Teaching in a Liberal Arts College
My motivation to teach at a liberal arts college did not arise until well into my graduate training. Having done my undergraduate and graduate work at large public universities, I had no exposure to the wonderful learning atmosphere present in a small liberal arts setting. As a graduate student at Kent State University, I was chosen to teach an Honors course in General Psychology, and from then on, I was hooked. I loved the one-on-one interactions with students and the opportunities that arose in small classes that rarely presented themselves in large lecture courses.
My teaching experiences at Carleton College and then Randolph College (formerly Randolph-Macon Woman’s College) have solidified my goals of being connected with liberal arts education. The small class sizes and highly-motivated students make for interesting and thought-provoking student/teacher exchanges. And another fantastic advantage of teaching in a small liberal arts setting is the close personal interactions instructors can share with their students. Getting to know the students individually and having the opportunity to discuss psychology (and life in general) with them is one of the most rewarding aspects of my job.
General Teaching Philosophy
I am a firm believer in the concept of “learning through doing” and attempt to incorporate this idea into all of my classes. As any teacher knows, you come to have a better understanding of something when you have to teach it to someone else. I attempt to make “teachers” of my students by having them participate in a variety of active learning techniques. I have used these activities in all of my courses, and have received very favorable feedback from students. From my perspective, using these varied teaching methods energizes the classroom; students seem more interested and invested in their own learning and seem to enjoy our time together even more.
In my view, there are two major components to long-term retention of information. First, actively learning the information, which can be accomplished in any number of ways (e.g., students becoming teachers in the classroom, demonstrations, and examinations). And second, applying what you have learned to real events in the world around you. I will first talk briefly about some of the activities I use in my classes to facilitate students’ learning and then will talk about some of the things we do to apply what we’re discussing in class to the world around us.
Active Learning
Peer Learning: The bulk of our day-to-day discussion revolves around a form of peer learning. Students are broken up into small groups and then given a short set of discussion questions or a piece of information they need to research and then explain to the rest of the class. Groups use the textbook or other assigned readings to find the information we will discuss. As we go through each group’s material, I organize the information by writing it on the board, add anything the group may have missed, and often contribute information from outside the assigned reading. The vast majority of students in all of my classes remark favorably on this method of teaching.
Exams: Exams can be not only wonderful evaluation devices, but also wonderful learning tools. In my courses that employ traditional exam formats (e.g., multiple choice, short answer, essays), I give students an optional exam assignment that allows them to correct the mistakes they make on exams for partial credit. Rather than simply giving students the correct answers following an exam, they can go back to their notes or readings to figure out what the correct answer was. Importantly, they are not allowed to just state the correct answer, but need to provide a justification for why that answer is correct. Most students in my classes choose to do these assignments, and I have received much positive feedback on course evaluations about their use. For classes that employ other testing methods, like oral exams, I have the luxury of one-on-one interaction with the student, which allows for immediate correction and discussion of incorrect answers. Oral exams typically consist of a 25-30 minute conversation with me in which the student comes in with their own first question and I follow up with a list of my own. Students generally do a really fantastic job on these exams. They are all quite nervous when they come in, but seem to really enjoy the discussion and show that they have clearly learned a lot about the topics at hand. Student evaluations of oral exams are uniformly positive and I try to use them whenever I have a class size that is conducive to the time required to give oral exams (e.g., Physiological Psychology, Psychopharmacology, Learning).
“Real World” Application
Internet Scavenger Hunts: I use internet scavenger hunts as a means to bring ultra-current information into the classroom, while at the same time teaching students the difference between a reputable source and an unreliable one. For example, in an Introduction to Psychology class, I used an internet scavenger hunt to have students find current information about paraphilias (i.e., abnormal sexual behaviors) and sexual dysfunctions (with a warning about the “interesting” types of search results that might come from typing “paraphilias” into an online search engine!) and then report their findings to the class. They were asked to find descriptions of the disorders and then describe the most current forms of treatment. This assignment was also used to research current drug therapies for anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. In my Learning course, students were asked to use the internet to find current news stories that involved classical conditioning and then apply classical conditioning terminology to explain the behavior being described. They came up with some wonderful applications; for example, several students presented articles about the war in Iraq and explained how classical conditioning is a big part of fear (e.g., as evidenced by post-traumatic stress disorder in military personnel) and prejudice (e.g., innocent Muslim-Americans being treated like criminals by some in the United States).
Research Assignments: In my Sensation and Perception class, I use a “research assignment”. In most classes, questions arise that often times go unanswered; perhaps something outside of the professor’s area of expertise or some very new research finding. The research assignment is used to allow students to attempt to answer those unanswered questions. Over the course of the semester we make note of any questions we are unable to answer in class and then later in the semester students select a question and do some research to find an answer. When a student has answered their question, they report their findings to the class. A couple of examples from the last time I taught this course included: “Why do eyes in paintings appear to move and follow you around the room?” and “Does piercing the cartilage of your ear increase your chances of getting an infection?”. (Consequently, we learned that cartilage piercing is perhaps not the best idea.)
Research Journals: As a means to help students apply the information they are learning in my Physiological Psychology class to real life cases, I use a research journal assignment. I found a wonderful book called “Toscanini’s Fumble” by Klawans (1988) that describes several cases of individuals with various neurological problems. I select chapters out of the book for students to read and reflect upon. The research journal assignment requires the student to read the selected chapter, apply information from the chapter to material discussed in class, find at least one primary source on the topic, and write up their thoughts and findings. This assignment serves to reinforce the applicability of the topics at hand, gives the students some experience examining sources (and determining what makes a good one as opposed to a bad one), and spend some time writing. Course evaluations show clearly that students really enjoy the book and the research journal assignment.
Short Papers: Another example of applying information in my classes comes from an assignment I have used in my Introduction to Psychology and Psychopharmacology classes, namely short papers. In this assignment, students are asked to relate what they have learned about a topic to a popular portrayal of psychology, either in a book/article or a film. For example, in Introduction to Psychology, my students read “Tuesdays with Morrie” by Mitch Albom and then apply the book to the psychology of death and dying (among other things). Students really enjoyed the book and the assignment, and reading the papers was a thoroughly gratifying experience for me. For the film-based papers, I either show a movie in the evening or place movies on reserve in the library that have some tie to psychology and the students are required to determine whether the portrayal is accurate (or not) and in what ways. Any comments in my student evaluations on the short papers are positive. In fact, more than one student has remarked that the short papers helped them to apply the material better and was an enjoyable activity.
Conclusion
The process of teaching is unique and particularly gratifying in that it is also a process of continual learning. One of the most appealing aspects of teaching for me is the opportunity for continued personal learning and growth. I place particular emphasis on being open to feedback from my students in order to enhance what I have to offer them, and I find that no matter how many times a certain course is taught, I continue to grow as an instructor.