Teaching Competency

I have experience teaching Introduction to Psychology, Statistics in Psychology, and behavior-focused science programs, where I embrace an eclectic teaching philosophy that balances top-down, knowledge-centered instruction with bottom-up, student-centered engagement. I reject dogmatic approaches in favor of a pragmatic integration of academic knowledge with practical skills, ensuring students gain both a solid theoretical foundation and the critical thinking necessary to apply their learning in real-world contexts. My background includes experimental design, data analysis, stereotaxic surgery, and animal care, focusing on fundamental learning processes, spatial cognition, addiction, and stress. With experience in curriculum design, I am passionate about creating accessible and engaging educational content that fosters a supportive and dynamic learning environment.

In my teaching and research, I apply theories of learning and cognition in practical settings, including utilizing invertebrates like giant cockroaches. These organisms provide a unique and accessible way to demonstrate fundamental principles of behavior, cognition, data analysis, and experimental design. By designing experiments where students can observe classical and operant conditioning in real-time with these invertebrates, I bridge the gap between abstract theory and tangible experience. This approach not only reinforces the theoretical concepts discussed in class but also enhances students’ understanding by allowing them to observe phenomena in a very concrete and visceral fashion. Working with invertebrates like cockroaches also introduces students to the practicalities of experimental design and data collection in a controlled environment, further solidifying their grasp of learning and cognitive theories. This hands-on application deepens their comprehension and appreciation of the relevance of these theories, bolstering my credibility as an expert in the fields of learning and cognition.

This is highlighted in my statistics course where the goal of our first peer collaboration assignment is to help students learn about deferent kinds of data, variables, measurements, and scales in a very concrete way. After a brief introduction to data, variables, measures, and scales students are presented with the question, “Just how big are giant cockroaches?” presented with a group of cockroaches individually sealed in transparent deli cups. 4 different data points they record include species (categorical), Cuteness Likert Score (Interval), Length in Centimeters (Ratio), and Size Category (Ordinal). All students are given the opportunity to opt out if they are very afraid of the insects. If students opt out I will just ensure they are in a group where someone else can take the measurements while they observe. I have not had a student opt out so far. There is usually a lot of excitement in the classroom and in addition to working on the assignment at hand a lot of questions emerge. Have I identified the species correctly? Where do I start measuring? Do I include the antennae? What’s the best method to measure? How accurate are our measurements? Different opinions about what size or species is cuter. Students make observations about the insects behavior in the deli cups.

To achieve this objective, I created engaging and colorful slides. Each chapter was color-coded to help students keep track of the various topics covered throughout the semester. At the beginning of each chapter and class, I provided a brief overview of the material to offer students some context for the information they would be learning.

As I progressed through the semesters I often noticed that the slides had too much text and made great efforts to reduce the amount of text on each slide while keeping the material accurate and concise. Additionally, I started thinking about each section as a sort of story arc with a beginning, climax, and conclusion. Originally, the beginning of each section seemed quite dry and boring so I started modifying them by taking what I thought was the most interesting and engaging material and introducing it first to capture the attention of students.

One instance I did this with great success was my learning chapter where I start of by introducing students to the idea of “associative learning” and then I show them brand logos like coca-cola and Disney and ask them what they associate with the logo. I then showed them commercials for both coco-cola and Disney and asked them what they thought he companies were trying to get them to associate with the brands. Students enthusiastically engaged and offered suggestions. We then moved on to introducing classical condition as it related to commercials and marketing.

I experimented with different learning platforms, including MacMillan Learning Curves, quizzes created from scratch, and exams administered through Canvas and Respondus Lockdown Browser. The adaptive assignments and quizzes provided by MacMillan were helpful, but they sometimes did not align with the material covered in class, leading to potential fairness issues. To address these challenges, I utilized self-made quizzes and exams administered through Canvas to ensure that all students were being tested on the same material covered in class.  After each major exam, I provided students with descriptive statistics on their performance to help them understand their progress and performance in the class.

While my classes have primarily consisted of lectures, I have also provided students with various opportunities for engagement. One such method was through think-pair-share style discussions, where students would think about a topic, discuss it with a partner, and then reconvene as a group for further discussion. Additionally, I incorporated activities such as watching original videos from high-impact research, such as the Milgram experiment, in which students would watch the video together and then engage in elaborative rehearsal by explaining what they had observed. This would often lead to discussions about the methods or ethics of the study, and potential modern applications.

Another non-traditional activity involved gathering either indoors or outdoors, where students would take turns using inversion goggles, distortion goggles, and engaging in the “rubber hand illusion”. During this activity, students would postulate about what was happening and why, and were encouraged to relate the experience back to material covered in class, particularly the learning, memory, and perception chapters.