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Erica Kleinknecht, Ph.D.
Professor of Cognition and Development, College of Arts & Sciences, Pacific University Oregon. Western Psychological Association 2023 recipient of the Outstanding Professor Award.
My students call me "Prf. K." and I've been teaching undergraduate Psychology for over 20 years. My course array reflects my background in Applied Cognition and Development and my interest in scholarship for the greater good. Some courses survey the respective subfield, like Cognition, Memory, and Trends in Development. Other courses take a deep dive into a specialized topic, like The Psychology of Serious Games or Science, Story, and Society (a sci-comm course centering on the power of narrative). My teaching and research interests dovetail nicely, where my current research centers on media engagement and knowledge/belief change as a function of design and the engagements design affords. Please see Media Matters @ PacU for more.
Teaching for authentic learning intends to implicitly address the ever-present question in learners’ mind: “Why am I being asked to do this?”. Broadly construed, the purpose of higher education is to prepare students for a future of work and citizenship and fulfillment. While faculty implicitly believe that everything they teach matters, students do not always share such broad-based trust in the preparatory system! When the value is made more clear, as authentic learning aims to do, then students get a healthy boost to their achievement motivation. It is learning where students are challenged to:
Engage in problems or projects with real-world relevance
Address [clarify] ill-defined problems
Work on complex tasks through sustained investigation
Examine tasks through different perspectives with the support of diverse resources
Collaborate with other learners
Reflect on their learning experiences
See how the work is applicable to a variety of subject areas
Note the connection between the work and the assessment of it
Create a meaningful product
Note a variety of solutions and possible competing outcomes
Outcomes: Student Made Websites & e-Books
We use a variety of digital tools to create and present the pieces of our projects and some tools have more lasting power than others, thus the shape of these projects has shifted over time. For example, initial projects were presented on Pressbooks sites but this platform changed its model and our projects are now no longer accessible. Recent works are presented on Google-sites, though within a particular site some external software supported artifacts (e.g., Hey Zine flip books) remain variably accessible. Whether all the pieces can be viewed as intended or not, you will still learn a lot about the topics and about students' deep involvement in their work around the topic. Click on the respective date to see a particular class outcome.
Cognitive Psychology + Mythbusting (PSY 206)
Memory & Mind + The Making Memory Work Project (PSY 314)
Spring 2027 | Spring 2026 | Spring 2025
Spring 2024 | Spring 2023 (The Cognitive Wellness Kit)
Social and Personality Development + Family Field Guides (PSY 344)
Winter 2025 | Winter 2024 | Winter 2022 (What do kids need?) | Winter 2021 (When children and families thrive ...)
Cognitive Development + The Butterfly Effect Collective / Raising Just Kids (PSY 353)
Spring 2024 | Fall 2022 | Fall 2021 | Fall 2020 (Pressbook de-activated) | Spring 2020 (Pressbook de-activated)
Advanced Topics / Senior Capstone + other Varied Topics (PSY 3/480)
Spring 2023 "The Thinker's Guide to the Metaverse" | Spring 2022 "The Lotus Project / Memory Wars are not Over"
Spring 2021 "Controlling the Narrative for Piece of Mind" (Websites active, Pressbooks de-activated)
Pressbooks Descriptions
PSY 353: Cognitive Development. In this collection of collaboratively written essays, students tackle the pressing social issue of racial justice, equity, and inclusion. Each essay offers readers advice on how to raise children in the spirit of anti racism, sexism, and ableism.
PSY 314: Memory and Mind. In this collection of collaboratively written essays, students tackle the pressing social issue of racial justice, equity, and inclusion. Each essay offers readers advice on how to improve their practices of anti racism, sexism, and ableism.
PSY 355: Educational Psychology for Elective Learning. In this collection of single-authored essays, students apply course content (topics in educational psychology) to a variety of teaching related contexts.
PSY 353: Cognitive Development. In this collection of collaboratively written essays, students tackle common debates about childrearing and education.
PSY 416; Cognitive Science. In this collection of essays, students share their their best two of three essays, written to help assuage fears of the singularity. AI's rapid advancement is incredible, but we don't need to fear the loss of humanity's autonomy just yet.
PSY 206: Cognitive Psychology. In this collection of collaboratively written essays, students present carefully created wise interventions for a variety of situations.
Musing circa Spring 2021: In the summer of 2020 I wrote a post on my Wordpress blog (cognitioneducation.me) titled "What does Authentic Learning Look like, in Psych?" In that post I shared some of my favorite assignments designed to get students thinking beyond memorization, and mused about how to transform my tried and true assignments to the digital format necessitated by the pandemic. At that time, I was faced with a year of teaching virtually (synchronous, on-line) and paperless. A daunting task, but a welcome challenge. Skipping ahead to the present, I am reflecting on my virtual, paperless year (actually, year and a half counting SP 2020) and planning my next academic year. With the pandemic far from over, we faculty must remain "ready" to pivot again. In that spirit, I have created this site to organize and showcase my vision for authentic learning in Psychology. Please enjoy our work, and feel free to contact me should you have any questions: eko at pacificu dot edu. I'm always happy to chat about teaching!
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