Psychology
Janet Kuebli, Ph.D. | janet.kuebli@health.slu.edu
Welcome
My name is Janet Kuebli. I am a developmental psychologist in the Psychology Department. My area of developmental psychology is one of three concentrations in our Experimental Psychology graduate program. I have been at SLU since 1994.
I teach a variety of courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. At the undergraduate level, courses I currently teach include: Parenting & Child Development, Child Study & Observation, Practicum on Flourishing, and Disciplines and Practices in Psychology. Graduate seminars I teach periodically are: Cognitive Development, Emotional Development, Narrative Development, and Parenting & Child Development. In addition, I teach a graduate seminar on the Teaching of Psychology. I also served as the department's undergraduate program director for 15 years.
Presently, I mentor two graduate students and facilitate a lab for undergraduates interested in developmental psychology research. Projects we are working on now include a study examining parents' attitudes toward preschoolers' literacy skills development and another on parents' reactions to children's negative emotions. A third project with my undergraduates considers factors that predict the likelihood of parents' apologies to their children.
I have always enjoyed teaching, talking about teaching, and curriculum development. Strange perhaps, but I enjoy new course preps. Next spring I will be teaching a new course in SLU's undergraduate core on the psychological evidence related to mentoring. I hope to jumpstart first-year students' interests in psychology-related field experiences working with children.
I have been the department's 1818 General Psychology faculty liaison since 2008. We are a small discipline in the 1818 program, but our size affords us the big luxury of knowing each other better. I look forward to working with you.
PD and Meetup Dates
The General Psychology 1818 ACC adjuncts and I meet virtually twice a year. I host the annual Professional Development Workshop each fall. These workshops are designed to focus on a special topic in the teaching of psychology. Stay tuned for the topic I am planning for this fall, but past topics included those below. You can find archived slides from past workshops in the resources folder.
Promoting Reflection
Active Learning
Teaching for Transfer
Teaching Ethics
Meta-Cognition
We will meet again more informally during the spring semester. Please save the dates below for this coming year. More information and zoom links to follow.
Psychology Professional Development Workshop: 4-6 pm, Thursday, November 16, 2023
Psychology Meetup: 4-6 pm, Thursday, January 25, 2024
Syllabus Template
The SLU 1818 ACC Program requires that adjunct instructors in all disciplines use a common syllabus format. Use the link above to access the General Psychology syllabus template. You can add your school-specific information into this template. For example, your syllabus must include the SLU logo, course description, learning objectives and so forth. However, you have the option to add your own description below the SLU description, and/or additional learning objectives and so forth.
Each year, the program will ask you to resubmit your syllabus to me for my review. As needed, I will ask you to make revisions before you submit it formally to the 1818 ACC Program and before you distribute it to your students. Questions along the way are welcome!
Discipline-Specific Resources
This section contains various materials I am happy to share related to teaching General Psychology and psychology in general. The first section below includes APA references that discuss "best practices" for teaching psychology. These are references that I emphasize both for 1818 General Psychology sections and for students in the graduate seminar I teach on Teaching of Psychology.
Gurung et al. (2016). Article with recommendations for teaching General Psychology
Teaching & Learning Continuum This links you to a representation of teaching strategies. Research suggests that students learn better (i.e., understand more, retain longer, and transfer more effectively) when instructors use more of the strategies on the continuum to the right.
Bloom's Taxonomy of Critical Thinking Skills This well-known approach to critical thinking is always a timely reminder to design instruction that exercises the higher level critical thinking skills (i.e., analysis, evaluation, and synthesis/creativity). Too often, instruction and assessment gets stalled at the lower level skills (i.e., knowledge/memory, understanding/comprehension, and application).
In the section below, are slides from our Professional Development Workshop last year.
Fall 2022 Promoting Reflection
Collaboration Space
This folder will be yours where you can share successful active learning lessons or ideas with everyone else. We will use our spring meetup meeting to discuss together how we organize it.
What to Expect for Site Visits at your High School
Class visits are our opportunity to connect annually about your teaching, both the victories and the challenges. I look forward to attending your class once each year, either in-person or virtually when your school is not in St. Louis. Traditionally, I schedule class visits in the Spring semester; but be sure you remind me if your course is a fall course only. We will find a day/time to schedule my visit that works for both of us. Please be sure, however, to suggest dates when the class period is not for testing or assessment or when a large number of students are on field trips.
During my visit, I take notes of what I observe, including the variety of teaching strategies you use and ways that you engage your students in learning. After my visit, either that same day or via zoom at a later time, I am happy to give you feedback, discuss your insights about teaching psychology, and make some suggestions. Class visits also give us a chance to get to know each other better.