Melissa M. McDonald - Michigan State University

Melissa M. McDonald Teaching Statement

Teaching Philosophy I approach teaching with two major goals in mind. The first is to provide students with a rich

understanding of psychological concepts. I want students to understand the many implications psychology has for virtually all aspects of life, from child rearing and interpersonal relationships, to group conflict and political negotiations. My second goal is to develop students' critical thinking skills so that they can become active consumers of scientific information. I want students to be able to identify the strengths and weaknesses of different research designs and use that information to formulate appropriate conclusions. These skills transcend the field of psychology and can be applied by students pursing any career, not just psychology majors.

To reach these goals, I have developed a teaching philosophy that emphasizes two objectives. The first is to clearly illustrate the applicability of psychological principles to personal, social, and organization issues. To this end, I never introduce a key concept without tying it to a relevant example to which students can easily relate. For example, when I describe social consensus as a persuasion tactic, I describe the recent trend wherein businesses encourage patrons to "like" them on facebook to create the perception that many people agree on the quality of their business. I then ask students to come up with their own examples, via group discussion and written assignments, to ensure that students really understand the concept and its application. I have found that providing good examples is one of the best methods for developing a deep understanding of the material among students.

My second objective is to emphasize the importance of the research process, rather than simply conveying a set of psychological "facts." The strength of this approach is that it teaches students to think critically about research and decide for themselves if the results of a study really support the authors' theory. As such, I strive to always present key course concepts alongside a detailed description of a research study that has tested an important aspect of that concept. Throughout this process, I ask students to generate predictions, practice interpreting data from tables and figures, discuss the implications of the findings, and identify alternative explanations for the results. This approach also permits many opportunities to highlight important concepts in research methodology, such as the necessity of random assignment in experimental designs.

I believe this approach to teaching stimulates students' intellectual curiosity, instills a greater appreciation for the ways psychology can be used to understand the many forces influencing human behavior, and provides them with a sharper tool kit for critically consuming research in any field. Evidence of the effectiveness of my approach can be seen in these comments from students in my social psychology course:

"I enjoy the material and feel that the assignments actually aid in our comprehension"

"The material is interesting and she uses lots of examples to explain clearly the principles we're discussing"

"I like the material that's being covered in this class, it's very cool to realize that "psychology" is surrounding you"

Teaching Experience and Training I view teaching as a skill that must be continually honed. The elements of teaching are

constantly in flux; students change, technology advances, research progresses, emerging world events create new opportunities for class examples, and course content must be updated accordingly. I believe my training at Michigan State University has provided me with a good foundation of resources and skills that will help me meet these challenges.

I am currently in the process of obtaining a teaching certificate that includes 25 hours of formal training in topics such as course organization, effective instructional design, active learning strategies, creating fair, valid, and reliable evaluations, and the ethical handling of teacher-student conflicts. I have implemented what I learned through this certification process in my own teaching. For example, given that psychology courses can often overwhelm students with new vocabulary terms, I implemented an active learning strategy to help students prepare for exams. Students created their own crossword puzzles using vocabulary terms and then exchanged them with other students. This encouraged students to apply the material in a new way, essentially generating their own test questions rather than just memorizing the material. I was impressed with the quality and creativity of the clues, and students reported enjoying the process as well as finding it to be a useful study strategy.

In addition to this formal training, my teaching has been evaluated by Dr. Kevin Ford, the instructor from the teaching certificate course. This evaluation occurred during the second week of my first independently taught course (Social Psychology) in the summer semester of 2012. An excerpt from his comments is included below:

You come across as knowledgeable about the content of the class. You also come across as a professional ? someone interested in having the material come across clearly and logically ? class is well organized. You provide many examples to help students understand the different ideas, concepts, and approaches. Students have the material they need to do well on the exam. Overall, you have done a nice job of instruction.

I have also served as a teaching assistant for two undergraduate courses: Personality Psychology and Data Analysis in Psychological Research, as well as our graduate level introductory statistics course: Quantitative Research Design and Analysis. Acting as a teaching assistant in two quantitative courses has provided me with many opportunities to practice conveying complicated statistical concepts to struggling students. These experiences will be helpful as I prepare to teach my own courses in research methods and data analysis.

Given my teaching experience and research interests, I believe I am qualified to teach the following courses at both the graduate and undergraduate level: social psychology, personality psychology, evolutionary psychology, stereotyping and prejudice, group dynamics, research methods, and introductory statistics, as well as introductory psychology at the undergraduate level.

Evidence of Teaching Effectiveness Although I do not yet have access to the formal ratings for my summer course, I asked my

students to provide anonymous evaluations of the course mid-way through the semester. As can be seen below, students expressed great interest in the course topic, perceived the course to be well organized, felt they could obtain help when needed, and indicated that the material was presented in an interesting and engaging manner. I look forward to teaching again so that I have the opportunity to build on the promising foundation of teaching skills I have already developed.

Item

Mean

SD

I enjoy this course

4.67

.49

The course material is presented in an interesting and engaging manner

4.53

.64

The level of difficulty of the material is appropriate for a 200-level course

4.53

.52

The instructor is available to help me when I need assistance

4.87

.35

The instructor cares that I learn the material

4.93

.26

The instructor is receptive to questions from students

4.93

.26

The course is organized well

4.87

.35

The instructor is well prepared for each class

4.93

.27

Note. Items scored on a 5 point scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). N = 15.

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