Teaching

The three most important elements in my teaching philosophy are: promoting critical thinking skills, celebrating diversity, and fostering collaboration.

Critical  and Creative Thinking:

This is an important transferable skill that is relevant to all students, regardless of major! Ways that I foster critical thinking include:

• Class discussions about the texts, concepts, or personal experiences

• Reflective assignments that allow students to draw connections between ideas

• In-depth projects related to students' personal or professional interests

• Utilizing a  range of class materials, from traditional psychological textbooks and academic articles to videos related to current events and pop culture, to texts from other disciplines or genres (e.g., memoirs, philosophy)

Celebration of Diversity:

Recognizing and celebrating diversity is essential, especially in an academic discipline that is focused on the range of human experiences. In addition to diversity in course content, it's also important to respect diversity in the classroom, as we have a lot to learn from each other. Some ways I do this:

• Setting a foundation of a respectful and open classroom climate, where students feel safe to explore difficult ideas and make mistakes along the way

• Encourage sharing of opinions and how personal experiences relate to class material, while not pressuring students to self-disclose personal information if they do not want

• Including a variety of formats for learning and assessment

• Incorporating Universal Design principles and working with students to make sure disability accessibility needs are met

• Including "non-traditional" texts and media, such as critical theory, media examples, and creative works, which tend to have better representation of marginalized voices excluded from traditional scholarly canons

• Addressing historical and current inequities and harm committed within the field of psychology with respect to minoritized populations, such as people of color, LGBTQ populations, immigrants, and people with disabilities

• Discussing ways that psychological concepts and research can be used to benefit marginalized populations and improve equity in society

Collaboration:

Learning is a collaborative process, whether it is between students and teachers, among  students, or between the class and outside resources. We all have expertise to share with each other. Some ways I foster collaboration:

• Facilitating whole-class and small-group discussions

• In introductory psychology courses, assigning small groups of first year students to upperclassmen undergraduate TA's, for peer support inside the classroom and general orientation to university life

• Inviting guest speakers

• Provide ways for students to work together and showcase their knowledge, such as presentations and group projects

• Integrating mid-semester anonymous feedback from students

I have extensive teaching experience at diverse public universities, considering this stage in my career. I was the instructor of record for undergraduate courses for every year of my PhD program, except for my internship year. During grad school (2019), I earned the Arizona State University Graduate and Professional Student Association Teaching Excellence Award. I then worked as a lecturer at University of Maryland, College Park, where I taught 3-4 courses per semester, in both introductory and advanced psychology topics. I've taught courses both online (even before COVID!) and in-person, with class sizes ranging from 15 to 300, with and without TA support. During my 2 years at UMD, I supervised a total of 11 graduate teaching assistants and 24 undergraduate teaching assistants. I have been able to successfully develop and teach undergraduate courses, even with little advance notification (my shortest record: being asked to teach a class 2 days before the semester began!).

Classes I've Developed and Taught

University of Maryland, College Park:

• PSYC 353: Adult Psychopathology

  • Fall 2022 and Spring 2023

  • In-person

• PSYC 344: Health Psychology

  • Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Summer 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023

  • In-person and online

• PSYC 234: Psychology of Happiness

  • Spring 2022

  • In-person

Arizona State University:

• PSY 385: Psychology of Gender

  • Spring 2020

  • In-person but transitioned to online format mid-semester

Additional Classes I've Taught

University of Maryland, College Park:

• PSYC 100: Introduction to Psychology

  • Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022

  • In-person

Arizona State University:

• CED 250: Career Development

  • Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019

  • In-person and online

• ASU 101: The ASU Experience

  • Fall 2015

  • In-person

• UNI 150: Major and  Career Exploration

  • Fall 2015

  • In-person

Other Teaching Experiences

Arizona State University:

• Teaching assistant (grading) for online Master's students in sociology and family and human development programs

  • Fall 2017, Spring 2018

University of Chicago:

• As an undergrad, co-developed and co-taught workshop to local high school students about making comics

  • Spring 2013