Teaching PhilosophyAn education is one thing that cannot be priced, but should be valued most of anything one attains. An education cannot be taken away, can only be added to, and is the basis for succeeding. Great strides—and sometimes doing handstands—must be taken to ensure students become masters of course material and find relevance and meaning in the material. The most important things that I can teach is that psychology is interesting, psychological research is important, and psychology is not all about 'shrinking heads'. Indeed, my biggest challenges are eliminating the misconception that psychology is not a science and that psychological science is useless. Hence, my goal is to communicate scientific advances in psychology to students who have never considered psychology a science.
Of course, this is a really big challenge! I must show how psychology is a science, and also make the content relevant and interesting. Every student wants to be educated and is interested in learning, but that individual differences elicit different levels of motivations and attitudes toward learning. Some students are attentive and ready to learn from day one; others are easily uninterested. To compensate, I deliver course material in a way that each student will understand and gain from in the hope that less-motivated students will become interested and more-motivated students will become more interested. For example, on the first day of Fundamentals of Psychology, I describe empirical findings that the world would be deprived of had psychology not existed, but I add a comic-twist (e.g., how humans are like sheep following a leader named S. Milgram); and in Statistics, I discuss how statistics are used in sports and opinion polls, which are areas that most students understand and relate to.
As an academic who studies a challenging research topic (human information processing and attention), I know it is imperative to challenge students. This does not mean that create assignments, tests, and assessment tools that are impossibly difficult; rather, I challenge students to critically think about a topic and synthesize the information that I have given them when contemplating unique situations. Challenging students to think and elaborate not only keeps students attentive, but it also makes the learning process enjoyable and the outcome more rewarding.
Above all, being available to students is the most important part of teaching; not only to students needing help, but to students wishing learn more. I have an open-door policy: If a student cannot make my office hours, s/he can meet me at anytime. I like students to feel comfortable and see me about anything. Taking time to spend with a student so that they master the material should be every academic's highest priority. After all, I may be molding the leaders of tomorrow and I want my leaders to be smart because they tried hard and succeeded in tough situations.
Teaching StyleBeing trained as a cognitive psychologist, I know that two of the most fundamental principles for effective learning are (i) attention and (ii) elaboration. Attention to the material is critical, and achieved by presenting challenging topics in a clear and concise manner, and having students work with topics to which they relate. Elaboration on topics is achieved by active engagement in critical thinking exercises, discussion, and independent reflection. It is a delicate web faculty weave to balance course objectives with needs of students when creating lectures, assessments, examples, and learning tools. To find this balance, I approach each class being mindful of the following principles:
Student engagement. Learning should be educational and fun. Active participation in the learning process through class activities and critical thinking assignments is essential for mastery of the complex and hypothetical topics.
Clear and relevant objectives. Students work best and learn most effectively when objectives are clearly stated, challenging but achievable, and relevant. Assignments that are overly difficult cause frustration and animosity; whereas easy assignments do not provide a challenge, and little learning occurs. Course objectives should be stated and assessed with an assignment designed to engage the student. For example, having students conduct their own small studies to understand principles of research design, measurement, analysis, and synthesis.
Grading to reflect objectives. Grading systems should be designed so assessment tools are appropriately weighted based on their importance toward mastery of the material. At the same time, these tools should be designed to assess whether students (and I) are meeting course objectives. It is imperative that assessment tools reflect what the student should gain from each objective: Objectives that increase general knowledge might be assessed with tests; whereas objectives that facilitate the use a research tools might be assessed with hands-on assignments. The requirements and grading scheme should be clearly stated with examples of what each grades requires.
Identify confusions early. Teachers should never move onto complex topics without first setting the foundations on which those topics are based. If there is confusion early on, there will be even more confusion later. Take time to work problems through before moving on. This is not to say that a class should be slowed down for one student; rather, teachers must work closely with a confused student while not holding others back.
Let mistakes happen. Never correct all mistakes before they happen; let some mistakes happen and let students learn from mistakes. It is better to fall down and struggle to get yourself up with a little help than to never fall down at all. Showing the right answer all of the time does allow students to think for themselves.
Encourage active open-mindedness. I prefer Socratic instruction by introducing topics with discussion and critical thinking questions. Doing so typically causes students to make connections between the topics and their lives and encourages active-open-mindedness.
Respect and be respected. Always respect student interests and ideas. Not all students learn the same and not all students understand the information presented, no matter how hard we try to make out examples relevant to all. It is essential to identify the needs of students and work with those students who need additional instruction. Once you respect the students, the students respect you.
Course and Pedagogical DevelopmentHigher education goes two-ways: I provide contemporary information and novel discoveries in psychology to my students and my students provide me feedback regarding pedagogy and course content. Indeed, I always start a class by telling students to keep me informed; that I want to know when things are good, or bad, and that providing me feedback is the only way I (or the course) change. To this end, I (a) obtain feedback at midterm in addition to the end of a term, and (b) maintain a suggestion box on a course website where students can post suggestions for course improvement. To improve pedagogy I incorporate suggestions from across courses by incorporating modulate that worked one course into other courses. For example, to facilitate student understanding of data analysis in Sensation and Perception, in Fall 2008 I included a module where students collected and analyzed their own data. This module was rated as enjoyable and helpful by students and I am incorporating a similar module into Cognitive Psychology.
Indeed, one great challenge is creating new and interesting assignments that reflect and assess course objectives; and I continually scan Teaching of Psychology and other resources for such tools. For example, an objective in Sensation and Perception is to have students understand what perceptual illusions are and why they occur. I have been designing an assignment where students will work in small groups to create their own novel visual illusions, which will be judged and rated by faculty and students. The “winning” group will have a chance to submit their illusion to the Vision Science Society's annual “Illusion of the Year” contest, and my hope is that students will have fun with this and also see how coursework and assignments extend beyond the walls of the classroom.
Finally, I have begun to develop more advanced courses in Human Attention and Information processing, Signal Detection Theory, and Computers in Psychological Research, that I hope to offer to students seeking to learn more advanced topics and make the most out of their educational experience.