Teaching Portfolio  [PDF]

Philosophy -

When teaching, I aim to foster student understanding and interest in the course materials by providing students with practical opportunities to apply the theories, methods and analyses that they learn in class. In addition, I make a concerted effort to create a supportive learning environment by developing positive relationships with students and
encouraging students to collaborate with one another through small group activities.

Providing students with practical opportunities.  Providing students with practical opportunities to interact with the course materials has the effect of demystifying course concepts by showing how they can be applied to real-world problems. For example, when lecturing on Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory, a commonly used theory in the field of community psychology, I have students brainstorm variables that affect childhood academic achievement at each ecological level. Because social networks require students to think about relationships in an abstract, structural way, I have students map their own social networks to make the topic more concrete. Finally, when teaching undergraduate quantitative methods, I incorporate several interactive elements designed to spark student interest and illustrate the relevance of statistics to their lives. At the beginning of the semester, I provide my students with an in-class survey, and used data from the survey to create in-class examples that are germane to the students. For example, for my lecture on one-way ANOVA, I use class data to determine whether there are differences in mean grade point averages between three groups of students: non-partiers, moderate partiers, and heavy partiers.

Developing positive relationships. I make myself approachable to my students and foster positive relationships with them by providing detailed feedback on graded assignments, arriving early to class, encouraging them to attend my office hours, and promptly addressing their emails. When teaching, I also promote support networks between students by encouraging them to interact with one another. I build peer interactions into my course material by designing small group activities that encourage collaboration. For example, when introducing the concept of correlation in my statistics course, I had students draw descriptions of variables from a hat and then pair up. They had to work together to provide a description of the correlational pattern that they believed best fit their combination of variables. I believe that these small group activities not only make abstract topics like statistics more interesting, but also help build rapport among students. Additionally, UIC is widely recognized as one of most diverse universities in the nation. This has allowed me to gain considerable experience teaching students from a wide variety of racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds, and to develop a strong appreciation for diverse perspectives in the classroom.

In conclusion, by acting on my teaching philosophy, I hope to inspire a lasting interest in the course materials, and create a supportive learning environment. I am committed to maintaining a high standard of teaching excellence that reflects these goals.

Courses Taught -

• Statistical Methods in the Behavioral Sciences (UIC, Spring 2006)

Teaching Assistantships -

• Research Methods
• Community Psychology
• Introduction to Psychology

Teaching Interests -

Quantitative Methods
Quantitative methods courses should provide students with conceptual knowledge of various statistical techniques and practical opportunities to apply these techniques. For example, unpacking complex equations by talking through them, drawing examples from data collected via in-class surveys or student research, and including a laboratory component can help accomplish these aims.

Research Methods
Research methods courses should give students the tools to choose and execute the right design for their question of interest. Therefore, in teaching research methods, I would aim to expose students to both qualitative and quantitative methodologies, and have them sample these techniques through practical course assignments.

Program Evaluation
An effective course in program evaluation should integrate the familiarization of key theories with evaluation practice. In teaching program evaluation, I would challenge students to consider the perspectives of particular theorists when planning a program evaluation.

Social Networks
In teaching a course on social networks, I would aim to combine theory with quantitative approaches to analyzing network data. This might involve providing opportunities for students to apply network approaches to their own lives using network data collected in-class or to their own research by writing a proposal that involves network data collection and analysis.

Children and Youth
I would be interested in teaching a number of courses focused on children and youth including child and adolescent development, children and schooling, and juvenile delinquency/deviance.