TEaching STATEMENT
I believe that as teachers we have a unique opportunity to engage, excite, and inspire students toward scholarly activities that will help them develop the skills and abilities they will need to obtain a rewarding career. As instructors, at the front line of every university graduate’s career, we have a responsibility to continually strive for excellence - in the classroom, in our scholarly endeavors, and in our interactions with the community at large - and to coach our students toward confidently articulating the skills they have acquired in college. I have had the opportunity to demonstrate excellence in my teaching at all levels of the undergraduate and graduate curricula. I have regularly taught courses within my expertise area, including Principles of Neuropsychology, Biological Psychology, Sensation and Perception, and Psychology of Aging. I have taught both large and small sections of Introduction to Psychology in the face-to-face and online modalities. I have also designed and taught two undergraduate capstone courses: an Advanced Seminar in Psychological Processes course that is designed to prepare students headed to graduate programs in Psychology, and an Integrated Studies capstone that prepares students to translate their Integrated Studies degree for professional opportunities. Through all these experiences I am a teacher who engages students in learning through discovery, who consistently fosters critical thinking, and intentionally develops genuine rapport with my students.
To facilitate learning through discovery, I develop opportunities for my students to learn-by-doing, helping them experience how the material is personally relevant to their own lives, asking them extension questions about what they are learning to foster critical thinking, and providing them a safe environment with ample support so they can persist through these challenging experiences. In my PSY 3120 Sensation and Perception course students engage with several ‘From Your Point of View’ activities. One such activity engages students with the pros and cons of convergence in the retina. In this activity several students are cones, and they directly relay a message to several retinal ganglion cells (fellow classmates) in a one-to-one fashion. Concurrently, several other students are rods, and their individual messages converge on one single retinal ganglion cell. Through this activity students experience the loss of acuity associated with convergence because the rods’ messages are considerably more confused than the messages from the cones. Similarly, students in my graduate seminar, PSY 5960 Lifespan Development of Executive Function, learn about a variety of neuropsychological assessments of executive function for children, adults, and older adults. We cover primary source literature associated with each assessment in class, but we also spend three class periods in ‘Clinic Days’ where they role-play the parts of clinicians and clients so they can better understand the nuances of the assessment procedure and experience. Even in my large sized PSY 3140 Biological Psychology and PSY 1010 Introduction to Psychology classes, I routinely ask my students to make connections between the topics by engaging in the material. For example, in Introduction to Psychology, I use a problem-based learning approach where my students work through five problems during the semester. One of the problems requires students to develop classical and operant conditioning strategies that consider the children’s cognitive and moral development stages. Through these experiential learning activities, I believe the students are inspired to see the relevance of their learning.
Encouraging critical thinking in my classes is another element that defines me as a teacher. I think it is particularly relevant in the capstone course that I teach for students who are headed to graduate programs, PSY 4120 Advanced Seminar in Psychological Processes. In this course my students write weekly reflective analysis papers about the academic literature we read each week. These papers inspire students to think creatively about what other data they would need to address research questions, what alternative methodologies would be appropriate, and why those adjustments would be helpful. Many students in this course find these papers challenging because I do not provide them details about how to complete them. Though I provide a basic rubric, students come to learn that there are many ways to write about their research ideas. While they are provided with sentence stem ideas like, “It would be interesting if future research…” and “Based on this literature I expect that … would happen if …” it is remarkable that by the end of the semester most students become quite skilled at designing research plans and writing about the implications of that proposed research. I’m especially proud of a funded study I conducted and presented that demonstrated students in my class were able to show moderate gains in critical thinking as measured by a psychology-specific measure that a colleague and I developed.
Whether teaching a large group of Introduction to Psychology students, a 70-student section of PSY 2230 Psychology of Aging, or 15 graduate students in a seminar-based class, I am committed to providing a safe environment for my students to learn, experiment, and discover. Part of how I do this is by developing genuine rapport with my students. Often, this means meeting my students where they are, using helpful technology, examples, relevant videos, online demonstrations, and humor. More importantly though, I think rapport is about knowing my students. I learn my students’ names and use their names both inside the classroom and all over campus. I find out what they are interested in and use that information when giving examples and demonstrations in class. Generally, I’ve found that students appreciate this effort and some even report they try harder in class because they know I notice.
In addition to the course-based instruction I’ve delivered, I have also successfully mentored 11 graduate students toward the completion of their Masters of Science in Psychological Science at UTC. I have also served as a thesis committee member for six MSc students, directed four undergraduate departmental honors students, and had the opportunity to mentor more than 20 other undergraduate students as research assistants in my Assessing Cognition Laboratory. Through their thesis projects, graduate students working with me learn to program experiments in EPrime and/or SuperLab, they use eye-tracking technology and clinical neuropsychological assessments, and they apply these tools to research questions with the healthy, the aging, the brain injured, and the malingering. Students from my lab have gone on to pursue advanced degrees in Experimental Psychology, Clinical Psychology, Counseling, Education and Social Policy, Library Science, Medicine, and Occupational Therapy. Others have leveraged their skills to secure industry positions in psychometry, data analytics, and disability advocacy.
Though my methodologies are constantly evolving with respect to how I demonstrate my teaching philosophy, who I am as a teacher, what I value, and how I interact with my students is unchanging. My peers, department chair, and my undergraduate and graduate students consistently report they appreciate the variety of methods I employ. Students highlight that weekly quizzes (administered through the LMS), mini-lab experiences, interactive activities, and weekly reflective analysis papers (in upper level and graduate courses) help them to master the material. Though some report that I expect high quality work, and the courses are challenging, my evaluations also indicate that I make difficult topics easier to understand and remember because clear explanations, analogies, and sometimes even humor are used regularly. Moreover, I was excited to read, in reference to the capstone course, “the assignments were sometimes overwhelming, but it definitely prepares students for graduate school.”
My formal course evaluations from students indicate they notice evidence of my teaching philosophy in their courses. They also recognize that my courses are designed to leverage what we as psychologists understand to be foundational to the science of learning. Indeed, my students provide feedback like, “[she] provides a comfortable atmosphere that encourages participation and learning” and “[she is] driven to make sure that each student learns and has fun doing it.” In addition, my department head, who annually provides a review of my teaching recently shared, “Dr. Clark continued to excel in the area of teaching and advisement… she is well prepared, engaging, and responsive to her students. She takes a creative approach to teaching, integrating theory, research and application of concepts seamlessly throughout the class… She also successfully piloted the [PSY 1010] course online receiving student evaluations of 86% ‘Completely Agree’ and 14% ‘ Mostly Agree’ (that’s 100%). I don’t recall ever seeing such positive ratings for any single course.” One additional piece of student feedback that I will share as evidence of my teaching effectiveness is, "She fully understands learning and she designs her classes around that knowledge, giving her students the opportunity to really learn and grow in the knowledge she presents. She wants to help her students and will do anything to make sure that we all understand the information she is presenting.” This comment helps me see that I provide an educational experience that students not only enjoy but that is also effective in helping students learn and retain.