Teaching Philosophy

Within the first few weeks of class I make an effort to learn and remember my student names to develop rapport and enhance student motivation. This works very well and is much appreciated by students in my experience. I encourage my students to have completed all of the assigned  readings prior to every class. By asking small groups of students in class to elaborate on each other’s answers, rather than singling individual students out, this practice encourages the development of an inclusive atmosphere and sense of camaraderie. Class discussions about psychology should in my opinion provide for an opportunity for students to develop critical thinking skills. Iterative questioning can be helpful in delving deeper into an issue. In addition, there are many good examples of well-written educational texts on how developmental psychology can be implemented into the university environment (Knight and Lee, 2008; Whitbourne and Cavanaugh, 2003).

I always maintain a course website for all my courses -- analogous to a flipped classroom posted well in advances of the start date of classes. This enables critical time to be spent in class discussing important topics that are not necessarily related to the textbook but that may be of
practical or special interest to one’s cohort of students. The ever more popular flipped classroom allows students to review any weekly online notes. Moreover, educational videos and any other homework assignments can be instantly communicated to students by the instructor creating a real-time classroom. I find it is important to be mindful of student’s other commitments, (i.e., including increasingly pressing issues of work outside university, attendant childcare needs of students etc.), in today’s climate of increasing tuition costs, living expenses and problems of universal access to secondary education. Instructor sensitivity to individual needs should be reasonable under these circumstances.

Students comment that maintaining a course website allows them to focus in on the lecture during class and for the instructor to delve deeper into the material and provide the traditional oral lecture and at the same time link what the students are reading in the TEXT with current
events in their world. Websites are something that students comment are extremely helpful when preparing for midterm and final exams. Not everyone likes the traditional powerpoint lecture although research suggests that it is still widely adopted throughout in the university
environment. With the further development of the multimedia presentation in university courses in the future these technological tools should be able to complement in unique ways the instructor’s expertise. However instructors must be cognizant that these technological tools will never replace the expert situated knowledge of the instructor. Instructors must be wary of published textbooks, statistics and even conceptual material that may not be relevant to the Canadian context.

If the instructor is well-prepared, the lecture should enable that instructor to be more fluid in their delivery style and inject their own personal self into the material -- an essential component of a real-live university discussion. Practical experiences, group work, and on- or off-university ground field experiences go a long way to engaging many different types of students. Lectures should ideally augment the text and supplementary resource materials. Lectures should provide opportunities for students to ask questions of the instructor and plan with the instructor and/or fellow students individual and group projects. Students inform me that they appreciated having the n`otes posted before class. This should allow the instructor to ad lib more and help the students develop understanding the nuances of the material and subject matter. This is definitely something that does not develop overnight. I find that a review class at the end of the semester is much appreciated by students.

Learning Course Content

Grade-point average should not be an end in itself. Something that should be gone over with students when teaching a course is how diverse experts in a field of for instance, social psychology, find employment. This is helpful for students as it contextualizes and makes real their learning. Broad understanding of a content area within a specific domain in psychology is initially important for undergraduate students as they build their knowledge bases. This can be facilitated by regular, sequential and early feedback about performance in learning and
understanding of the course materials. This starts with a well-planned, detailed, comprehensive and yet flexible syllabus.

 

As the instructor, I usually like to schedule two midterms along with the final exam to facilitate this process. I like to schedule these two midterms evenly spaced into semester. One midterm in my opinion is too little feedback to novice first and second year students. A mix of multiplechoice items to test for breadth of knowledge and short-answer and essay questions to test for depth of knowledge and command of key concepts and theory is an exam format I find useful for assessing student achievement. I like to assign take-home final exam questions with a choice of several topics to cover for a number of reasons. Students like this format too and find it very fair. The first reason, is that students, will study for these exams. Secondly, final exam essay questions can be linked by the instructor with salient themes (i.e., high level concepts about developmental psychology) occurring throughout the course. Thirdly, studies show that students will demonstrate retention of key higher level concepts tested in this manner. Finally, providing a of selection of take-home final exam essay and short answer questions will indirectly facilitate retention and learning of more information, concepts, and applications learned through multiple choice questions (Upton and Trapp, 2010; Lang, 2008).

University learning by definition seeks to develop breadth and depth of knowledge in its students and this requires a solid command of the concepts, definitions, terminology and theory that makes up the discipline that the undergraduate is studying. With declaration of specialization in a major field of study in the upper undergraduate years the expectation is that students must develop progressively more in-depth of knowledge and critical thinking skills. Depth of understanding within psychology can be facilitated with the assignment of relevant written projects or term papers, advanced primary source readings, group work, research and seminar assignments. Retention and synthesis of course material can be encouraged through comprehensive final exams covering material learned across the entire term. I have found that
with resourceful time scheduling over the course of the semester having a final one class review session is enormously appreciated by students. All 200-level and higher Psychology courses should require a term paper.

Assignment of Term Papers & Development of Writing Skills

The development of university-level writing skills involves understanding course material, the critical evaluation of the content of primary and secondary sources, using the rules of proper grammar, using appropriate reference style as well as the beginnings of understanding of how to outline a thesis argument. In sum, good writing skills can be one of the most useful tools that university students of psychology can obtain in their baccalaureate program. I believe that the assignment of a term paper, be it an empirical paper, literature review, review of an actual experiment or write-up of a participatory community-based research project is certainly important in helping students develop writing skills. Assignment of term papers can begin with introductory psychology courses with smaller class sizes, but are a required component for 200 and above courses.

Encouragement of the development of intrinsic interest in such potentially anxiety-inducing written term paper projects can be facilitated by the instructor in a number of ways. I always encourage students to write about something that they are intrinsically interested in since this
will increase task motivation and completion. This selection of a topic must naturally occur first within the bounds of the subject matter that students are currently studying. One way to facilitate term paper writing skills is to break down the assignment into smaller sequence of steps. This can include having students come up with a thesis statement, 250-word review abstract, and list of references due within the first few weeks of the semester. This I have found is an exceptionally good way of reducing writing anxiety and task initiation. This is all the more
important for first year students who may not have that much academic writing experience about a specialized topic area, not know how to access modern university library materials, and have a little understanding of the argument structure of scientific and social science research papers.

 

A “working thesis” may only be worth 5% of the final grade; however it is often invaluable in getting students to complete their projects in a timely manner. Instructors can provide constructive feedback, (and if time permits), iterative feedback on such working toward a thesis
papers. Finally, most if not all, Canadian universities these days have out-of-class weekend courses specifically orientated towards developing better writing skills offered in the first few weeks of each semester. Often these writing courses include a nominal fee, the provision of a
writing textbook, and expert instruction on writing by highly qualified authors. Oftentimes students can bring their topic to such facilitators and get extremely valuable feedback about the university writing process. In the interests of fairness and development of writing skills, (which can only be learned with critical feedback), I like to extend the invitation to my students to send one revision of their term papers to me for brief comments, before the actual deadline of the term-paper writing assignment. I will only accept one revision and only if time and class size permits.

Continual Instructor Self-Evaluation & Improvement

Multiimedia presentations, in-class laboratories, interactive real-time feedback, blogs, links to current events, societal student memberships associated with various fields of study and excellent resources for students to develop real-world learning experiences in their communities. Student cohorts also change in demographics, attitudes and perspectives over time. Re-evaluation of one’s teaching skills can involve self-monitoring -- such as developing a teaching dossier and a repository of resources as well as continual reading widely within one’s domain of expertise. Instructors must ensure that they keep up with the literature on the scholarship of teaching university psychology. Faculty peer evaluations can provide critical appraisal of syllabi as well as practical observations of class sessions with students. Comments from students regarding instructor delivery of content, questioning of students, rapport and student interest and engagement with the material can also be helpful. Student evaluations can provide the basis for an instructor’s understanding of one’s own areas of teaching strengths and weaknesses 
especially when compared across different types of classes and students. Collectively these three types of feedback can be incorporated into innovations into instructor’s self-evaluations of teaching strategies, modifications and philosophies from course to course and year to year.

Summary

 

Ultimately one’s psychology teaching at the university level should reflect a concern with the intellectual development of one’s students. However intellectual development must be complemented and tempered by a concern with inculcating in students generative Eriksonian
societal concerns for psychology’s pivotal role in understanding and helping humanity. Given the significant funds that students pay for their university education these days, student demands for marketable skills such as writing, critical thinking and practical internship experiences are increasingly popular and useful to the students in the development of their careers. Such practical demands of students are not incompatible with the overarching goals of a “liberal education” in the humanities and social sciences.

 

Finally, there are instances when students will show up at the instructor’s office with serious     personal concerns, which as an instructor of psychology, the instructor will be obligated to help. Instructors must maintain a human side, warmth to their teaching and concerns for the genuine welfare of their students and if necessary put students into the right direction for help on or off campus. University students may present themselves with disabilities in one’s university class and sometimes require educational accommodations and extra advice. Instructors must be sensitive to issues of diversity and the increasing predominance of international students who may face linguistic barriers, racism, and issues of cultural integration, anomie and issues of adjustment to living in Canada. University instructors must be respectful of students of diverse ethnic, gender, socioeconomic, sexual orientation and other factors so that all their students feel
included, valued and part of the university learning community.

References

Knight, E.B. and Lee, E.L. (2008). A guide to teaching developmental psychology. Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester, West Sussex.                                Lang, J.M. (2008). On course: A week-by-week guide to your first semester of college teaching.Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA.
Upton, U. and Trapp, A. (2010). Teaching psychology in higher education. BPS Blackwell: Chichester, West Sussex.
Whitbourne, S.K. and Cavanaugh, J.C. (2003). Integrating aging topics into psychology: A practical guide for teaching undergraduates. American Psychological Association. Washington, DC.