muscle.
When it is in use we feel very good. Understanding is joyous.
-Carl Sagan
Long story short:
I love teaching because I love learning.
Teaching gives me the opportunity to help others learn, and also learn something from my students.
In my experience as an instructor, teaching assistant, and tutor, many students have entered my classroom prepared to “learn” – that is, memorize everything I say and repeat it back on the exam! My approach to teaching seeks to shift their thinking so my students are prepared to engage in the scientific process, make connections, and think critically (see example syllabus).
Engage in the scientific process
My students often come to class looking for answers, like a highlight reel of important findings. But in order to truly learn about psychology, students must first appreciate that science is a process.
Example: As a teaching assistant for Cognitive Psychology, I guided discussions about current and classic papers from the field. In discussions, I emphasized the entire scientific process by asking questions like: What is the researcher’s question? Why did they ask it? How did they try to find the answer? What are some other ways to approach this question? (see example slides).
Example: As a teaching assistant for Research Methods in Psychological Science, I helped students apply this process as they designed and conducted observational studies. With my supervision, students developed a question and testable hypothesis, collected and analyzed data, and presented their work in both an APA-style manuscript and a presentation to the class.
By engaging in the scientific process, my students learn to value questions as much as results.
Make connections
In my teaching experience, I have seen the joy students experience when they make connections and understand how research applies to real life.
I help my students make connections by encouraging them to apply psychological principles to everyday scenarios.
Example: After explaining prototypes, I ask How might a medical doctor use prototypes when making a speedy diagnosis?
After a few weeks of practice, my students begin to make connections on their own.
Example: When I was a tutor for student athletes, one of my students excitedly came to our session and reported that he had used the
James-Lange Theory of Emotion (which we discussed the previous week) to offer his football teammates dating advice!
When students make connections between the classroom and real life, true learning takes place.
Think critically
As a teacher, my ultimate goal is to help my students learn how to think critically. While many students have heard about “critical thinking”
as an educational buzzword, I have found they are often hesitant to question or critique what is presented in the classroom. To combat this attitude of passive acceptance, I teach my students the value of truly thinking critically, and encourage them to practice in class.
Example: As an instructor for Introduction to Psychology, I asked my students to read an article and write a “peer review” of a classic paper.
In addition to recognizing the strengths of the experiments, I encouraged them to identify weaknesses and offer suggestions for improvement
(see prompt). Throughout the semester, I noticed a shift as my students began to “think like scientists” and offer valid critiques of experiments we discussed in class, even without my prompting.
These critical thinking skills will help my students to be more active and engaged learners throughout their college careers and beyond.
Going forward
As someone who is passionate about teaching, I am always trying to improve my teaching skills.
Example: At Duke, I participated in a peer-observation of teaching program, wherein 2 graduate student teachers observed my classroom and offered both praise and constructive criticism (I did the same for their classes). The feedback from this program helped me identify specific classroom techniques that were working ("Your voice, pacing, and general interactions with students clearly showed that you love what you do, and it inspired the students to think with you.") and ways I could improve ("You only gave positive feedback, which is a great pedagogical move. Maybe you could vary your positive feedback a little more, and tell them more specifically what they did well, or why you found an answer interesting.").
Example: In all of my courses, I distribute a mid-semester survey to collect anonymous feedback from my students (see survey). The results of these surveys help me identify improvements I can make before the semester is over, such as providing more review for exams. I also carefully review the end-of-semester assessments (distributed by Duke) to identify ways to improve my teaching in the future. After teaching Introduction to Psychology, some of the students' evaluations said they would like more clarification about what the "key points" are. To incorporate this feedback into my teaching, I want to try and teach my students how to integrate the readings and lectures to identify the key points for themselves.
This kind of thinking will benefit them well beyond my classroom.
I currently have experience teaching: Introduction to Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, and Research Methods. I would like broaden my
teaching repertoire, especially with the following courses: Psychology of Consumers, Statistics, Cognitive Neuroscience, Science Communication,
and Research Ethics,
Overall, I care deeply about my students and their learning, and I believe this is reflected in my style of teaching. As one student said in their eloquent assessment:
“Although I felt like Psych 101 would have been just jamming knowledge into my brain, she finds a way to make it interesting and not such a pain! ”