Teaching

For the Spring 2011 semester I am a teaching assistant for Laboratory in Psychology: Perception and Cognition (031:121). My office hours are Mondays, 2:00-3:30, and Wednesdays, 1:00-2:30. I am holding office hours in my lab (SLP 121-131). I am also available to meet with students at other times if my office hours are inconvenient. Just call or send me an e-mail to make an appointment, or stop by the lab and check if I'm in. The course website, accessible to students enrolled in the course, can be found on ICON.

My approach to psychology as a science and my own education in the liberal arts have both influenced my teaching philosophy. I hope that the students in my classes learn not only the theories and methodology of psychology—the core course content—but also hone skills that they can use in many different areas. Psychology is particularly well-suited for teaching skills like quantitative thinking, hypothesis testing, and theory comparison. These skills are critical for students who wish to pursue careers in psychological research, but they are equally useful outside of academia or research settings. Since the majority of psychology students will pursue careers unrelated to psychology, it is important to equip them with general-purpose skills.

My favorite assignments are those that get students involved in doing research. This is one of the best ways to teach broader scientific thinking. Some assignments I have given include recording and transcribing an informal conversation between friends, computational modeling of spoken word recognition using jTRACE, and carrying out group research projects.

Here is an example syllabus from a research methods course that I taught. More information about my teaching experience can be found on my CV.