Özge Gürcanlı, January 2018, Houston
Psychological evidence – sometimes powerful and intuitive and other times surprising – always teaches humans about their core tendencies. As a psychologist, I use the rich, complex nature of the field to teach my students about themselves, their friends and family, and their community.
Teaching psychology is telling stories about what it means to be human. Because it is a scientific discipline, these stories are based on evidence derived from different methodologies that address systematic relations between different variables. When I teach psychology, I make sure that my students are well versed in the set of psychological facts best supported by rigorous scientific inquiry. In addition, all of my courses have the following three teaching objectives: (1) create a framework which will allow students to synthesize newly acquired knowledge by building a coherent conceptual structure; (2) apply the knowledge acquired in-class to make sense of contemporary issues that the students face; (3) provide opportunities for learning through experience, like hands-on collaborative projects and community involvement.
To achieve my first teaching objective – creating conceptual frameworks for learning – I avoid presenting course material as “truths” that should be regurgitated. Rather, I equip my students with a conceptual toolbox that they can use to answer theoretical questions. When I present a topic, for example the validity of the IQ score, I provide evidence from different perspectives – the history of IQ testing, biases in testing, and alternatives to reducing IQ to a single score. Students work together through small group discussions, online polls and discussion boards, and in-class exercises to help them to draw conclusions about the topic from the data. This way, students experience considering all sides of an issue and critically synthesize old and new information. In the end, students own what they learn from class.
I address my second teaching objective – applying theoretical knowledge to real life problems – by pairing ongoing political events, news, movies, the arts, etc. with theoretical course content. By discussing psychology in context, I show my students that it is a broad discipline that is critical for understanding nearly everything that happens in the world around us. In doing so, not only do I allow them to see the relevance of what they are learning in the classroom, but also I highlight the unique contributions that can be made by psychological knowledge as opposed to other knowledge types. My students learn to think like a psychologist in order to make sense of the world around them.
To accomplish my third objective – experiential and community-based learning – my courses are all designed with innovative, hands-on, collaborative projects that expose students to the surrounding community. A core principle of my teaching philosophy is that students should gather information from many sources. I create experiential learning environments that force students to engage: with academic experts, community organizations and interested individuals from the community. Regardless of the project, a short documentary in Developmental Psychology that requires interviews with local experts, a literacy booklet for Language Acquisition to be distributed in the general Houston area, or an experiment in Research Methods addressing a social issue, I empower my students with the necessary tools to take what they learn in the classroom and enrich their community. Through these community-based experiential opportunities, my students learn to become leaders regardless of what community they are in.
While achieving my three teaching objectives requires a rigorous curriculum, I believe that rigorous courses should be taught with care and compassion. I know that for my teaching philosophy to work, I must create a classroom climate based on trust. Therefore, in the beginning of each semester, I communicate my teaching objectives very clearly to the students and I introduce the idea of our syllabus as being a transparent contract between us. Then, I promise them that if, at any point, there are personal or external barriers to their success, we can work together to figure out feasible solutions that will be fair to everyone in the classroom. By starting the semester this way, I lay the foundation of a collaborative relationship between us and give a clear message that I hold all my students to a high standard. More importantly, this kind of honest conversation with clear objectives allows me to create an interactive environment that provides a safe, fun, and engaging classroom for everybody throughout the semester.
I believe that an educated opinion does not emerge overnight. I challenge my students daily to think critically and in a way that will make them better citizens in their communities. Thanks to the collaborative climate of my classroom, my students and I are never on different sides. Rather, together, we are trying to make better sense of the world surrounding us.