Preparing the

New Psychology
Professoriate:
Helping Graduate Students
Become Competent Teachers

Edited by

William Buskist
Auburn University

Bernard C. Beins
Ithaca College

Vincent W. Hevern
Le Moyne College

2004
Society for the Teaching of Psychology
www.teachpsych.org/teachpsych/pnpp/
 Copyright and Other Legal Notices

The individual essays and articles contained within this collection are

© Copyright 2004 by their respective authors.

This collection of essays and articles as a compendium is

© Copyright 2004 Society for the Teaching of Psychology

You may print multiple copies of these materials for your own personal use, including use in your
classes and/or sharing with individual colleagues as long as the author's name and institution and a
notice that the materials were obtained from the Web site of the Society for the Teaching of
Psychology (STP) <www.teachpsych.org> appear on the copied document. For research and archival
purposes, public libraries and libraries at schools, colleges, universities and similar educational
institutions may print and store in their research or lending collections multiple copies of this
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No other permission is granted to you to print, copy, reproduce, or distribute additional copies of these
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Suggested Reference Format

Following examples in the 5th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological
Association for reference materials found online, we suggest that the overall text be referenced in this
fashion:

Buskist, W., Beins, B. C., & Hevern, V. W. (Eds.). (2004). Preparing the new psychology
professoriate: Helping graduate students become competent teachers. Syracuse, NY: Society for
the Teaching of Psychology. Retrieved [insert date] from the Web site:
http://www.teachpsych.org/teachpsych/pnpp/

Individual articles and chapters may be referenced in this fashion:

Fox, P. A. (2004). GTA training at Appalachian State University. In W. Buskist, B. C. Beins, & V. W.
Hevern (Eds.), Preparing the new psychology professoriate: Helping graduate students become
competent teachers (pp. 37-41). Syracuse, NY: Society for the Teaching of Psychology. Retrieved
[insert date] from the Web site: http://www.teachpsych.org/teachpsych/pnpp/

ii
 Consulting Editors

Virginia Andreoli Mathie, James Madison University

Susan Becker, Mesa State College
Trisha A. Benson, Auburn University
Andrew N. Christopher, Albion College
Ramie Cooney, Creighton University
Dana S. Dunn, Moravian College
Vanessa Fazio, Suffolk University
Abby Heckman, Georgia Institute of Technology
Amber Henslee, Auburn University
Matt Hertenstein, DePauw Univerity
G. William Hill IV, Kennesaw State University
Steve H. Hobbs, Augusta State University
Jessica Irons, Auburn University
Cheri Jacobs, Savannah College of Art and Design
Dave Johnson, John Brown University
Jared Keeley, Auburn University
Mark Krank, University of Montana
Maureen McCarthy, American Psychological Association
Linda M. Noble, Kennesaw State University
David Pittenger, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Erin B. Rasmussen, Idaho State University
Jeanine Ray, Kent State University
Loretta Rieser-Daniel, West Chester University of Pennsylvania
Todd A. Smitherman, Auburn University
Michael Spiegler, Providence College
Kenneth M. Steele, Appalachian State University
Mark Ware, Creighton University
Kenneth A.Weaver, Emporia State University
Valerie Whittlesey, Kennesaw State University
Janie H. Wilson, Georgia Southern University
Elizabeth Yost Hammer, Loyola Universtiy

iii
 Table of Contents

Preface ........................................................................................................... vii

Part 1: Introduction

1. To Train or Not to Train; That is the Question

David J. Wimer and Loreto R. Prieto, The University of Akron
Steven A. Meyers, Roosevelt University ......................................................... 2

2: The Shifting Currents of Scholarship and Teaching in the Ecologies

of Academic Careers
Neil Lutsky, Carleton College.......................................................................... 10

Part 2: Models of Teacher Training

3. Preparing Future Psychology Faculty at the University of New Hampshire

Victor A. Benassi and Kenneth Fuld, University of New Hampshire................ 17

4. The University Of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Psychology Department

New TA Orientation: De-Stress, Model, and Inform
Sandra Goss Lucas, University of Illinois ........................................................ 24

5. From Apprentice to Professional: Community College Teacher Training

Bryan K. Saville, Stephen F. Austin State University....................................... 31

6. GTA Training at Appalachian State University

Paul A. Fox, Appalachian State University ...................................................... 37

7. Training and Evaluating Master’s-Level Graduate Teaching Assistants

Stephen F. Davis and Cathy A. Grover, Emporia State University
Susan R. Burns, Morningside College.............................................................. 42

8. The Evolution of a Teaching Seminar at a Research University

Richard A. Griggs, University of Florida ......................................................... 49

9. Graduate Student Teacher Training at The University of Georgia

Katherine Kipp, Tracy Lambert, and Carrie Rosengart
The University of Georgia ............................................................................... 54

10. GTA Training in the Psychology Department at Auburn University

John L. Clifton, Jared W. Keeley, and Amber M. Henslee, Auburn University. 58

11. Visions and Realities in Preparing College Teachers

James H. Korn, Saint Louis University ............................................................ 62

iv
Part 3: The Successful Job Applicant: What Academic Departments Seek
in New Assistant Professors

12. Qualities and Abilities our Psychology Department Seeks in

Outstanding Job Candidates
Jerry Rudmann, Irvine Valley Community College.......................................... 70

13. Characteristics of Successful Community College Academicians

Ann Tway Ewing, Mesa Community College ................................................ 78

14. Desirable Qualities in Psychology Faculty at Tuskegee University

Marcia J. Rossi and Reginald A. Gougis, Tuskegee University ....................... 83

15. The Successful Job Applicant at Alabama State University

Tina Vazin, Alabama State University ............................................................ 87

16. Applying to Teach at Religiously-Affiliated Institutions:

Advice for New Psychology Faculty
Vincent W. Hevern, Le Moyne College .......................................................... 91

17. Prospects for the New Professoriate at Brigham Young University

Hal Miller and A. Manja Larcher, Brigham Young University ........................ 95

18. Four Desirable Qualities for Teaching at a Small Liberal Arts College
Ruth L. Ault, Davidson College ...................................................................... 99

19. The Office Next Door: Making Yourself an Excellent Faculty Candidate
Kenneth D. Keith, University of San Diego .................................................... 104

20. Ithaca College: Balancing Teaching and Scholarship

Ann Lynn, Ithaca College ............................................................................... 110

21. The Successful Job Applicant: What the University of Nebraska—Kearny

Seeks in a New Assistant Professor
Richard L. Miller, Robert F. Rycek, and William J.Wozniak
University of Nebraska at Kearney .................................................................. 114

22. Kennesaw State University: Teaching is the Key

Randolph A. Smith, Kennesaw State University .............................................. 118

23. Hiring a New Assistant Professor at a Large Mid-Level Public University

D. F. Barone, D. F. Graybill, and T. S. Critchfield, Illinois State University .... 122

24. The Successful Job Applicant: What Syracuse University

Seeks in New Assistant Professors
Larry Lewandowski, Syracuse University ....................................................... 127

v
Part 4: Making the Transition from Graduate Student to Assistant Professor: Six
Exemplars

25. An Office of Your Own: The Virtues and Challenges of Independence

as a New Faculty Member
Amy T. Galloway, Appalachian State University ............................................ 135

26. Transition Part One: 1999-2004

William Douglas Woody, University of Northern Colorado ............................ 139

27. Making the Transition from Graduate Student to Assistant Professor

Amy Hackney, Georgia Southern University .................................................. 144

28. My First Year as Assistant Professor: Learning to be Free

Brian L. Burke, Fort Lewis College ................................................................ 148

29. It’s a Wonderful Life

Laura L. Vernon, Auburn University ............................................................... 152

30. Moving On: Making the Transition from Graduate Student to Faculty Member
Tracy E. Zinn, Stephen F. Austin State University .......................................... 157

Part 5: Selected Bibliography in College and University Teaching

31. Books to Enhance Your Teaching Life

Baron Perlman, University of Wisconsin—Oshkosh ....................................... 163

vi
 Preface

As all professors have learned, joining the professoriate means that for as long as we
are members of the academy, our professional lives will be segmented into three unequally
sized portions: We will teach, conduct research, and perform service. As we also all know, the
academy trains graduate students primarily as researchers. They may receive some training
for teaching, but almost none for service. At some institutions, graduate students may gain
some teaching experience, although little formal training—they are simply told to “go teach.”
In the past few years, the Society for the Teaching of Psychology (STP;
<http://www.teachpsych.org>) has attempted to underscore the need for better training and
supervision of graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) and has developed programs for helping
GTAs improve the quality of their teaching. For example, three years ago, STP developed and
implemented a series of nationwide preconference workshops specifically aimed to help
graduate students develop their teaching philosophy and style. These workshops have been
transformed recently into Teaching Enhancement Workshops (TEWs) that take place on
college campuses instead of at professional meetings. In addition, two years ago, STP
developed the Graduate Student Teaching Association (GSTA), to provide a supportive home
for graduate students within its organization <http://teachpsych.lemoyne.edu/teachpsych/
div/gsta.html>. The GSTA has full voting privileges within STP and an hour of programming

at the annual American Psychological Association convention. Not to be outdone, the

American Psychological Society (APS) is currently developing a series of programs and
efforts to enhance GTA training and supervision <http://www.psychologicalscience.org/>.
This book follows suit in its emphasis on calling attention to the need for more
extensive and intensive GTA training and it provides guidance regarding the ways that such
training can serve graduate students who are ready for academic positions. This book focuses
on diverse aspects of the transition from graduate student to faculty member. We divided its
31 chapters into four parts. Part 1 includes two chapters. Chapter 1 develops an argument in

vii
support of GTA training and Chapter 2 showcases the important links between scholarship
and teaching. Part 2 features nine chapters, each of which describes successful models for
effectively training GTAs. These chapters describe training programs at six doctoral
institutions and three master’s institutions. Part 3 contains 13 chapters that describe the
qualities that psychology departments seek in hiring new assistant professors. Our authors
describe the hiring preferences of a sample of doctoral, master’s, 4-year, and 2-year
institutions as well as historically black and religious institutions. Part 4 includes six chapters
describing the transition from graduate student to assistant professor written by brand new or
fairly new PhDs. These authors describe both their levels of preparedness for their first
academic position and aspects of their work that “caught them off guard.” The final chapter of
the book contains an annotated bibliography of books related to college and university
teaching in general and the teaching of psychology in particular.
As the authors have illustrated, success as a job applicant often rests on teaching
experience, but success as a faculty member is often based on more than continuing
development of excellence in the classroom. The ability to collaborate with students and
colleagues enhances one’s acceptance into a department. At the same time, the relative
emphasis on teaching and research in a given institution will affect a faculty member’s
attention to either research or teaching at the expense of the other. As job applicants, graduate

students must be sensitive to the context of the department in order to maximize the likelihood
of success in their search and to minimize the types of errors that can dim their chances at a
given school (see Brems, Lampman, & Johnson, 1995).
We thank our authors for their generous and thoughtful contributions to this e-book.
This e-book differs from most edited books in that each chapter was peer-reviewed by at least
two experts in various areas of the teaching of psychology We thank our reviewers for their
careful critiques of our authors’ work. We would also like to thank Ana Amstadter, Trish
Benson, Amber Hensley, Jared Keeley, and Ryan Siney for assistance in proofreading this
book.

viii
 We conceived and developed this book to be a useful resource to graduate students
who wish to become competent college and university level teachers and to faculty who
supervise or otherwise train them. We hope that you will find this book achieves this goal.

Bill Buskist, Auburn, AL

Barney Beins, Ithaca, NY
Vinny Hevern, Syracuse, NY
November 2004

Reference
Brems, C., Lampman, C., & Johnson, M. E. (1995). Preparation of applications for academic
positions in psychology. American Psychologist, 50, 533-537.

ix
 Part I

Introduction

1
 1

To Train or Not to Train; That is the Question

David J. Wimer and Loreto R. Prieto, The University of Akron

Steven A. Meyers, Roosevelt University

A majority of doctoral students hold teaching assistantships during their graduate

careers (Henderson & Woods, 1997). The 2002 Survey of Earned Doctorates (Hoffer et al.,
2003) indicated that 20,847 of 36,029 doctoral degree recipients (approximately 58%) held
teaching assistantships (TAs). This proportion was even higher in the social sciences, in
which 4,198 of 5,950 doctoral recipients (approximately 71%) held such assistantships.
Moreover, the proportion of graduate students with teaching duties is increasing (i.e.,
approximately 52% of all doctoral recipients and 60% of those in the social sciences held
teaching assistantships in 1993; Thurgood & Clarke, 1995). Generally speaking, teaching
assistants instruct numerous college students, which makes TA training critical.
Unfortunately, within psychology, many TAs either are not prepared or poorly
prepared for their first teaching experience (Meyers, 2001; Prieto & Meyers, 2001; Prieto,
2004). A review of national surveys of psychology departments and psychology TAs (cf.
Lumsden, Grosslight, Loveland, & Williams, 1988; Lowman & Mathie, 1993; Mueller,
Perlman, McCann, & McFadden, 1997; Meyers & Prieto; 2000; Buskist, Tears, Davis, &
Rogrigue, 2002) indicates clearly that 15% to 30% of TAs have not had the benefit of TA
training before undertaking their duties in the classroom.
In assessing the cost for failing to provide psychology TAs with adequate training,
Prieto (2002) listed several potential concerns and consequences. Overlooking training
ignores the fact that teaching assistantships are the foundation of future faculty development
for the psychology professorate. For example, Meyers and Prieto (2000) reported that over
60% of their psychology TA sample expressed an interest in an academic career; yet,
approximately 30% had received either no training for or supervision of their teaching duties.

2
The skills and sense of efficacy toward teaching acquired by psychology TAs during
assistantships prepares them for what they will find in the classroom as future faculty. A
failure to train psychology TAs may mean that some will embark on academic careers with a
sub-optimal grasp of effective classroom teaching. In addition, those TAs who show great
promise as classroom teachers and who plan to enter academia, but who do not receive good
training and support, may become demoralized and lose interest in teaching without the
guidance to help them through the difficulties that classroom teachers inevitably face (Prieto,
1995, 2001). Failing to train psychology TAs also increases the probability of a less than
optimal experience for the undergraduate students they teach but may also mean that those
same undergraduate students will be less well prepared when they enter advanced courses
within the psychology major, and ultimately, graduate training (Prieto, 2002).
What is Being Done?: Current TA Training in Psychology
Investigators evaluating TA training in psychology programs have concluded that the
consistency and quality of such training varies greatly, from no training whatsoever to
comprehensive, curriculum-based training as a psychology educator (e.g., Prieto, 2004).
Prieto and Meyers (1999) reported data obtained from TAs in 116 psychology departments
across the country and noted that psychology TA training (such as course work, workshops,
etc.), involves about 22 clock hours (Meyers & Prieto, 2000); initial TA training tends to have

poor or non-existent follow-up (Rushin, De Saix, & Lumsden, 1997); many TAs reported that
they do not take full advantage of TA training opportunities; and department chairpersons
indicated that TA training is not mandatory but often only recommended (Meyers & Prieto,
2000). Course work on the teaching of psychology has begun to emerge as a forum for
training psychology TAs, but even this format is not yet widely used. Buskist et al. (2002)
surveyed 236 psychology departments regarding the prevalence of course work to prepare
psychology TAs for classroom duties. A total of 98 departments, fewer than half of the
number that responded to the survey, reported offering a course on the teaching of
psychology.

3
 Prieto (2004) summarized recent research on psychology TA training with respect to
common methods used and topics covered. Focusing on five key articles published in the
journal Teaching of Psychology across the past 15 years (Buskist et al., 2002; Lowman &
Mathie, 1993; Lumsden et al., 1988; Meyers & Prieto; 2000; Mueller et al., 1997), Prieto
distilled the information in these works into the two general categories of (a) training methods
employed and (b) topics covered in TA training. Typical training methods included
orientation programs, workshops, a course on teaching, observations of teaching, and
microteaching exercises. Typical topics included developing and presenting syllabi, labs, and
lectures; evaluating and promoting student learning; managing problematic student behavior;
ethics; and awareness of campus resources. As to general themes, training methods use an
apprenticeship or modeling approach (e.g., TAs watch faculty and have faculty watch or
supervise them); TAs actively practice and receive feedback on actual teaching skills (e.g.,
microteaching); and students learn about teaching (e.g., course work, orientations, workshops,
seminars). General themes within topics covered appear to be pedagogical issues (e.g.,
developing syllabi); evaluative issues (e.g., grading); and networking and resource issues
(e.g., TA awareness of campus resources available to both themselves and students).
How Effective is Training?: Outcome Evidence for TA Training in Psychology
Early research into the general area of TA training, although atheoretical, showed

clear evidence that skill training helped to improve TA classroom performance (see Abbott,
Wulff, & Szego, 1989 for a review). Later efforts demonstrated that training enhances TAs’
sense of self-efficacy toward teaching, which in turn can lead to improved classroom
performance (Prieto & Altmaier; 1994). Prieto and Meyers (1999), in examining national data
from psychology TAs, found that those who received training possessed a greater degree of
self-efficacy toward teaching than those not trained.
However, such studies have examined training as a single entity and typically
operationalized it dichotomously (TAs received training or did not) or by number of hours of
training received (versus assessing outcome by type of training). Yet to be completed is a

4
comprehensive and thorough program of examining the most potent ingredient of TA training
programs or most effective training methods. Also interesting to note is that psychology TAs
tend to receive training that is more reflective of vicarious learning bases (e.g., observation)
than performance learning bases (e.g., practice lectures). Because self-efficacy theory posits
that the greatest levels of self-efficacy are acquired through performance accomplishments
(cf. Bandura, 1986), psychology TAs are likely to benefit most from training methods that
more proximally address and involve actual experience with the skills they will need in
teaching. A prime example of this type of training method is microteaching (Allen & Ryan,
1969), especially when coupled with videotape feedback.
Maslach, Silver, Pole, and Ozer (2001) discussed the utility of using microteaching to
train TAs in classroom instruction. As typically practiced, TAs develop a short presentation of
class materials, then they teach this material to fellow TAs, and finally, TAs receive feedback
from their TA colleagues, TA supervisors, and (often) videotaped feedback of their
performance. After assimilating feedback, TAs then rework both the content and their
teaching methods and immediately re-present the material to their fellow TAs. Maslach et al.
(2001) stressed that microteaching allows TAs to developing economy in presentation,
explore different teaching styles, and shape changes in teaching over repeated self-
examination. Maslach et al. (2001) asserted that microteaching offers TAs superior, concrete,

proximal, performance-based feedback.

Prentice-Dunn and Pitts (2001), in their review of research examining the use of
videotape feedback to train TAs, found this method to have solid empirical support. These
authors use the technique in their own psychology teaching practicum. Their students reported
that watching themselves teach on video was an invaluable tool in understanding their
teaching styles and to maximize their effectiveness in the classroom.
What’s Next?: The Future of TA Training in Psychology
The Teaching of Psychology course shows great promise as a primary venue to impart
TA training. Buskist et al. (2002) showed that a great many of the methods and topics

5
typically covered in a component fashion in TA workshops or orientations can all be
integrated into the teaching of psychology course. A course-based vehicle for TA training
provides several benefits for TAs, including transcript credits and evidence of training, a
longer-term period of training (e.g., an academic term versus a brief workshop), and a time-
efficient and pragmatic centralization of training. Integrating a TA training course into a
curriculum allows departments and students to regard teacher training as a valuable and
legitimate part of educating psychologists, a perspective that has yet to permeate all
psychology departments, especially those at research-intensive universities (Meyers, 2001).
However, as judged from current reports, it is difficult to determine what particular
training methods and topics are necessary, efficient, or effective in assisting psychology TAs
to become effective classroom instructors. Investigators need to begin tying TA training
interventions to classroom outcomes that relate both to student learning as well as to TAs’
development as psychology educators.
Another area for improvement lies in moving toward better understanding effective
pedagogical processes in training psychology TAs. This issue calls for moving beyond a focus
on training techniques and topics, and requires TA trainers and research investigators to have
a more global understanding of the longer-term developmental processes that govern TAs’
skill and identity acquisition as psychology educators.

Conclusions
The increasing focus on the scholarship of teaching and learning (e.g., the Preparing
Future Faculty initiative through the APA Education Directorate) clearly indicates signs that
academic psychology realizes that training is necessary to produce effective classroom
teachers (cf. Boyer, 1990; Halpern et al., 1998; McKeachie, 2002). As psychology keeps pace
with this evolving educational perspective, graduate psychology students who receive teacher
training along with their specialty area, research, and applied training will likely have an
advantage in the marketplace (cf. Gaff, 1994). Because most psychology educators work
outside of the research extensive settings in the academy (e.g., community colleges, four-year

6
private and public schools), effective teaching skills have been and will continue to be critical
to merit, tenure, and promotion (cf. Meyers, 2001). As a discipline, psychology is beginning
to view the creation of psychology educators as truly on par with the traditional value placed
on creating outstanding researchers and practitioners.
References

Abbott, R., Wulff, D., & Szego, K. (1989). Review of research on TA training. In J. Nyquist,
R. Abbott & D. Wulff (Eds.), Teaching assistant training in the 1990s: Number 39.
New directions for teaching and learning (pp. 111-124). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Allen, D., & Ryan, K. (1969). Microteaching. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action. New York: Prentice Hall.
Boyer, E. L. (1990). Scholarship reconsidered: Priorities of the professoriate. Princeton, NJ:
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
Buskist, W., Tears, R. S., Davis, S. F., & Rodrique, K. M. (2002). The teaching of psychology
course: Prevalence and content. Teaching of Psychology, 29, 140-142.
Gaff, J. G. (1994). Faculty development: The new frontier. Liberal Education, 80, 16-21.
Halpern, D. F., Smothergill, D. W., Allen, M., Baker, S., Baum, C., Best, D., et al. (1998).
Scholarship in psychology: A paradigm for the twenty-first century. American
Psychologist, 53, 1292-1297.

Henderson, P. H., & Woods, C. (1997). Summary report 1996: Doctorate recipients from
United States universities. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
Hoffer, T. B., Sederstrom, S., Selfa, L., Welch, V., Hess, M., Brown, S., Reyes, S., Webber,
K., & Guzman-Barron, I. (2003). Doctorate recipients from United States universities:
Summary report 2002. Chicago: National Opinion Research Center.
Lowman, J., & Mathie, V. A. (1993). What should graduate teaching assistants know about
teaching? Teaching of Psychology, 20, 84-88.

7
Lumsden, E. A., Grosslight, J. H., Loveland, E. H., & Williams, J. E. (1988). Preparation of
graduate students as classroom teachers and supervisors in applied and research
settings. Teaching of Psychology, 15, 5-9.
Maslach, C., Silver, L., Pole, N., & Ozer, E. J. (2001). Making the first time a good time:
Microteaching for new teaching assistants. In L. R. Prieto & S. A. Meyers (Eds.). The
teaching assistant training handbook: How to prepare TAs for their responsibilities
(pp. 71-88). Stillwater, OK: New Forums Press.
McKeachie, W. J. (2002). Teaching tips: Strategies, research, and theory for college and
university teachers (11th ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Meyers, S. A. (2001). Conceptualizing and promoting effective TA training. In L. R. Prieto &
S. A. Meyers (Eds.). The teaching assistant training handbook: How to prepare TAs
for their responsibilities (pp. 3-23). Stillwater, OK: New Forums Press.
Meyers, S. A., & Prieto, L. R. (2000). Training in the teaching of psychology: What is done
and examining the differences. Teaching of Psychology, 27, 258-261.
Mueller, A., Perlman, B., McCann, L. I., & McFadden, S. H. (1997). A faculty perspective on
teaching assistant training. Teaching of Psychology, 24, 167-171.
Prentice-Dunn, S., & Pitts, G. S. (2001). The use of videotape feedback in GTA training. In L.
R. Prieto & S. A. Meyers (Eds.). The teaching assistant training handbook: How to

prepare TAs for their responsibilities (pp. 89-102). Stillwater, OK: New Forums
Press.
Prieto, L. R. (1995). Supervising graduate teaching assistants: An adaptation of the Integrated
Developmental Model. Journal of Graduate Teaching Assistant Development, 2, 93-
105.
Prieto, L. R. (2001). The supervision of graduate teaching assistants: Theory, evidence, and
practice. In L. R. Prieto & S. A. Meyers (Eds.) The teaching assistant training
handbook: How to prepare TAs for their responsibilities (pp. 103-129). Stillwater,
OK: New Forums Press.

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Prieto, L. R. (2002, January). Teaching assistant development: Research and impressions. E-
xcellence in Teaching, Electronic Newsletter; Society for the Teaching of Psychology
(APA Division 2).
Prieto, L. R (2004, July). Graduate teaching training in psychology: Typical practices. In J.
Keeley (Chair) Scientist-teacher model: A step toward improving teacher training.
Symposium conducted at the annual meeting of the American Psychological
Association, Honolulu, Hawaii.
Prieto, L. R., & Altmaier, E. M. (1994). The relationship of prior training and previous
teaching experience to self-efficacy among graduate teaching assistants. Research in
Higher Education, 35, 481-497.
Prieto, L. R., & Meyers, S. A. (1999). The effects of training and supervision on the self-
efficacy of psychology graduate teaching assistants. Teaching of Psychology, 26, 264-
266.
Prieto, L. R., & Meyers, S. A. (Eds.). (2001). The teaching assistant training handbook: How
to prepare TAs for their responsibilities. Stillwater, OK: New Forums Press.
Rushin, J. W., De Saix, J., & Lumsden, A. S. (1997). Graduate teaching assistant training: A
basis for improvement of college biology teaching & faculty development? The
American Biology Teacher, 59, 86-90.

Thurgood, D. H., & Clarke, J. E. (1995). Summary report 1993: Doctorate recipients from
United States universities. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

9
 2

The Shifting Currents of Scholarship and Teaching

in the Ecologies of Academic Careers

Neil Lutsky, Carleton College

How a graduate student navigates the shifting currents of scholarship and teaching
represents a significant difficulty of advanced study in psychology. It is hard enough as a
graduate student to explore, refine, pursue, and promote a set of research interests, even if it
normally represents the primary reason for being in graduate school. It may be even more
challenging to be interested in teaching, because teaching is less frequently recognized as a
professional aspiration by graduate faculty (although, laudably, this trend is changing). It may
be most burdensome of all—although not uncommon—to be unsure about one’s academic
motivations and how scholarship or teaching might come together to constitute a personally
viable academic role. Nonetheless, the resolve, optimism, ingenuity, and adaptability that
navigating the confusions and alienations of graduate school may serve an academic well
throughout a career, especially when charting a course for scholarly and teaching activities.
In some hypothetical academic place, scholarship and teaching are both highly valued,
supported, and rewarded. Fortunately, time in that mythical place expands endlessly to
accommodate the preparation and execution of scholarship and pedagogy. Multiple roles also
facilitate each other such that an investment in teaching almost always strengthens research,
and research accomplishments enrich and sustain teaching. Finally, in this place, life outside
academia is not only possible but even desirable; all family, community, and personal
activities contribute to teaching effectiveness and to research productivity and to renown, and
all professional work strengthens personal life.
Of course, the world of academia, taken as a whole, doesn’t operate this way. We are
forced to make choices, set balances, cut corners, and accommodate pressing necessities, and
then weave the compromised elements of academic life that remain into compelling narratives

10
of purpose, coherence, and growth. Such professional and personal acrobatics are a
fundamental fact of contemporary academic life. Nonetheless, we can thrive and enjoy deeply
engaging and fulfilling roles in academia. How might it be possible to incorporate both
scholarship and teaching in an academic life in psychology? This essay addresses that
question.
Where You Are Going?: The Ecologies of Academic Careers
A First Big Point
It is vital and, at times, reassuring to recognize that the real world of academia in
psychology is far messier—more open, variable, and changing—than the immediate
experience of graduate school might indicate. Graduate socialization may promote the
prototype of life as a primary researcher, but PhD psychologists list “teaching” and “research
and development” with equal frequency when asked to indicate their primary professional
activity (Bailey, 2004). This tendency shows, in a gross way, that PhD psychologists forge
highly varying balances between scholarship and teaching in their professional lives.
A Second Big Point and a Corollary
Somehow, academic roles accommodate this diversity in balances between
scholarship and teaching, which suggests a second big point: there is no one place. Academic
environments vary considerably in terms of the balance of scholarship and teaching they

expect, support, and reward. What is balanced—what constitutes fine scholarship and fine
teaching—also varies across academic ecologies (e.g., Freeman, 2002; Halpern et al., 1998).
Graduate students need to recognize these sources of variability, explore ranges of personal
aspiration within that variability, and begin to understand the norms of academic
environments that might accommodate particular balances of scholarship and teaching.
At the same time, it is important to avoid stereotyping academic environments, which
leads to this corollary of the second point: there is no one place at the place you happen to be.
Any one academic environment often accommodates a variety of balances of scholarship and
teaching even given that institution’s central tendencies. Undergraduate liberal arts colleges

11
known for teaching often value and nurture faculty whose primary commitment is to
scholarship; major research universities often value and nurture faculty whose primary
commitment is to teaching. Faculty begin academic careers intent on sustaining particular
balances of scholarship and teaching, but those balances shift, sometimes radically, as a
function of development, new institutional and disciplinary histories, changes in higher
education, and happenstance. The norms of institutional academic ecologies are real, to be
sure, but genuine variability can be found in most.
A Third and Reorienting Point
Are “scholarship” and “teaching” two monolithic, independent academic callings that
have to be balanced, as suggested above? Without doubt, given the requirements of certain
scholarly and teaching activities, there are times when temporary or long-term trade-offs
between the two are necessary. However, it is also possible, and at times essential, to
intertwine scholarship and teaching. In other words, scholarship is often teaching, and
teaching is often scholarship.
Both graduate and undergraduate faculty “teach by means of research activities”
(Clark, 1997). Teaching through research is highly characteristic of graduate education and is
an increasingly common hallmark of outstanding undergraduate curricula in psychology (e.g.,
Newman, 1998). In addition, scholarship is not limited to the creation of new knowledge in a

standard discipline. New perspectives on scholarship (Boyer, 1990), in conjunction with calls
for the evaluation of educational practices, have put a premium on applications of scholarly
expertise in teaching (Johnson, 2002). Contemporary teaching is expected to be informed by
pedagogical scholarship (e.g., Halpern & Hakel, 2003; National Research Council, 2000), to
demonstrate scholarly integrations and applications of knowledge (Halpern et al., 1998), and
to be evaluated in a systematic manner (e.g., Dunn, Mehrotra, & Halonen, 2004).
Teaching itself, at its best, is centered on immersing students in the values of
discovery. If “the fundamental goal of education in psychology…is to teach students to think
as scientists about behavior” (Brewer, 1993, p. 169), then it follows that the teaching of

12
psychology is not primarily about conveying conceptual names and definitions or lists and
descriptions of noteworthy studies. It is about training students in the manner of thinking
characteristic of psychological science.
In sum, scholarship and teaching can represent overlapping and intertwined domains.
A key dimension of variability in ecologically selective pressures for scholarship and teaching
is precisely how tightly interrelated an institution may view these two domains. The existence
of this variability, in turn, suggests that one goal of a graduate experience should be to explore
and to test possible fits to environments that are differentially conducive to traditional
scholarship and teaching.
How You Might Get to Where You are Going in Academia
Given the diversity and ongoing evolution of academic environments for scholarship
and teaching, how can a graduate student develop the plumage to be attractive to an
appropriate ecological mate (i.e., a desired academic position in psychology)? The obvious
but not always feasible answer to this question is to develop and demonstrate as a graduate
student interests and accomplishments that will match those valued in a range of desired
environments. Many of the essays in this volume articulate what accomplishments particular
educational environments value and how those might be achieved in graduate study.
For many students, however, the ecological pressures of graduate school—specifically

those pushing research productivity over teaching—make broad investments difficult.

Nonetheless, it is still possible in a domain of specialization to recognize and demonstrate
values, characteristics, and interests that potentially generalize to and predict success in other
environments. Evidence of curiosity, openness, adaptability, creativity, rigor, an eagerness to
test ideas, and scholarly grounding come to mind in this regard. Although it is attractive to
have demonstrated expertise and success in both scholarly and pedagogical domains, what
may be more practical is to show appreciations and abilities that potentially transcend a
domain and to recognize the import of doing so. As the currents of scholarship and teaching

13
continue to shift in the years ahead, such dexterity will, I believe, serve academic
psychologists exceptionally well.
References
Bailey, D. S. (2004, February). Number of psychology PhDs declining. Monitor on
Psychology, 35, 18-19.
Boyer, E. L. (1990). Scholarship reconsidered: Priorities of the professorate. Princeton, NJ:
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
Brewer, C. L. (1993). Curriculum. In T. V. McGovern (Ed.), Handbook for enhancing
undergraduate education in psychology (pp. 161-182). Washington, DC: American
Psychological Association.
Clark, B. R. (1997). The modern integration of research activities with teaching and learning.
Journal of Higher Education, 68, 241-255.
Dunn, D. S., Mehrotra, C. M., & Halonen, J. S. (2004). Measuring up: Educational
assessment challenges and practices for psychology. Washington, DC: American
Psychological Association.
Freeman, J. E. (2002). Differences in teaching in a liberal arts college versus research
university. In S. F. Davis & W. Buskist (Eds.), The teaching of psychology: Essays in
honor of Wilbert J. McKeachie and Charles L. Brewer (pp. 247-257). Mahwah, NJ:

Erlbaum.
Halpern, D. F., Smothergill, D. W., Allen, M., Baker, S., Baum, C., Best, D., et al. (1998).
Scholarship in psychology: A paradigm for the twenty-first century. American
Psychologist, 53, 1292-1297.
Halpern, D. F., & Hakel, M. D. (2003). Applying the science of learning to the university and
beyond. Change, 35, 36-41.
Johnson, D. E. (2002). Teaching, research, and scholarship. In S. F. Davis & W. Buskist
(Eds.), The teaching of psychology: Essays in honor of Wilbert J. McKeachie and
Charles L. Brewer (pp. 153-162). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

14
National Research Council (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school.
Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
Newman, J. H. (1998). Rapprochement among undergraduate psychology, science,
mathematics, engineering, and technology education. American Psychologist, 53,
1032-1043.

15
 II

Models of Teacher Training

16
 3

Preparing Future Psychology Faculty at the University of New Hampshire

Victor A. Benassi and Kenneth Fuld, University of New Hampshire

The University of New Hampshire (UNH), located in Durham near the seacoast, is a
residential public research-extensive institution with a total enrollment of about 13,000
students, over 10,000 of whom are undergraduates. The University offers a broad range of
undergraduate and graduate programs. Doctoral degrees are offered in over 20 areas of
specialization. Students are predominantly in the 18 to 23 age range. Most students are from
New England, but a significant number are from other parts of the US and other countries.
About 50% of undergraduate students are not residents of New Hampshire. The University
also has an urban campus in Manchester, New Hampshire with an enrollment of about 1,500
undergraduates. The Manchester campus enrolls a diverse mix of adults and traditional
college-age students.
The goal of the UNH PhD program in psychology since its start in the 1960s has been
to prepare psychologists to secure faculty positions (Benassi & Fernald, 1993). Its centerpiece
has been the background students receive in the area of college teaching and other faculty
roles (Benassi & Fernald, 1991; 1993; Fernald, 1995; Ferren, Gaff, & Clayton-Pedersen,
2002).
In addition to engaging in coursework and research training, students participate in
experiences designed to prepare them for a full range of faculty roles. These experiences vary
depending on students’ positions in the program. First-year students participate in a graduate
proseminar and gain teaching and research assistant experience. Second-year students
participate in teaching and research assistant experience, complete coursework in the UNH
Summer Institute on College Teaching, prepare for teaching in their third year, and visit other
colleges and universities. Third-year students participate in a two-semester Practicum and
Seminar in the Teaching of Psychology, coursework in the Summer Institute on College

17
Teaching, and visits to other colleges and universities. They also take the first part of a
specialty exam designed to prepare them for teaching a course in their specialty area during
fourth year. Finally, fourth- and fifth-year doctoral students may teach in their specialty area,
visit other colleges and universities, and prepare for the job search. They take the second part
of a specialty exam designed to prepare them for their doctoral dissertation.
Experiences Related to Teaching, Research, and Service
Teaching
During the spring of their second year in the program and over the summer, students
scheduled to teach Introductory Psychology begin to work with the next teacher of the
Practicum and Seminar in the Teaching of Psychology. They enroll in Preparing to Teach a
Psychology Course. Several important topics and tasks are addressed early in the process of
preparing to teach the introductory course: the purposes of the introductory psychology
course, principles of test construction and grading practices, classroom teaching methods,
selection of textbooks and other materials for the introductory psychology course, preparation
of a course syllabus, and preparation of several teaching modules (Benassi, Jordan, &
Harrison, 1994). This course was made available in 2002 to doctoral students from
universities other than UNH through support from the American Psychological Association
(APA; Murray, 2002). To date, students from the following universities have participated in

the course: Claremont Graduate University, Dartmouth College, Howard University, Miami
University, Oklahoma State University, State University of New York at Albany, University
of Colorado at Boulder, University of Connecticut, University of Georgia, University of
Missouri at Columbia, and Yale University.
The Department offers a Practicum and Seminar in the Teaching of Psychology each
fall and spring semester. Four senior professors take turns teaching this course. It provides
third-year doctoral students with an academic foundation for teaching psychology. Concurrent
with the course, students teach one section of Introductory Psychology during the fall and
spring semesters. The Practicum and Seminar includes coverage of a broad range of topics

18
concerning teaching and learning, with special emphasis on the teaching of psychology. In
addition, students receive group and individual supervision of their teaching. On several
occasions the teacher observes doctoral students teaching their course. These students are also
videotaped while teaching. The teacher observes the videotape with the students and provides
feedback on their performance.
Students complete two specialty requirements. The first requirement is an exam
geared toward preparing them to teach a survey course and providing them common
background in their specialty area. The second requirement focuses on more in-depth study in
students’ areas of research specialization. During their fourth year and perhaps the fifth year,
students teach a survey course in their specialty area and often an introductory course in
statistics, with assistance and guidance from Psychology Department faculty.
Research and Service
Doctoral students work on research from the beginning of their studies in a specialty
area offered in the department—brain, behavior, and cognition; human development; history
of psychology; social and personality. The nature of this involvement varies with their prior
background, interests, and seniority in the program. Graduate students continue to be
productive, as evidenced by presentations at research conferences and by publications (cf.
Benassi & Fernald, 1993). Students are also routinely involved in service activities for the

Department (e.g., hiring committee), graduate school (e.g., Graduate Student Organization),
and University (e.g., Women’s Commission). Informal surveys of program graduates have
indicated such service activities have served them well both during the job interview process
and on the job.
Faculty as Advisors and Mentors
Graduate Proseminar
First-year doctoral students take a required two-semester proseminar that is taught by
a senior faculty member. The proseminar meets biweekly for two hours. It focuses on the
following areas: forming a professional identity, meeting Psychology Department faculty and

19
learning about their careers, establishing professional relationships with faculty, becoming
knowledgeable about ethical issues in research and teaching, and developing a first-year talk.
(Students prepare and deliver an end-of-the-year research presentation.) The proseminar
includes presentations by Psychology faculty, staff of the Graduate School, the Director of the
Center for Teaching Excellence, the Psychology Department's administrative coordinator, and
advanced graduate students. A Preparing Future Faculty in Psychology Project Coordinator
provides detailed information on the Psychology Department and university-wide efforts in
the area of faculty development.
Interactions with Faculty from Other Institutions
The Psychology Department arranges visits to colleges and universities so that it’s
doctoral students meet faculty from places different than UNH and learn about what it is like
to work at such places. The Psychology Department has sponsored visits to Howard
University, St. Anselm College, University of New Hampshire at Manchester, Keene State
College, and Dartmouth College. We selected these institutions for two main reasons. First,
each differs on several dimensions (e.g., mission, size, location) from UNH and each other.
Second, we already had good relationships with faculty from these institutions, making it
relatively easy to establish the campus visits initiative.
Job Search

The preliminary stages of the job search process begin during students’ third year of
graduate study, when the teacher of the Practicum and Seminar in the Teaching of Psychology
assists them in preparing a curriculum vitae and the beginnings of a professional portfolio.
During the year that students begin the job search, faculty offer advice and assistance on
identifying job openings, preparing cover letters, finalizing the portfolio, and preparing
research- and teaching-oriented job talks.
Since the early 1990s, over 75% of the graduates of the program have secured faculty
positions at the full range of postsecondary institutions—community colleges (e.g., New
Hampshire Community Technical College), liberal arts colleges (e.g., Hobart and William

20
Smith College, Willamette University), comprehensive universities (e.g., Armstrong Atlantic
State University, State University of New York College at Geneseo), research universities
(e.g., College of William and Mary, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New
Brunswick Campus). If we include only those students who attempted to secure academic
positions, the percentage is even higher. (Occasional graduates of our program seek career
opportunities outside of academe—for example, in business, industry, or consulting.) Some of
the program graduates first complete a post-doctoral fellowship before applying for a faculty
position.
Integrating the Department Program with Other UNH Programs
We urge students to take advantage of several faculty development programs available
at UNH—university-wide Preparing Future Faculty (PFF) program, Academic Program in
College Teaching (APCT), Summer Institute on College Teaching, and Center for Teaching
Excellence. Through the APCT, most Psychology students work toward earning a minor in
college teaching (granted in conjunction with the conferral of the PhD), while a smaller
percentage work toward earning a master’s degree in college teaching (a non-thesis degree
that is also granted in conjunction with conferral of the PhD) (Seidel, Benassi, & Richards, in
press). Students earn academic credit by taking courses in the summer teaching institute.
UNH sponsors a university-wide PFF Program, and most Psychology students participate in

program activities such as the PFF Breakfast/Lunch series during which students from across
the University discuss, often with faculty guests from other colleges or universities, a variety
of important issues (e.g., academic freedom, the job search, managing an academic career).
Dissemination Activities
The APA Education Directorate provides national leadership for the Preparing
Future Faculty Program in Psychology (Nelson & Morreale, 2002; <http://www.preparing-
faculty.org/PFFWeb.Contents.htm#about>). APA awarded grants to four institutions,
including UNH, to develop and disseminate PFF programs. UNH PFF participants—both
faculty and doctoral students—have been involved a variety of ways to disseminate

21
information about the UNH program to leaders of other psychology doctoral programs. Some
examples of dissemination activities include presentations at the annual APA convention;
participation in other national and regional meetings; offering workshops to Psychology
faculty, administrators, and graduate students from other institutions where there is an interest
in learning about the PFF initiative and in developing a PFF program.
Conclusion
The UNH Psychology PFF program has a firm institutional footing and a steady
funding stream from permanent University funds. Students leave the program with several
feathers in their caps related to their teaching, research, and service skills and
accomplishments. Graduates have done very well on the job market, with the overwhelming
majority securing faculty positions (Benassi & Fernald, 1993). This consistent commitment
and support are essential to the program’s success. As the landscape of doctoral education
continues to change in significant ways, traditional programs that prepare doctoral students
primarily as scholars/researchers, while ignoring other aspects of their professional
development, will be viewed increasingly as offering necessary but insufficient preparation
for a productive faculty career (Seidel et al., in press).
Author Note
In addition to university support, we acknowledge support from an American

Psychological Association Education Directorate grant and from a Fund for the Improvement
of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) dissemination grant awarded to the university’s Center
for Teaching Excellence and the Graduate School. APA’s website includes information on
future faculty: <http://www.apa.org/ed/pff.html>
References
Association of American Colleges and Universities. Welcome to PFF web: The web site for
the Preparing Future Faculty Program. Retrieved February 10, 2003 from the Web
site: <http://www.preparing-faculty.org/PFFWeb.Contents.htm#about>

22
Benassi. V. A., & Fernald, P. S. (1991). The University of New Hampshire Model for
preparing psychology doctoral students to become teachers/scholars. In J. D. Nyquist,
R. D. Abbott, D. H. Wulff, & J. Sprague (Eds.), Preparing the professoriate of
tomorrow to teach: Selected readings in TA training (pp. 184-190). Dubuque, IA:
Kendall/Hunt.
Benassi. V. A., & Fernald, P. S. (1993). Preparing tomorrow's psychologists for careers in
academe. Teaching of Psychology, 20, 149-155.
Benassi, V. A., Jordan, E. A., & Harrison, L. M. (1994). Using teaching modules to train and
supervise graduate TAs. In K. G. Lewis (Ed.), The TA experience: Preparing for
multiple roles (pp. 183-188). Stillwater, OK: New Forums Press.
Fernald, P. S. (1995). Preparing psychology graduate students for the professoriate. American
Psychologist, 50, 421-427.
Ferren, A., Gaff, J., & Clayton-Pedersen, A. (2002). Will reforms survive? Strategies for
sustaining preparing future faculty programs. Liberal Education, 88, 14-21.
Murray, B. (2002, October). Online course primes students for real-time teaching. Monitor on
Psychology, 33, 75.
Nelson, P. D., & Morreale, S. P. (2002). Disciplinary leadership in preparing future faculty.
Liberal Education, 88, 28-33.

Seidel, L. F., Benassi, V. A., & Richards, H. J. (in press). College teaching as a professional
field of study. Journal on Excellence in College Teaching.

23
 4

The University Of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Psychology Department New TA

Orientation: De-Stress, Model, and Inform

Sandra Goss Lucas, University of Illinois

The University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) is a Doctoral/Research

University, Intensive. As the premier public university in Illinois, it attracts high quality
undergraduate and graduate students. The Teaching Assistant (TA) Orientation that I will
describe is offered by the UIUC Psychology Department, which has 55 faculty members and
170 graduate students. Any graduate student in the Psychology Department who will be
teaching for the first time is required to attend the TA Orientation.
The Basic Structure
Douglas Bernstein and I began our Psychology Department TA Orientation in 1992 as
a reaction to the orientation to TA training offered at the campus level. Although this campus-
wide orientation was excellent in many ways, our students did not find some segments helpful
(e.g., learning styles) and found the emphasis to be on pedagogical theory rather than on basic
teaching issues. Because this orientation precedes their new teaching assignment by only a
week, there was a “crisis” mentality among graduate students who wanted survival skills first
and theory later. Thus, the emphasis of the Psychology Department orientation, from the very
beginning, has been on the practical aspects of teaching and the departmental resources
available to support teaching. We encourage TAs to enroll later in a psychology or campus-
wide graduate course on college teaching.
The Psychology Department’s orientation is a two and one-half day affair presented
the week before fall semester begins. I plan it with two or three advanced graduate students.
The first two days focus on teaching information, and the last half day focuses on practice
teaching, with each TA being videotaped presenting a mini-lesson.
The First Day of Orientation

24
 We begin our TA Orientation with a brief welcome from the department head. In a
research institution such as ours, where teaching is often perceived as secondary to research,
this welcome and clear statement about the importance of good teaching by the Head provides
credibility for the orientation.
Because we have found TAs to be incredibly anxious at the outset of orientation, we
begin by asking TAs regarding their concerns about their upcoming teaching experience. TAs
write their concerns on one side of a 3x5 card and rate that concern from 5 (very concerned)
to 1 (minimally concerned). On the other side of the card they note what they are looking
forward to in their teaching. We then model an active learning technique by collecting the
cards, shuffling them, and redistributing them randomly; thus each TA has another TA’s card.
Next, we ask for those who have a card with a ‘5’ to read it aloud, and we talk about the issue
raised. We open the floor in this discussion. We do not pretend to know all the answers, and
we rely on other TAs in the orientation to provide a different perspective, a relevant
experience, or a helpful insight. This tactic models using students as resources. Typical
concerns include fear of speaking in front of groups, classroom control, and grading issues.
After addressing most of the 5s we recollect the cards and assure new TAs that we will
address all of their concerns during the orientation. I read each card that evening and make
sure that we do address all issues mentioned.

We then begin our presentation by handing out an outline of the entire orientation,
modeling the importance of an outline. The first topic is basic teaching skills. We show and
discuss short video-clips of former TAs lecturing (used with their permission). Although all of
the TAs shown were good teachers, they all had areas in which they could improve. We
present examples of different styles of lecturing, from a structured lecture in front of 200
students to a more Socratic approach with 20 students. We discuss the importance of “being
yourself” as a teacher. We talk about the basics of lecturing: being seen and heard; being
organized; using the blackboard, overhead, or PowerPoint; providing examples; and using

25
handouts. We talk about how to prepare a lecture and how to adjust teaching methods to the
size of the class.
Our next set of video-clips involves TAs leading discussions. We talk about different
types of discussions, the teacher’s role in these different types of discussions, and tips and
techniques for getting discussions started. We then move on to video-clips of instructors
asking and answering questions. We stress the importance of checking for student
understanding of class material and going beyond asking “Are there any questions?” We
encourage the use of follow-up questions, and stress the importance of “wait time”—all issues
that arise from watching the video-clips. We talk about nonverbal behaviors that encourage
students to ask questions and show them that you are listening, which include eye contact,
nodding, not interrupting, and movement closer to the student talking. We discuss what
happens when you don’t know the answer to a question—checking to see if others in the class
know, then saying, “I don’t know—but I’ll find out and get back to you.” We discourage
invention of answers.
The morning ends with a discussion of active learning techniques, including using
small groups. We provide a handout that lists techniques ranging from low to high “risk.” One
of the presenters gives a good lecture over a topic, and then another presenter covers the same
material with a classroom activity. This demonstration allows the TAs to experience the

different techniques as students would.

After lunch we talk about grading and testing. We have an expert from our campus
Center for Teaching Excellence make a presentation on guidelines for writing and grading
quizzes and exams. He has a handout containing examples of “poor” test questions and
divides the TAs into small groups to analyze them. They report back to the class the problems
they found with the questions. At the end of the speaker’s presentation, we hand out a 6-page
excerpt from an introductory textbook and “Tips for writing good test items.” The TAs are
instructed to write, and bring back the next morning, four different types of questions based

26
on the common reading. Specifically, they are told to have each question on a separate page,
in as large a font as possible, and containing no names.
Following a break, the associate head of the department makes a presentation on
academic integrity and capricious grading. While discussing campus and departmental
guidelines, she provides sample “I believe that you engaged in academic dishonesty” letters.
She also talks about the teaching applications of FERPA (Family Educational Rights and
Privacy Act), which prohibits putting out graded assignments for students to look through,
passing around piles of graded material and allowing students to find theirs, and posting
grades by Social Security number. We then talk about assigning and grading papers, including
different types of papers, campus writing resources, and, of course, plagiarism.
We finish the first day talking about student evaluation of instructors. We encourage
TAs to gather early informal feedback, provide instruments they could use, and give them
ideas for how to use that feedback. We talk about UIUC’s summative evaluation system and
how it works. We inform the TAs about the workshops on this topic to be held later in the
semester.
Our last handout of the day is considered by many TAs to be the most important. It is
an individual job description of their TA position written by the graduate student who held
that position the previous term. This job description tells them what their actual duties will be,

how to access any materials that they will need, and has the most recent course syllabus
attached.
The Second Day of Orientation
The second morning starts out a bit more relaxed. TAs hand in the questions they have
written and I leave the orientation to sort through them, picking examples of good questions
and those with problems, and copying the questions onto transparencies. While I am gone, the
graduate student presenters talk with the new TAs about issues that might not be discussed as
frankly with a faculty member present. They discuss student-instructor relationships from the
TA’s dual perspective. They talk about working with supervising faculty members and they

27
talk about TA relationships with students. This discussion goes beyond the “Don’t date your
students or your advisor.” When I return, we deal with issues of gender bias in the classroom,
racism, and diversity. We concentrate on subtle examples of bias and racism, focusing on
syllabus construction and exam items, for example, not having all names in multiple-choice
exams be Brittany or Derrick, but using ethnic names as well.
We end the morning with a discussion of classroom management issues. I provide
demographics of the entering students on our campus (e.g., mean ACT score, gender, and
ethnicity). We discuss the importance of having and keeping office hours, creating classroom
rules, being consistent, and learning students’ names. We provide handouts on institutional
resources, including useful Psychology Department contacts with office numbers, phone
numbers, and e-mail addresses. These handouts answer questions such as “Where do I get a
desk copy of my textbook? A TV/VCR? A grade book? Whom do I see to have an exam
Brailled? Where can I get a room reserved?”
We give the campus policies on adding and dropping classes (supplying the
appropriate dates for the term), make-up policies, and guidelines for accommodating religious
holidays. We end the morning discussing available UIUC resources for teaching students with
disabilities.
After lunch we have a presentation in a “smart classroom” from our campus

technology center outlining some of the software programs that are available for instructional
use. The presenter also discusses and demonstrates using “smart classrooms” (media
equipped), using an on-line grade-book, and incorporating the Web into class assignments.
After this presentation, we discuss the quiz items they have submitted. We discuss the
better aspects of the questions as well as how they could be improved. Our orientation
evaluations show that both the practice TAs receive writing the questions and critiquing them
is appreciated.
We end the formal portion of the orientation by discussing the first day of class. This
discussion includes the importance of a good syllabus, knowing the physical layout of the

28
classroom and incorporating important teaching techniques from the very first class session.
We talk about the perception that students gain on the first day of class when the instructor
quickly goes over the syllabus and then dismisses the class—that class time is not valuable
and the teacher has more important things to do. We encourage TAs to incorporate active
learning, small groups, discussion—any type of teaching technique that is important to them,
beginning with the first class sessions.
We then break into small groups and talk about the teaching outlines for the
microteaching session scheduled for the next day. We end with an anonymous, written
evaluation of the program. The same evaluation is redistributed in the middle of the semester,
to see if the information from the Orientation is more or less valuable now that they are
actually teaching.
Microteaching
The next day, groups of 10 TAs are videotaped (each on an individual videotape)
presenting an 8 min lecture to each other. They receive written feedback on their presentation
from both the facilitator (one of the graduate student presenters or me), and their peers. After
the microteaching ends, the TAs bring their videotape to watch individually with a different
graduate student presenter or me. For 20 minutes we have a one-on-one interaction with each
new TA, talking about the video and any concerns he or she may have. TAs almost always tell

us that, although they hated doing the microteaching, it was the single most important
preparation they had for their teaching responsibilities.
Final Thoughts
I think it is important for an orientation immediately preceding the actual teaching to
focus on hands-on, practical teaching information and to provide TAs with the resources they
will need for their individual assignment. A departmental orientation allows new TAs to meet
faculty and graduate students within the Department who are concerned with teaching issues.
This personal contact provides new TAs with several approachable individuals should they

29
encounter problems in their teaching responsibilities—whether that occurs in their first
semester of teaching or their last.
It is also important that the orientation be sensitive to the needs of the new TAs. Thus,
although the basic structure of our orientation has stayed the same, we have changed various
aspects of it in response to the evaluations. For example, it was new TAs’ lament that they
didn’t know what they were supposed to do that prompted us to develop the job description
handout.
Finally, food, that great graduate student motivator, is an important component in our
orientation. We provide continental breakfast and lunch the two full days. This format allows
new TAs to meet each other over coffee and muffins and encourages everyone to stay and
socialize at lunch.

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 5

From Apprentice to Professional:

Community College Teacher Training

Bryan K. Saville, Stephen F. Austin State University

Stephen F. Austin State University (SFA) is a Master’s Colleges and Universities I

public institution in Nacogdoches, Texas, a community of 30,000 located in east-central
Texas. SFA enrolls approximately 10,000 students, over 95% of whom are residents of Texas.
Of the 1,500 graduate students and 8,500 undergraduate students attending SFA, 81% are
White/Non-Hispanic, 12% are African American, 5% are Hispanic, 1% is American Indian,
and 1% is Asian/Pacific Islander.
The literature on preparing new teachers of psychology, although replete with
practical suggestions for effective training, reflects significant variability in the preparation
that new teachers receive (e.g., Buskist, Tears, Davis, & Rodrigue, 2002; Meyers & Prieto,
2000a, 2000b; Prieto, 2003). In response, Davis and Huss (2002) proposed that “ideal”
training programs should include the following: (a) orientation to the department and
university, (b) a teaching of psychology course, (c) frequent meetings with a supervisor, (d)
means for becoming entrenched in the teaching community, (e) development of a teaching
portfolio, and (f) evaluation. Below I describe community college teacher training at SFA and
how our program contains these ideal elements.
Community College Teacher Training
The primary goals of SFA’s Master of Arts degree in the Teaching of Psychology are
to help students “gain employment as…faculty member[s] at…a community college” as well
as to “prepare students for additional graduate work” (SFA Graduate Bulletin, 2004-2006, p.
211-212). Regardless of whether students choose to pursue employment at a community
college or doctoral education, training effective teachers is the focus of the program.

31
Psychological Knowledge Coursework
Students in the teaching track take a series of courses consisting of Psychological
Statistics, Experimental Design, Ethics, and a minimum of two other topics courses (e.g.,
Learning, Personality) designed to provide a broad-based knowledge of psychology, a
necessity when teaching undergraduate classes. This training is especially important at the
community college level where teachers are often responsible for a diverse array of courses.
In addition, because new teachers at community colleges often teach Introductory
Psychology, which typically covers the gamut of psychological topics, students must take a
two-semester sequence consisting of Advanced General Psychology and Advanced Applied
Psychology. Advanced General Psychology covers sensation and perception, learning and
memory, development, and social psychology in considerable detail. Advanced Applied
Psychology provides additional coursework on personality, abnormal psychology, adjustment,
and clinical psychology.
Students in the teaching track also complete an 18 hr minor (typically six courses) in a
discipline of their choice. Although students have the option of choosing any discipline, we
urge them to select one that complements psychology and increases their marketability. For
this reason, many of our students choose to minor in sociology.
Pedagogical Knowledge Coursework

The core of the teaching track consists of three interrelated courses and a teaching-
related research project. Below I describe in more detail the pedagogical knowledge
coursework that students in the teaching track complete on the way to obtaining their degrees.
Teaching seminar. The first course, Teaching Seminar, exposes students to the
primary issues central to effective college and university teaching such as course preparation,
student-teacher rapport, facilitating student learning, classroom management, test
construction, evaluating student learning, and ethics in teaching. Readings come from
McKeachie’s (2002) Teaching Tips and a variety of other sources (e.g., Davis & Buskist,
2002; Teaching of Psychology).

32
 During the semester, students write two drafts of their personal teaching philosophy
and discuss the merits of using their teaching philosophy as a guide for constructing their own
courses. In addition, they define the contents of their teaching portfolio (Davis & Huss, 2002;
Korn, 2002).
Students also give three 20 min “mini-lectures,” each of which is critiqued by their
classmates and videotaped for later evaluation (Buskist et al., 2002; Davis & Huss, 2002).
Students are responsible for choosing the content of the lectures, and subsequently use the
information to prepare a 1 hr “guest” lecture for a section of Introductory Psychology.
In addition to these “active” learning assignments, students also write a short paper on
a teaching-related topic (e.g., characteristics of master teachers). Although Buskist et al.
(2002) found that such writing assignments are often absent from teaching of psychology
courses, “the inclusion of such assignments…assists [students] in clarifying their thinking
about teaching” (Davis & Huss, 2002, p. 144).
Finally, to promote familiarity with the resources available to new psychology
teachers and other important issues from the field, students join the PsychTeacher™ electronic
discussion list <http://teachpsych.lemoyne.edu/teachpsych/div/psychteacher.html>, a
moderated discussion list sponsored by the Society for the Teaching of Psychology (STP;
Division 2 of the American Psychological Association). This outlet facilitates discussion of

teaching-related issues with other members of the teaching community (Davis & Huss, 2002).
Advising and technology. The second course, Advising and Technology, exposes
students to a variety of issues related to advising undergraduates (e.g., timely progression
toward graduation, possible career choices, providing support to discontented students, ethical
considerations). Regardless of whether community college students subsequently attend 4-
year colleges and universities or seek full-time employment (Hoachlander, Sikora, & Horn,
2003), quality advising is critical for helping students make important educational and career
decisions (Appleby, 2002).

33
 In addition, because community colleges are offering more online and distance
education courses, it is important for students to learn how to use different course
management systems (e.g., Blackboard, WebCT), construct course-related Web pages, and in
general ascertain how to teach in a distance education environment. Students discuss related
topics such as the benefits and difficulties of teaching online (e.g., Finley, 2004) and how they
can use their teaching philosophies as a guide to constructing better online courses. Buskist et
al. (2002) recommended that teaching of psychology courses should “include content related
to the use of electronic technologies” (p. 142). Similarly, our faculty believe that possessing
such skills will increase students’ marketability for community college positions.
Teaching practicum. In the third course, Teaching Practicum, “students [are] solely
responsible for preparation and instruction of a freshman level course” (SFA Graduate
Bulletin, 2004-2006, p. 219). During the semester, students teach their own introductory
course, meeting frequently with a faculty advisor to discuss problems, course content, exam
construction, and other teaching issues (Davis & Huss, 2002). This experience allows them to
apply what they have learned in previous courses, increases their confidence, and prepares
them for future classroom endeavors (Prieto & Meyers, 1999).
Teaching project. Students must also complete either a teaching-related thesis (for
students wishing to pursue doctoral education) or a non-thesis teaching project. These projects

give students the opportunity to study different teaching topics systematically and become
more familiar with some of the “non-classroom” activities that that define scholarship in the
teaching of psychology (e.g., Halpern et al., 1998).
Conclusion
Clearly, the training of effective teachers is important in that it sustains and expands
the discipline of psychology. Although training effective teachers can be a challenging
endeavor, I agree with Davis and Huss (2002) who stated, “the implementation and support of
such a program may necessitate a significant commitment to teaching, [but] it is likely to lead
to greater rewards in terms of the quality of [teacher] training and the education of

34
undergraduate students” (p. 149). By completing SFA’s Master of Arts program in the
Teaching of Psychology, which includes Davis and Huss’s (2002) ideal teacher training
components, our graduates are prepared to contribute in important ways to the sustenance and
expansion of our ever-evolving discipline.
References
Appleby, D. C. (2002). The teaching-advising connection. In S. F. Davis & W. Buskist (Eds.).
The teaching of psychology: Essays in honor of Wilbert J. McKeachie and Charles L.
Brewer (pp. 121-139). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Buskist, W., Tears, R., Davis, S. F., & Rodrigue, K. (2002). The teaching of psychology
course: Prevalence and content. Teaching of Psychology, 29, 140-142.
Davis, S. F., & Buskist, W. (Eds.). (2002). The teaching of psychology: Essays in honor of
Wilbert J. McKeachie and Charles L. Brewer. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Davis, S. F., & Huss, M. T. (2002). Training graduate teaching assistants. In S. F. Davis & W.
Buskist (Eds.). The teaching of psychology: Essays in honor of Wilbert J. McKeachie
and Charles L. Brewer (pp. 141-150). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Finley, D. (2004). Teaching online: The brave and energizing new world. Retrieved April 30,
2004 from the PsychTeacher™ Web site:
http://list.kennesaw.edu/archives/psychteacher.html

Halpern, D. F., Smothergill, D. W., Allen, M., Baker, S., Baum, C., Best, D., et al. (1998).
Scholarship in psychology: A paradigm for the twenty-first century. American
Psychologist, 53, 1292-1297.
Hoachlander, G., Sikora, A. C., & Horn, L. (2003). Community college students: Goals,
academic preparation, and outcomes. Education Statistics Quarterly, 5. Retrieved
April 30, 2004 from http://nces.ed.gov/programs/quarterly/vol_5/5_2/q4_1.asp
Korn, J. H. (2002). Beyond tenure: The teaching portfolio for reflection and change. In S. F.
Davis & W. Buskist (Eds.). The teaching of psychology: Essays in honor of Wilbert J.
McKeachie and Charles L. Brewer (pp. 203-213). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

35
McKeachie, W. (2002). Teaching tips: Strategies, research, and theory for college and
university teachers (11th ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Meyers, S. A., & Prieto, L. R. (2000a). Training in the teaching of psychology: What is done
and examining the differences. Teaching of Psychology, 27, 258-261.
Meyers, S. A., & Prieto, L. R. (2000b). Using active learning to improve the training of
psychology teaching assistants. Teaching of Psychology, 27, 283-284.
Prieto, L. (2003). Teaching assistant development: Research and impressions. In W. Buskist,
V. Hevern, & G. W. Hill, IV, (Eds.). Essays from e-xcellence in teaching, 2002 (Chap.
1). Retrieved April 30, 2004 from the Society for the Teaching of Psychology Web
site: http://teachpsych.lemoyne.edu/teachpsych/eit/index.html
Prieto, L. R., & Meyers, S. A. (1999). The effects of training and supervision on the self-
efficacy of psychology graduate teaching assistants. Teaching of Psychology, 26, 264-
266.

36
 6

GTA Training at Appalachian State University

Paul A. Fox, Appalachian State University

Appalachian State University is a comprehensive university located in the

northwestern mountains of North Carolina. It is part of the 16-member University of North
Carolina system and consists of approximately 12,750 undergraduates and 1,350 graduate
students. The Department of Psychology has 29 full-time doctoral level faculty and five MA
level graduate programs (Clinical, Health, General-Experimental, Industrial-
Organizational/Human Resource Management, and School Psychology), which matriculate
between 33 and 40 new students each year. Students typically complete their MA degrees in
two and one-half to three years.
Several years ago, as Director of our graduate programs in psychology, I noticed that
our graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) seemed either to teach pretty well or do well in their
personal coursework—but seldom both. Faculty frequently expressed concern about the
quality of instruction in our General Psychology course, the gateway course for the infusion
of majors into the Psychology Department. Undergraduate respondents to our teacher
evaluation instrument often expressed concern with lack of organization, preparation, and
confidence on the part of their GTAs.
To address these concerns and to provide GTAs support for their teaching
responsibilities, I developed our Teaching of Psychology (TOP) course. The one-credit TOP
course is now required of first-year graduate student trainees before they can apply to teach
and for GTAs during subsequent teaching assignments. Each of 10 to 17 GTAs assume
complete responsibility to teach a section of General Psychology class of 40 to 50
undergraduates each semester.

37
 The First Semester
During the spring semester of their first year, graduate students who would like to
teach during the following fall semester enroll in the TOP course, which meets for
approximately two and one-half evening hours every other week. Each class session consists
of three parts with separate goals for each. First, four of the current GTAs attend each class
and serve as models, mentors, and resources for the trainees. Each class begins with a
presentation by current GTAs on activities they use to bring to life topics from two chapters in
the textbook being used in General Psychology. The chapters are covered in the order they
appear in the text (and listed on the class syllabus) and 16 chapters are presented over the
semester. GTAs conduct demonstrations (often of their own design) and provide handouts
relative to each topic. They describe what works for them and what does not. The GTAs
model enthusiasm for teaching, organization, and confidence.
The second major part of each class meeting is designed to shape the confidence of the
future GTAs. This segment also provides the instructor with an opportunity to evaluate the
teaching potential of each trainee and to provide helpful feedback. Each trainee makes a
presentation (usually two students present each evening) over a chapter from major textbooks
on the teaching of psychology (e.g., Davis & Buskist, 2002; McKeachie, 2002; Perlman,

McCann, & McFadden, 1999). The topics include facilitating discussion, teaching large
classes, lecturing, using humor, fostering diversity, handling difficult students, creating
written assignments, grading, developing tests, and so on. The GTAs contribute relevant
insights drawn from their personal experiences.
The third portion of each class session is devoted to pedagogical issues not covered by
the formal presentations of the trainees. Conversations focus on such issues as test anxiety
(sources and reduction strategies), organization of lectures, academic integrity (reducing the
likelihood of dishonesty, creative cheating techniques, and appropriate ways to expose and
prosecute instances of cheating), ethics and legal issues (including relationships with students,

38
access to student records, confidentiality, copyright law, and so on), respect for diversity and
exceptionalities, use of technology, and handling of classroom medical emergencies.
I provide trainees with a model for syllabus development and copies of syllabi from
previous semesters. Each week the trainees submit a section of their syllabi and receive
feedback about strengths and weaknesses of the developing document. During this portion of
the class session, current GTAs take advantage of the “teachable moment” to discuss issues as
they occur in their classes. Together we brainstorm solutions to those specific problems and
discuss proactive approaches to avoid them in the future. The GTAs expound on such issues
as the experience of their first day of teaching, pet peeves, student evaluations, and changes
they found prudent to make in their syllabi for their second semester of teaching.
To shape the confidence of the trainees, a gradual, supportive introduction (which
Vygotsky [1997] described as scaffolding) to the teaching experience is offered. In addition to
making a relatively safe presentation to their peers in the TOP class, the trainees observe and
complete an evaluation of two GTA classes. Toward the semester’s end, each trainee teaches
one class for a GTA. After the GTA provides written and oral feedback and undergraduates
attending that class complete an assessment of strengths and areas in need of improvement,
the trainee submits a written summary of the experience along with his or her teaching
materials. The current GTA, the trainee, and I then meet to discuss the strengths and areas in

need of attention. Subsequently, the TOP class engages in a general discussion of ways to take
personal advantage of the summarized strengths and weaknesses.
The First Semester of Teaching
During the fall semester, the GTAs meet to discuss additional pedagogical issues and
to share classroom experiences and tribulations as they are encountered. The Graduate School
also offers a series of workshops to which all GTAs are invited. A major effort during the first
semester of teaching is devoted to the issue of formative evaluation and constructive
feedback. After four weeks of teaching, GTAs ask their students to complete an informal
evaluation of their classes. This evaluation usually takes the form of a paragraph indicating

39
what the undergraduates like best about the course and the instructor, and what they would
prefer to see changed about either. At midterm, the undergraduate students complete a much
more formal and detailed evaluation instrument that contains both Likert-type and open-ended
items. I also visit each class midway through the semester. The GTAs then schedule
individual sessions with me to review their progress, to set semester goals, and to discuss
strategies for improvement. At the semester’s end, all GTAs have their undergraduate
students complete the Psychology Department evaluation instrument.
A source that I find helpful throughout the course is the PSYCHTEACHER electronic
discussion list. I forward (or sometimes save for a teachable moment) portions of strings
about such topics as problem students, self-disclosure, demonstrations, plagiarism, attendance
policies, student complaints, grading, etc. These communiqués, along with the
PSYTEACHER series “E-xcellence in Teaching” provide titillating starting points for
classroom discussion.
Evaluation of the Program
The efficacy of the TOP course has been addressed through several informal
measures. The mean and variability of the GTA scores on the Psychology Department faculty
evaluation instrument consistently fall at the mean and within the range of the faculty scores.
At the end of the recent fall semester, the mean ratings on the 5-point Likert-style items were

4.32 and 4.29 for the faculty and the GTAs, respectively. At least one, and frequently two, of
the Psychology GTAs win the University GTA award every year (three are presented
annually). Several GTAs present posters at the annual meetings of the National Institute on
the Teaching of Psychology and several conduct theses on pedagogical issues. Both an
internal and external review of the Department’s graduate programs indicated that the alumni
who have served as GTAs rated that experience as one of the highlights of their graduate
careers. Many have gone on to pursue doctoral degrees because of the experience and many
teach part-time at community colleges. Finally, in 1987, the North Carolina Bureau for Public
Policy Research named this TOP course one of two outstanding programs in the state for the

40
training of GTAs. It became a template for the development of a legislative mandate
governing the training of GTAs in the state of North Carolina.
References
Davis, S. F. & Buskist, W. (Eds.). (2002). The teaching of psychology: Essays in honor of
Wilbert J. McKeachie and Charles L. Brewer. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
McKeachie, W. J. (2002). Teaching tips: Strategies, research, and theory for college and
university teachers (11th Ed.). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
Perlman, B., McCann, L. I., & McFadden, S. H. (Eds.). (1999). Lessons learned: Practical
advice for the teaching of psychology. Washington, DC: The American Psychological
Society.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1997). Educational psychology. Boca Raton, FL: St. Lucie Press.

41
 7

Training and Evaluating Master’s-Level Graduate Teaching Assistants

Stephen F. Davis and Cathy A. Grover, Emporia State University

Susan R. Burns, Morningside College

The Carnegie classification for Emporia State University (ESU, enrollment

approximately 5,500 students) is Master’s Colleges and Universities I. ESU is in Emporia,
Kansas, a town of 25,000 located on I-35 midway between Wichita and Kansas City. The
Department of Psychology and Special Education, which has 14 full-time faculty and
approximately 200 undergraduate psychology majors, is housed in the Teacher’s College.
During the past decade psychology programs have given considerable attention to the
status and nature of training graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) (e.g., Lowman & Mathie,
1993; Meyers et al., 1997; Norcross, Hanych, & Terranova, 1997; Prentice-Dunn & Rickard,
1994). Two general themes permeate this literature: (a) concern about the availability and use
of teaching opportunities (Meyers et al., 1997; Norcross et al., 1997) and (b) delineation of the
procedures for training or supporting GTAs (Lowman & Mathie, 1993; Meyers et al., 1997;
Prentice-Dunn & Rickard, 1994).
For the most part, this literature deals with training and support programs for doctoral-
level GTAs. Educators have given little, if any, attention to the training of master’s-level
GTAs. Because many master’s programs offer teacher training opportunities (American
Psychological Association, 1998), this deficit reflects a relevant and important void. Hence,
this paper presents an effective model for training, supporting, and evaluating master’s-level
GTAs. Because we believe these procedures are appropriate for use at all levels of GTA
training, we encourage readers to adapt them to their own situations and needs.
The old saying that “necessity is the mother of invention” applies to the ESU GTA-
training model. Until 1979, Introductory Psychology was taught by a single full-time faculty
member who presented a weekly, 1 hr lecture to all students (250+) enrolled in this course.

42
GTAs assisted by administering and grading tests and conducting two weekly, 1 hr small-
group discussion sections. For a variety of reasons, faculty, students, and administrators
believed this arrangement was unacceptable; hence, we sought an alternate approach. The
lack of continuing faculty to teach this course resulted in the GTAs being given complete
autonomy for sections of Introductory Psychology. These new responsibilities necessitated the
implementation of an organized, effective GTA training program and the assignment of a
senior-level faculty member who receives a one-course reduction in teaching load to
supervise this program. The ESU administration has supported and endorsed this program.We
describe the most successful iteration.
GTA Selection and Responsibilities
During the middle of the spring semester we screen GTA applicants on the following
criteria: background coursework in psychology; grade point average; and desire to teach, as
reflected in the applicant’s personal statement that accompanies the assistantship application.
Highly rated candidates go through personal interviews. During this interview, we carefully
describe the typical semester assignment: complete responsibility for two, 3 credit hour
sections of Introductory Psychology having an enrollment of 30-35 students each. It is
important that each applicant understands fully the pending assignment before making a
commitment. Approximately half of the departmental complement of 14 GTAs is new each

fall.
Initial Activities and Orientation
During the summer prior to their arrival on campus, all GTAs read Teaching Tips
(McKeachie, 2002). GTAs also receive a copy of the textbook and ancillary materials for their
course and an exemplary course syllabus used by a former GTA. Summer requirements also
include preparing a tentative syllabus and developing lectures and demonstrations.
Second-year GTAs serve as mentors for new GTAs during the summer and following
semester. Some of the second-year GTAs will continue teaching Introductory Psychology.

43
Other second-year GTAs will teach Developmental Psychology, depending on departmental
needs.
All GTAs participate in a minimum of three day-long (6 hr per day) orientation
sessions immediately prior to the start of the fall semester. These sessions include:
1. Presentation and discussion of University policies, as contained in the Faculty
Handbook.
2. Presentation and discussion of departmental policies.
3. In-depth presentation and discussion of effective teaching opportunities, techniques,
policies, and procedures. This discussion includes consideration of the assigned chapters in
McKeachie (2002).
4. Viewing of videotape excerpts of actual class sessions previously conducted by
returning GTAs. The videotapes are always of returning (second-year) GTAs and are
illustrative of both good and less effective practices.
5. Presentation of a lecture (30 to 45 min) by each new GTA. Although the content of
this lecture may vary, the assigned topic often is to present the lecture that introduces the
students to the field of psychology.
6. Presentation by each returning GTA of an effective demonstration and description
of when and how to use this demonstration in the classroom.

GTA Meetings and Activities

During both the fall and spring semesters, all GTAs attend biweekly group meetings
with the teaching assistant supervisor. These meetings are led jointly by the supervisor and the
GTAs who are making presentations that day. The following activities are included in each
1.5-2.0 hr meeting:
1. An open discussion of problems the GTAs encountered and how they dealt with
these problems. Feedback is provided by other GTAs and the supervisor (as deemed
necessary—several GTAs have commented that it was empowering to know that they could
help each other).

44
 2. An open discussion of what went well in classes and how to implement such
effective practices in other classes.
3. The presentation of a discussion on a controversial issue in teaching (e.g.,
assignment of grades, discussion groups vs. lectures, the use of extra credit) by an assigned
GTA.
4. The presentation of an effective class demonstration by an assigned GTA.
5. The presentation and discussion of selected chapters from Teaching Tips
(McKeachie, 2002) by assigned GTAs.
Professional Development Activities
The supervisor observes the GTAs at least once each semester in the classroom and
provides extensive oral and written feedback. In addition, each GTA completes either a self-
evaluation form or a specific-focus report on an alternating basis every other week. The self-
evaluation form requires ongoing reflection on teaching practices and abilities, as well as
relevant professional and personal development. The specific-focus form requires each GTA
to report on a specific aspect of teaching that he or she has attempted to modify or improve.
Moreover, both the supervisor and each GTA complete a semester evaluation form at the end
of each academic term. This form evaluates teaching development and performance as well as
personal growth and development that is relevant to teaching.

To encourage professional growth and collegiality, each GTA must attend and critique
classes taught by two other GTAs during the course of each semester. In addition, each GTA
attends a regional teaching conference (e.g., Southwest Regional Conference for Teachers of
Psychology) during the academic year. ESU provides funding for registration and
transportation. The supervisor encourages second-year GTAs to be active participants at such
conferences via paper and poster presentations and symposium participation. GTAs prepare
(or revise, in the case of second-year GTAs) a statement of their philosophy of teaching. This
exercise is assigned at the close of the fall semester; the completed statement is due at the first
GTA meeting of the spring semester.

45
 As a final requirement, first-year GTAs prepare and second-year GTAs revise a
personal teaching portfolio. The completed portfolio contains such items as a teaching
philosophy, a delineation of teaching goals, a delineation of teaching strategies, and
supportive evidence and documentation. The teaching portfolio is required of both first- and
second-year GTAs and is due just prior to the completion of the spring semester.
Program Evaluation
Semester Evaluations
The GTA supervisor maintains an active evaluation portfolio for each GTA and meets
individually with each GTA at the end of each semester to review performance, improvement,
and development as reflected by the documents contained in this portfolio. The GTA and
supervisor are expected to add the following items to the evaluation portfolio on a regular
basis:
1. A course syllabus for each course taught.
2. All personal evaluation and specific-focus forms prepared by the GTA.
3. Comments made by the GTA supervisor during the observation(s) of the GTA’s
classes
4. The peer evaluation forms submitted by the GTA.
5. All testing instruments.

6. Separate semester evaluation forms completed by the GTA and by the GTA
supervisor.
7. Any additional materials (e.g., items reflecting professional or personal growth and
development) deemed relevant by the GTA or supervisor.
A comparison of the semester evaluation form completed by the GTA with the one
completed by the supervisor offers an excellent starting point for discussion at the semester
evaluation conference. This meeting provides the ideal opportunity to identify strengths and
weaknesses and to discuss ways to improve teaching methods for the next semester. The
portfolio represents a source of inspiration for many GTAs as they realize how much they

46
have accomplished during the semester that has just ended. Because these portfolios are
archived, they can provide valuable, specific materials on which the GTA supervisor can base
future letters of recommendation.
Subjective Comments From a Former GTA
The following commentary from a former GTA reflects the impact this training
program can exert; it typifies the reaction of the GTAs to the program.
The GTA training program has proven invaluable in my current position as a doctoral-
level teaching assistant. The comprehensive approach helped to boost confidence in
my own abilities and form a focused philosophy toward teaching that I continually
draw on in each and every class. The program’s emphasis on support and evaluation
allowed me to learn from mistakes and make positive changes in my teaching style.
Objective Measures
Because students evaluate the GTAs each semester, student evaluations can provide an
objective measure of the effectiveness of the GTA program. We obtained student evaluation
scores for the previous 10 years and randomly selected evaluations from three spring
semesters (to insure that all GTAs had taught a full semester) to make comparisons between
GTAs and full-time faculty. Independent samples t tests comparing mean student evaluations
for 1993, 1994, and 1999 indicated that GTAs and full-time faculty did not differ reliably,

t(27) = 1.61, t(27) = 1.47, t(25) = 1.55, respectively, all ps > .05. Clearly, student evaluations
placed GTAs on par with full-time faculty.
A second comparison between GTAs and full-time faculty involved the variance in
student evaluations of each group for the three selected semesters. Fmax tests indicated that
the full-time faculty had significantly greater variability for these three evaluation periods,
Fmax(2, 14) = 5.11, p < .01, Fmax(2, 14) = 6.03, p < .01, Fmax(2, 13) = 5.38, p < .01,
respectively. Although the mean student evaluation ratings did not differ between the GTAs
and full-time faculty, the faculty ratings were more variable. One interpretation of this result

47
is that the GTA training program is successful in producing a uniform, high level of teaching
performance.
Conclusions
The GTA training model we have described offers an effective and reliable method to
prepare students to teach in both master’s and doctoral-level programs. Objective and
subjective measures attest to the model’s success in developing GTAs who perform uniformly
and at the same level as full-time faculty. We encourage readers to adapt these GTA training
procedures to their specific needs and situations. The sound development of competent
student teachers is a necessary first step toward the long-term goal of a better prepared
professoriate.
References
American Psychological Association (1998). Graduate study in psychology and related fields.
Washington, DC: Author.
Lowman, J., & Mathie, V. A. (1993). What should graduate teaching assistants know about
teaching? Teaching of Psychology, 20, 84-88.
McKeachie, W. A. (2002). Teaching tips: Strategies, research, and theory for college and
university teachers (11th ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Meyers, S. A., Prieto, L. R., Fishman, E., Rajecki, D. W., Quina, K., & Massoth, N. (1997,

August). Teaching assistant training in departments of psychology: A national survey.

Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association,
Chicago, IL.
Norcross, J. C., Hanych, J. M., & Terranova, R. D. (1997). Teaching opportunities for
graduate students in psychology: Commonly available but (still) rarely required.
Teaching of Psychology, 24, 265-266.
Prentice-Dunn, S., & Rickard, H. C. (1994). A follow-up note on graduate training in the
teaching of introductory psychology. Teaching of Psychology, 21, 111-112.

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 8

The Evolution of a Teaching Seminar at a Research University

Richard A. Griggs, University of Florida

I am a professor of psychology at the University of Florida (UF), where I started my

academic career in 1974. With about 48,000 students, UF has the fourth largest student
enrollment of all universities in the United States. It is classified by the Carnegie Foundation
as an Extensive Research university, is a member of the prestigious Association of American
Universities, and presently has about $500 million in research and training grants. In brief, UF
is a very large, research-oriented public university.
At present, the UF Psychology Department has 47 faculty members and 140 graduate
students. With respect to graduate student training in teaching, no formal program exists
within the Psychology Department. A graduate student’s faculty supervisor supervises the
student’s research and teaching, often resulting in minimal supervision of the latter. As at
most research universities there has been much recent talk about the importance of teaching
but little evidence that this is truly the case.
In this publish-or-perish environment, I did not consider offering a teaching seminar
until I was promoted to full professor. I initially offered the teaching seminar in response to
the request of graduate student teachers and teaching assistants who said that they wanted
such a course. I structured the seminar along the lines of the prototypical teaching of
psychology course—focusing mainly on teaching mechanics and techniques, lecture
observation-evaluation, and test construction. Students read about and discussed various
teaching issues, using the typical books—McKeachie’s (2002) Teaching Tips, Davis’s (1993)
Tools for Teaching, and Lowman’s (1995) Mastering the Techniques of Teaching. During one
term, I videotaped microlectures that each student prepared for the seminar, then discussed
and critiqued each taped presentation with that student.

49
 Whereas students liked this version of the seminar, I came to realize that this was
probably not the best use of the brief time that I had with them. As you might suspect, there
was a selection factor operating—only students who were very enthusiastic and truly
interested in teaching took the class. These students were already well on their way to
becoming good teachers. Thus, the seminar didn’t really help them that much except for
reinforcing their enthusiasm for teaching, allowing them to develop a camaraderie with
similar-thinking students, and broadening their appreciation of diverse approaches to
teaching. One day in reading the student evaluations of the course, I had an epiphany. It
occurred to me that I could do much more for such students by transforming the course on
teaching into a microcosm of a graduate teacher-training program.
With this overarching goal in mind, the seminar has evolved to include three main
objectives: (a) preparation of course materials for the first third of the introductory
psychology course, (b) familiarity with the broader teaching community and the diversity of
academic job environments, and (c) preparation of teaching portfolio materials, especially
those necessary for job applications. I will briefly discuss how I have attempted to accomplish
each goal.
Some of our graduate students teach the introductory course, and it is probably the
most difficult psychology course for them (or anyone) to teach. As such, I think that it is

beneficial to have the seminar help students prepare actual lectures and exams for this course.
My role is to cover important teaching issues within the context of this preparation. Students
first learn about the text selection process and syllabus preparation, then develop actual
lecture materials (lecture outlines, transparencies, and demonstration and activity materials)
for research methods, neuroscience, sensation/perception, and learning), and finally construct
an exam covering these topics. I chose these particular topics because they usually appear
toward the beginning of the course and are among the most difficult to prepare. All of the
students use the same textbook and ancillaries, and distribute their prepared materials to each
other and me via computer files before each seminar meeting. During class meetings, each

50
student presents his or her objectives and materials for a topic, and the other students and I
provide constructive feedback. Thus, students benefit both by receiving constructive feedback
on their own materials and by providing such feedback on the other students’ materials. When
students finish this section of the seminar, they are well prepared to teach the first third or so
of the introductory course.
I think that helping graduate students to become more familiar with the broader
teaching community is a critical objective not just for my seminar but any teaching course.
Emphasis on research is so heavy-handed in graduate students’ doctoral training that they
have no idea that such a community even exists, much less that there are regional and national
meetings on the teaching of psychology. Fortunately, the National Institute on the Teaching of
Psychology meets in St. Pete Beach, FL, only a couple hours from UF. Thus, many of my
seminar students have attended this conference and the Southeastern Conference on the
Teaching of Psychology Conference in Atlanta, which is also not far from UF. The
enthusiasm for good teaching at these conferences not only reinforces students’ interest in
teaching, but these conferences also allow the students to interact with teachers from a variety
of academic environments and to begin networking within the teaching community. Most
importantly, the students learn about the many varied types of academic positions that exist
and become aware that there is academic life outside of large research universities. This

experience is critical for the job application process, which I incorporate into the development
of teaching portfolio materials in the last section of the seminar.
Like most psychology teachers, my seminar students have never thought about, much
less defined, their philosophy of teaching so I make this the first step in portfolio
development, and I stress its importance to good teaching. I also have students revisit their
introductory course lecture materials, this time in terms of congruency with their teaching
philosophies. As with the lecture materials, all portfolio materials are shared with classmates
as they are developed and then critiqued in seminar meetings. Like the discussions of lecture
materials, the portfolio discussions provide a safe environment for serious consideration of

51
important teaching issues and thus enhance the probability that such interactions will continue
outside the seminar setting.
I focus the portfolio development assignments on the job application process and have
students prepare the teaching parts of the job application packet for an actual job
advertisement. I have them do the necessary background work on the school (who is there,
what the teaching load is, what courses are offered, and so on) to help them learn how to tailor
their materials to individual schools. I also discuss the entire job process from application to
contract negotiations, with special emphasis on interviewing. To concretize this material, I
bring in former seminar students who are currently applying for jobs to share their application
materials and job search experiences. I think that this job application seminar experience has
positively impacted the actual job search process for the students. Recent seminar students
have obtained faculty positions at excellent schools such as Furman University, College of St.
Mary’s in Maryland, and Randolph-Macon College. They also leave graduate school with a
good start on a teaching portfolio that will help them in future yearly evaluations and the
tenure-promotion process.
Feedback from former seminar members indicates that the seminar not only was
valuable to them but also continues to be of value to them. They leave the course with an
awareness of the extensive resources on teaching and the broader teaching community and its

activities, a good initiation to teaching the introductory course, preparation of job application
materials and a teaching portfolio, and a more informed perception of job possibilities and the
job market. I have also found it to be valuable both to the students and to the success of the
seminar to allow students to retake the seminar. This affords these students the opportunity to
fine-tune their course and portfolio materials and more importantly, to serve as models and
mentors for the less experienced students in the seminar.
Conclusion
With respect to my own thoughts about the seminar’s success, I think that the seminar
that has evolved both reinforces and develops the students’ knowledge about and enthusiasm

52
for teaching. It also provides the students with vital pragmatic information about the diversity
of academic jobs and securing positions that best fit their individual goals. Although the latter
is not typically part of a teaching seminar, I highly recommend its inclusion at strong
research-oriented universities. It in no way counterbalances such universities’ emphasis on
research and obtaining research positions, but it does make students aware of the choice of
being teacher scholars versus just scholars.
References
Davis, B. G. (1993). Tools for teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Lowman, J. (1995). Mastering the techniques of teaching (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-
Bass.
McKeachie, W. J. (2002). Teaching tips: Strategies, research, and theory for college and
university teachers (11th ed.). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.

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 9

Graduate Student Teacher Training at The University of Georgia

Katherine Kipp, Tracy Lambert, and Carrie Rosengart, The University of Georgia

The University of Georgia (UGA) is the flagship university in the University System
of Georgia. It is classified as a “Research University” among the system’s Regional
Universities, State Universities, State Colleges, and Two-Year Colleges and as a Doctoral
Research Institution—extensive according to the Carnegie Classification of Institutions. The
University is housed on one central campus in Athens, Georgia. Approximately 25,000
traditional undergraduate students and 8,000 doctoral and professional program students are
enrolled.
The Psychology Department serves approximately 1,100 undergraduate majors and
130 graduate students. The Psychology Department is organized into six programs for
graduate study: Clinical, Cognitive/Experimental, Industrial/Applied, Life-Span
Developmental, Neuroscience and Behavior, and Social Psychology. Research is the
Psychology Department’s primary mission. However, there are opportunities for graduate
students to explore training in teaching. The primary mechanism for teacher training is the
award of Graduate Teaching Assistantships (GTAs) to post-Master’s degree students and
Teaching Assistantships (TAs) to pre-Master’s degree graduate students. Approximately 60%
of graduate students are funded by GTA or TA positions each semester (other students are
supported by research and administrative assistantships).
Teaching Assistantships
GTAs most often serve as the instructor of record or as lab instructor for lower-level
undergraduate courses, such as Research Methods, Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences, and
the Psychology of Adjustment. Occasionally, based on departmental needs and GTA interests,
advanced GTAs may teach sections of upper-level undergraduate courses, such as Abnormal
Psychology, Anxiety Disorders, Psychology of Parenting, and Careers in Psychology. TAs

54
usually assist in large lecture sections of Introductory Psychology courses, teach laboratory
sections of lower-level undergraduate courses like those listed above, or teach laboratory
sections associated with upper-level core psychology courses (e.g., Cognitive,
Developmental, Workplace, Social, and Physiological and Comparative Psychology).
Graduate Teaching Seminars
The University of Georgia requires that all graduate students receive training for their
roles in the classroom. The Psychology Department offers a teaching seminar that meets this
University-level requirement and is usually taught by an advanced GTA. In this course,
students gain practical experience with preparing course syllabi, designing lectures,
stimulating active learning, creating and grading assignments, and public speaking. Other
issues addressed include educational ethics, academic dishonesty, disability services, and
institutional policies related to teaching.
Faculty Mentoring of TAs and GTAs
Some faculty members in the Psychology Department serve either formally or
informally as mentors to graduate student teachers. Faculty course mentors advise graduate
students teaching the Research Methods, Statistics, and Psychology of Adjustment courses.
These formal mentors possess expertise in the specific course content. They are awarded a
one-course reduction in teaching load for their duties. Faculty course mentors may hold

informational meetings with TAs prior to the start of each semester, clarify policies regarding
the objectives for the course within the broader undergraduate psychology curriculum, review
syllabi from each GTA and TA, evaluate teaching with classroom observations, and provide
formal and informal performance feedback. Laboratory instructors are mentored by the
faculty member and the GTA who teaches the lecture portion of the course. Additionally,
graduate assistants may seek informal mentoring from other faculty and experienced GTAs in
the department, typically choosing a faculty member by reputation or through the mentors’
involvement in student-initiated teacher development programs in the Department.

55
 Student-Initiated Teacher Development
UGA Psychology graduate students initiated several resources for teacher
development. First, graduate students maintain a Teaching Resource Room that houses
sample teaching materials developed by previous graduate instructors. This room is open for
all graduate students to borrow or contribute materials. Second, graduate students developed
the GTA/TA Online Mentor-Resource Program, an online teaching resource program that
uses the WebCT online interface. The program has four main components: (a) downloadable
samples of teaching materials (e.g., lectures, handouts, assignments, quizzes, and exams) for
the courses and labs most commonly taught by graduate students, (b) a “Tools and Tips for
Teaching” section of the site that includes links to helpful Web sites and articles related to
effective teaching, (c) short narratives about the teaching experience written by experienced
GTAs including general advice and tips about teaching, and (d) an informal mentoring
element that occurs through ongoing discussion postings on the WebCT discussion board.
Finally, graduate students organized a graduate teaching forum to increase collegiality and
conversations about teaching. Student-organized monthly meetings allow GTAs and TAs to
discuss and share teaching philosophies, classroom experiences, and teaching techniques.
University-Level Training Opportunities
At the University level, the Office of Instructional Support and Development (OISD)

helps GTAs and TAs find resources and prepare for careers in higher education. Prior to each
fall semester, OISD hosts an orientation to provide TAs from across the University with
guidance regarding their teaching responsibilities. This office also maintains a teaching
resource Web site and publishes a Teaching Assistant Newsletter twice per year.
The Dean of the Graduate School sponsors a Teaching Assistant Mentor program that
is coordinated by OISD. This program brings together a select group of graduate students
from across the University, all whom have been recognized for outstanding teaching, to
participate in a year-long mentoring program. The program emphasizes the development of
teaching philosophies and using them to shape the classroom environment. Other topics, such

56
as online learning and the use of technology in the classroom, are also explored. Participants
are expected to become teaching mentors to the graduate students in their respective
departments, which typically means they teach the graduate teaching seminar discussed
previously. Participants are also expected to develop teaching resources that will serve their
specific departmental needs. The Psychology Department has been fortunate to have one GTA
participate in this program nearly every year.
Monitoring and Rewarding Teaching Effectiveness
Two Psychology Department committees monitor and reward graduate students’
teaching effectiveness. A Committee for the Assessment of Teaching Assistants reviews
graduate student teachers’ course evaluations and the evaluations provided by faculty
mentors. TAs experiencing problems in their teaching effectiveness are directed to UGA and
Department resources for teaching improvement.
A Teaching Awards Committee reviews graduate student teachers’ teaching
experiences and course evaluations, and makes several departmental awards for teaching each
year. Outstanding teachers’ credentials are forwarded to the OISD for consideration for
several University teaching awards. Outstanding teachers are also encouraged to apply for
discipline-wide awards from the Society for the Teaching of Psychology.
Conclusion

Although UGA is known primarily as a research institution, there are clearly many
valuable training experiences available for graduate students who are interested in teaching.
Indeed, many of our graduates pursue academic careers with a primary teaching mission. As
the Psychology Department and UGA continue to work toward greater levels of scholarship in
research and teaching, we hope to make even greater strides in the support and encouragement
of our graduate student teachers.

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 10

GTA Training in the Psychology Department at Auburn University

John L. Clifton, Jared W. Keeley, and Amber M. Henslee, Auburn University

Auburn University, a land grant institution located in East Alabama, is the largest
university in Alabama. It enrolls approximately 22,000 students from all 50 states and nearly
100 countries. Of these students, approximately 600 are psychology majors. Auburn enrolls
approximately 4,000 graduate and professional students, of which 42 are currently in one of
the Psychology Department’s three doctoral programs: Clinical, Experimental, and
Industrial/Organizational Psychology. During the spring 2004 semester, the Psychology
Department provided 32 Graduate Teaching Assistantships (GTA), 15 assistantships to the
Clinical program, 14 to the Experimental program, and 3 to the I/O program. Auburn's
Carnegie classification is Doctoral/Research Extensive.
The Teaching of Psychology Course
In their first year in graduate school, all GTAs are required to take a course called the
Teaching of Psychology. This course serves the dual purpose of (a) providing students with
the basic principles of good teaching through a variety of media and (b) establishing a
supportive environment for the GTAs’ first teaching experiences.
The first goal is met through several course assignments. Students complete readings
from classic teaching books, such as McKeachie’s Teaching Tips (2002), and from primary
sources in the teaching literature. These readings provide a foundation for thinking about the
key components of teaching, such as how to prepare for a class, methods of presenting
information, how to deal with problem students, and so on.
Second, students compile a teaching portfolio. The teaching portfolio provides both a
summative experience for students and provides a useful resource for applying for future
academic positions. The teaching portfolio includes copies of each GTA’s statement of

58
teaching philosophy, student evaluations, examples of class demonstrations, student work,
and whatever else the GTA may wish to include.
Third, GTAs are introduced to the broader teaching community by joining the STP
PsychTeacher™ electronic discussion list
<http://list.kennesaw.edu/archives/psychteacher.html>. Students keep up with the ongoing
discussions and post questions, comments, and so on at least once a semester.
Students also write an essay on a teaching-related topic of their choice. This
assignment requires students to become familiar with some of the scholarship on teaching by
searching and reading relevant portions of the teaching literature.
Finally, students give presentations to the class on any topic in psychology
(approximately equivalent to a lecture given in an introductory class), which the course
instructor critiques according to presentation style, communication skills, stimulation of
critical thinking, avoidance of common mistakes, and so on. This activity gives students
experience and feedback that can be translated directly into improved classroom performance.
The second purpose of the class is to provide a supportive environment for GTAs as
they embark on their initial teaching experiences. It establishes a forum for GTAs for
expressing their concerns or worries and an opportunity to reflect publicly on their early
teaching experiences. Class discussions model the process all teachers must use to solve the

everyday problems that arise in the classroom. Additional supportive course activities include
vita writing and revision, writing test items, and creating a syllabus.
Recently, the Psychology Department has begun offering advanced seminars in the
teaching of psychology for those students who have already completed the initial teaching
course. The seminars are designed around a specific topic, such as critical thinking. The
course begins with readings and discussion of the topic to be addressed and continues with
students presenting various methods and activities for producing the desired student
outcomes, which can be used immediately in the classroom.

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 Teaching Fellows Program
At the end of the 2003-2004 academic year, the Psychology Department implemented
a Teaching Fellows program for GTAs. This program targets individuals with an interest in
college teaching and furthers their training through participation in advanced courses on
teaching and providing an opportunity to teach an undergraduate course as teacher of record.
This regimen gives GTAs additional teaching experience, which is valuable in beginning an
academic career. Students who complete the program are recognized in a special award
ceremony held during the Psychology Department’s annual Teaching Festival, a half-day long
celebration of the teaching of psychology held for both graduate students and faculty.
Preparing Future Faculty Program (PFF)
AU’s Biggio Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning was established in
2003. It is dedicated to equipping faculty and GTAs with the resources and skills they need in
order to provide high quality education to undergraduates. As part of its mission, the Biggio
Center administers AU’s version of the Preparing Future Faculty program. Modeled on the
national program of the same title, the PFF program provides a year-long series of seminars
and academic courses in teaching, as well as a variety of teaching-related experiences at
neighboring colleges and universities. These experiences are intended to provide familiarity
with job skills needed at higher academic levels.

Conclusion
The teacher training program in AU’s Psychology Department is a source of pride for
graduate students and faculty alike. More than one graduate student chooses Auburn over
other schools because of this emphasis on teaching. Unlike the archetypal graduate student,
handed a text on Monday and teaching on Tuesday, GTAs at Auburn are shepherded through
their early teaching experiences in a way that builds their confidence, helps them avoid
pitfalls, and prepares them for successful academic careers.

60
 References
Auburn University. (2004). Enrollment data retrieved April 26, 2004 from
http://www.panda.auburn.edu/ENROLL.HTM
McKeachie, W. A. (2002). Teaching tips: Strategies, research, and theory for college and
university teachers (11th ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

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 11

Visions and Realities in Preparing College Teachers

James H. Korn, Saint Louis University

Saint Louis University (SLU) has about 7,000 undergraduate students and 4,000
graduate and professional students. Its Carnegie classification is Doctoral Research
University, Extensive. Our Psychology Department has 22 full-time faculty, about 400
undergraduate majors, and 100 graduate students. We have graduate programs in clinical
(accredited by the American Psychological Association [APA]), organizational, and
experimental psychology. The latter program includes specialties in cognitive neuroscience,
developmental, and social psychology.
The Psychology Department is not unique in our approach to preparing graduate
students for college teaching. We offer not only a course on the teaching of psychology but
also opportunities for experience. During the past 30 years I have suggested other more
extensive programs, but these visions have not become reality. I believe that this situation also
is not unique—proposals to devote more resources to preparing teachers often do not go very
far when research holds first place in the departmental mission. In this chapter I will present
my proposals and then discuss why they might not have become reality. I will argue that these
factors, which are present in other doctoral programs, are barriers that must be overcome if we
are to prepare our graduate students for teaching.
I offered my first Teaching of Psychology course at Carnegie-Mellon in the early
1970s. In the course, reading McKeachie’s Teaching Tips was combined with discussion for
graduate students who taught small sections of the Introductory Psychology course. When I
came to SLU in 1974 I offered a course called College Teaching jointly with a member of our
Education Department. We included a good bit of the history and philosophy of education. In
recent years I settled on this general model for my course and for workshops on teaching:
Philosophy > Objectives > Methods > Learning > Evaluation > Reflection

62
 A philosophy of teaching and learning (explicit or implicit) determines course
objectives. These objectives lead to decisions about the most appropriate teaching methods
(lecture, discussion, etc.) and ways of assessing student learning. These methods and
outcomes should be evaluated based on multiple sources of data. The course, and perhaps
even the philosophy, is then modified after reflection. This model guides our reading and
discussion in the teaching course.
Before presenting my own visions for what I would like to see doctoral programs do, I
must pay homage to the long-standing leaders in the education of college teachers, both of
whom influenced my visions. Bill McKeachie has been training teachers at the University of
Michigan since 1946, almost 60 years before the publication of this book (McKeachie, 1951).
The University of News Hampshire has offered the most extensive program since 1966, led
by Victor Benassi (see his chapter in this book) and Peter Fernald (1995).
Visions
I proposed two models for the training of teaching assistants (TAs) that would go
beyond a single course. The first was more ambitious and was intended to prepare students
more broadly for academic careers. Our Graduate School implemented this program for three
years. The second model was more narrowly intended for training teachers in the Psychology
Department.

Model I: Preparing for Academic Careers

The major features of this program were:
1. A curriculum that combined our regular doctoral program with extensive supervised
teaching experience and training in the service (administrative) aspects of academic life.
2. Building linkages with local and regional colleges, leading to post-doctoral teaching
opportunities.
Below is a summary of the proposed Model I curriculum:
First year: Three courses in the student’s graduate program, TA apprenticeship with a
teaching mentor.

63
 Second year: Two program courses per semester, including Teaching of Psychology,
co-teaching with mentor, master’s thesis.
Third year: One program course per semester, and two non-psychology electives (e.g.,
education, public policy); teach one course with mentor supervision; paid
practicum in a SLU office.
Fourth year: complete course work and doctoral examinations; assistantship in a SLU
office (half-time).
Fifth year: teach one course each semester; dissertation.
Post-doctoral or ABD teaching internship at a local college.
Four students participated in a pilot version of this program. For one year they had
teaching and service responsibilities along with their regular doctoral work. Although the
students felt that this program was too demanding, they were forced to see how faculty have
to balance the demands of teaching with service and scholarly work. We made some progress
in building linkages with small colleges in the area, which later did provide ABD teaching for
some graduate students.
Model II: Successive Approximations
This approach is similar to the structure that McKeachie (1951) used at Michigan.
Students are given increasing responsibility for teaching over 3-4 years. There are four steps:

Teaching assistant (TA). The student works for a faculty member, but has
responsibilities beyond the usual clerical support. A major objective is the development of
teaching skills by leading discussion groups, delivering mini-lectures, designing activities,
and writing examination items.
Apprentice. The student works closely with a faculty mentor in teaching a course,
including course design, full responsibility for some classes, and advising students. The
mentor provides feedback in regular meetings. The Teaching of Psychology course would be
taken before or concurrently with this step.

64
 Section leader. Our large sections of Introductory Psychology gave students the option
of participating in small group discussion sections for extra credit. In this step graduate
students would design and teach a section. They would meet regularly in a group for
discussion and supervision.
Teacher. The student has full responsibility for a class with supervision by a mentor
who visits the class and meets with the student teacher to provide feedback.
Realities
Most doctoral programs offer training in research, one or two professional areas, and
teaching. The balance among these training responsibilities may vary, but teaching gets one-
third of the turf at best, and time devoted to preparing teachers continuously is in competition
with time for research and professional training. However, the reality is that, in almost every
program, teaching ranks third in the list of priorities. That is not to say that faculty do not care
about teaching. Most of my colleagues prepare carefully and get good teacher ratings from
their students; some even win awards, and I suspect such is true in other departments.
There are several reasons that teaching winds up in third place. The following list
comes from my experience and from my work with other departments around the country.
This list is not an indictment of my colleagues at SLU or elsewhere, but represents the reality
that dims our visions.

1. The PhD is a research degree and research training is time intensive, including
coursework in methods and statistics, supervised research experience, a thesis, and
dissertation. The faculty who supervise this training are partially dependent on
graduate students for their own academic success. The greatest rewards in this
system come from publication in top research journals and grant support, not from
teaching.
2. Clinical training also is time intensive and is driven by requirements for
accreditation, which do not include any standards for teaching. These requirements

65
 can be used to justify new courses and experiences that make it more difficult for
students to include preparation for teaching in their graduate program.
3. As a result of Items 1 and 2, faculty advisors do not actively support programs for
training teachers. “Yes, that is a good idea, but you will not get a good research
post-doc unless you publish more,” or “you will not get into your favored clinical
internship without more clinical experience.” These messages are given even to
students whose career goal is to teach in a small college. Some advisors actively
oppose graduate student involvement in teaching. In my workshops on teaching, I
frequently hear graduate students complain about research supervisors who did not
approve their attendance.
4. Most teaching programs usually depend on one person who has volunteered to be
the teaching champion and work with students who volunteer to participate,
having overcome the resistance of their advisors. The program disappears when
the champion goes on sabbatical, takes another job, or retires. It is unusual for a
department to hire a new person specifically to fill that role.
5. There is limited administration support beyond the department. Deans and provosts
are, of course, promoting the research mission of their institutions. There may be a
university teaching center, which administrators will say meets the need for

teacher preparation for those who want it. The University of New Hampshire
provides an example of what excellent administrative support should be (again, see
Victor Benassi’s chapter in this book).
6. At many universities, students pay to prepare themselves to teach when they pay
tuition for a course on teaching. The stipend they receive for teaching may be not
much more than the tuition, so in a sense they work only for the gain in
experience. Most graduate students cannot afford to do that.
7. Teaching assignments often are made arbitrarily and on short notice. Even first-year
students may be asked to teach in their first semester in graduate school.

66
 Assignments may be made regardless of prior experience or interest in teaching as
a career goal. Students may be given only a week or two to prepare their course
with little guidance. These things may be infrequent, but they are not rare. In my
view, this practice clearly is unethical, yet we do it.
Recognition of these realities may help groups that are working to improve this
situation. The Society for the Teaching of Psychology sponsors workshops around the country
and supports other activities. The APA Education Directorate is supporting Preparing Future
Faculty (PFF) programs. The American Psychological Society, under a grant from David
Myers, has formed a working group on teacher preparation. This impressive array of
organizations should be able to have an impact.
However, I think there are two groups that can be the greatest agents for change,
although they are not well organized. Students who aspire to careers in teaching should apply
to graduate programs that show some promise of providing good preparation. They can find
out which programs do that from published materials, and from visiting or calling
departments and talking with current students about teaching. APA should expect departments
to provide this information in the descriptions submitted to their Graduate Study in
Psychology (2004). Perhaps more departments will try to attract this group of students.
The other group is composed of colleges and universities that have teaching as their

primary mission and who expect the faculty they hire to be prepared to teach. If that is a
criterion for hiring, then students from departments that do this well will have an advantage in
the academic marketplace.
There are many forces in place that could turn our visions into realities. I hope this
book will help to bring those forces together.
References
American Psychological Association. (2004). Graduate study in psychology. Washington,
DC: Author.

67
Fernald, P. S. (1995). Preparing psychology graduate students for the professoriate. American
Psychologist, 50, 421-427.
McKeachie, W. J. (1951). A program for training teachers of psychology. American
Psychologist, 6, 119-121.

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 III

The Successful Job Applicant:

What Academic Departments Seek

in New Assistant Professors

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 12

Qualities and Abilities Our

Psychology Department Seeks in Outstanding Job Candidates

Jerry Rudmann, Irvine Valley Community College

When a full-time position in psychology opens at our institution, we use several

important criteria to identify the most competitive candidates. This chapter describes and
explains these criteria from my perspective as the Psychology Department’s senior member. I
have served on numerous hiring committees for a variety of academic disciplines. Most
recently I chaired the hiring committee for a tenure track psychologist at Irvine Valley
College, the college at which I have done the majority of my 25 years of teaching.
Irvine Valley is a public community college founded in 1985 and serving over 13,000
students. The median student age is 25. Fifty-three percent of the students are from minority
populations (mostly Asian and Hispanic). The college employs 111 full-time and 270 part-
time instructors.
We use eight criteria to evaluate psychology applicants seeking a full-time, tenure
track position at Irvine Valley. These criteria begin with the candidates’ academic
preparation. Those seeking an adjunct position usually must meet only the first criterion, but
meeting some or all of the remaining seven criteria would certainly improve an applicant’s
chances of landing a part-time teaching position.
Academic Preparation
No doubt, the candidate’s academic preparation is the most fundamental requirement.
Nearly every state, including California, requires a MA in psychology or a closely related
field (e.g., counseling or educational psychology) as the minimum academic background.
Although the application process allows candidates not meeting this criterion to argue for
their "equivalency" by describing a combination of coursework and experience thought to
constitute an equivalent background, most hiring committees would not seriously consider

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interviewing such a candidate. A growing number of applicants hold a PhD in psychology,
but the minimum academic preparation continues to be the master’s degree.
Successful Teaching Experience
The qualified candidate must provide evidence of teaching experience, especially
successful teaching experience at the post-secondary level. The hiring committee will
examine the breadth of courses taught, the number of years the candidate has been teaching,
and the type of institution at which the candidate has taught. Some colleges will be looking
for generalists capable of teaching any of the courses offered by the department, while others
may be looking for specialists in statistics and research methods, biopsychology, or some
other area of psychology. It seems likely that when an opening occurs, most colleges would
seek those who can teach any courses the department offers. Applicants with limited formal
teaching experience may be able to strengthen their application by summarizing their
experiences working with students (e.g., graduate student teaching, guest speaking
presentations, or service as a teaching assistant).
How does a candidate provide evidence of "successful" teaching? I recommend
preparation of a professional development portfolio. Include in the portfolio documentation of
teaching evaluations performed by department chairs, deans, peers, or students. If you
currently teach at a college that doesn't often evaluate instructors, then request such an

evaluation. Another strategy is to create and regularly administer your own student feedback
form. However, do not load the portfolio with reams of raw data; instead provide statistical
summaries and representative comments about your teaching gathered from former students
and administrators.
Philosophy of Teaching
Somewhere within the application and interview process, candidates will be asked to
reveal their philosophy of teaching. Good candidates will provide examples of teaching
methods sensitive to the diverse learning styles among students, use of instructional designs
that emphasize active rather than passive learning, the preference for learner-centered over

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teacher-centered instructional strategies, and the application of instructional principles derived
from the science of learning (Halpern & Hakel, 2002, 2003). Applicants who are invited to
give a teaching demonstration should present one that reflects their philosophy of teaching.
Regional accreditation agencies now expect disciplinary faculty to work together to
identify learning outcomes encompassing essential knowledge and skills that students should
gain as a result of their courses and programs. Moreover, faculty must develop and implement
ways to assess student learning, review data generated from the assessments, and document
how such data have been used to improve teaching and learning. Because of their academic
background and training, all psychologists are well prepared for this type of work. The
candidate should be fully committed to helping colleagues develop and assess course and
department-level learning outcomes. In this regard, the informed candidate should be well
aware of the learning outcomes for the undergraduate degree in psychology, a comprehensive
set of outcomes recently prepared by an American Psychological Association task force
<http://www.apa.org/ed/pcue/taskforcereport2.pdf>.
A Personal Commitment to Ongoing Professional Development
Exceptional candidates can readily list strategies that employ to stay current not just
on recent developments in psychology, but also on effective teaching strategies. Candidates
should provide, in chronological order, an annotated listing of workshops, conferences, and

presentations attended. Another section of the professional portfolio should provide examples
of relevant books and journals read in order to stay current in psychology and the teaching of
psychology. The superior candidate can list professional organizations in which he or she is a
member (e.g., TOPSS, Psi Beta, Psi Chi, PT@CC, and any county, state, regional, national, or
international organizations in psychology such as APA and APS). Candidates should take
time to describe all instances of active participation in such organizations and describe
personal links and connections within psychology's network of professional organizations.
The point here is to convince the hiring committee that as a future colleague, you will take
primary responsibility for your professional development as both a psychologist and a teacher.

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Individuals serving on a hiring committee never want to be accused of having had a hand in
hiring an instructor who subsequently earns a reputation of being "dead wood."
Show Knowledge of Community Colleges' Unique Role in Higher Education
The unique charge of the community college is to maintain academic standards
equivalent to those in place at the 4-year colleges and universities, while serving a highly
diverse group of students, many of whom are literally learning to be students. Community
colleges embrace the ideal of open access to students. Effective instructors acknowledge and
accept the responsibilities associated with serving the highly diverse student body derived
from an open access policy. Faculty need to embrace this challenge by focusing on student
potential. Besides teaching course content, they must recognize the importance of helping
students become competent learners. Psychologists are uniquely prepared to help students
develop effective learning skills, a fact the candidate should express during the hiring process.
(Some of my colleagues resent the developmental nature of some community college
students; these instructors tend to blame the students for what is generally, in fact, ineffective
teaching.)
How can teachers help students develop learning skills? Here are a few examples. The
instructor can refer needy students to the tutoring center and encourage more accomplished
students to become tutors. One colleague administers a self-scoring study strategies inventory

to all students in her fall introductory classes. Students scoring below the norm for time-
management, concentration, or study strategies are given a handout listing workshops, classes,
and resources available to help them improve in these areas. Instructors also can develop
scoring rubrics for grading various assignments and share these rubrics with the students to
clarify their expectations for acceptable work. Having students use the rubrics to judge their
own work can promote metacognition.
Be Eager to Mentor Students
Effective community college teachers enjoy helping students become effective
learners. Mentoring students involves formalizing a commitment to student development.

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Effective mentoring may take many forms. Many psychology students thrive on co-curricular
activities designed to enrich their knowledge of and involvement in psychology. Many
community colleges have established Psi Beta chapters. Psi Beta is a national honor society in
psychology for students attending a 2-year college. Psi Beta, which grew out of Psi Chi,
provides students with many benefits: a forum to meet and develop friendships with others
who share their interests in psychology, a place to learn leadership skills by serving as chapter
officers, and the opportunity to hear speakers on a variety of topics in psychology. Many Psi
Beta chapters provide students with the opportunity to present their research at poster sessions
during regional and national psychology conferences. Besides advising a Psi Beta chapter,
mentors may arrange service-learning opportunities in the community so students can apply
what they are learning in class, or arranging field trips to the local university's "Psychology
Day" program.
The hiring committee will look for clues of the candidate's potential for becoming a
strong student mentor. Did the candidate participate in Psi Beta or Psi Chi as an
undergraduate? Has the applicant been involved with any type of mentoring activities initiated
during former or present teaching employment? Does this applicant have knowledge of the
mentoring activities the department already has in place? Would this candidate become an
active participant in our co-curricular activities or avoid them? Worse yet, would this person

refuse or neglect requests to announce Psi Beta and other enrichment opportunities to
students? These are critically important questions for the hiring committee.
Psychologists teaching at the community college should actively encourage students to
take advantage of the enrichment derived from co-curricular opportunities available on the
campus. Psychology faculty must not only encourage students to become involved, but they
must help provide meaningful co-curricular opportunities. They, too, should participate in
these outside-the-classroom activities, thereby serving as a positive role model for students.
New instructors should resist becoming the "commuter teacher" whose time on campus is
restricted to the classroom and the required minimum number of office hours.

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 Show Promise of Being Good "Campus Citizen"
Most community colleges require full-time instructors to serve on at least one standing
committee. Instructors must provide reliable service on their committees by arriving for the
meeting on time, prepared to engage in the committee's business. Good colleagues also accept
their portions of shared-governance work on temporary committees such as task forces, ad
hoc committees, and hiring committees. The good applicant will show a willingness to fulfill
the obligation and responsibility for committee work. Hiring committees will examine the
applicant's history of committee work for supportive evidence.
Related to fulfilling committee work, it is necessary that teachers enjoy positive,
respectful interactions with teaching colleagues, including of course, adjunct faculty, both
within and outside their teaching discipline. The expectation for positive working
relationships extends to interactions with all support staff. Members of the support staff
provide essential services for developing and maintaining a positive learning environment;
these individuals must be treated with the respect and appreciation they deserve. Often it is
difficult for the hiring committee to evaluate candidates’ tendencies in this area, but the
candidate sometimes provides clues by the way he or she interacts with the staff who arrange
for the interview. Post-interview reference checks may also provide some insight in this area.
Information and Technological Literacy

The candidate should meet the APA guidelines for information and technological
literacy desired for the BA in psychology. The candidate should demonstrate information
competence and the ability to use computers and other technology for teaching purposes. For
example, applicants can list software programs for which they have reached mastery, such as
spreadsheet generation for maintaining grades or presentation software for class use. This
criterion also includes the ethical and responsible use of information in academic work.
Closing Tips
Community colleges are primarily teaching institutions; conducting and publishing
research is not part of the community college mission. Doing research is not usually supported

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or even acknowledged by the college. On the other hand, psychologists at the 2-year college
are not discouraged from conducting and publishing their research, and some do because they
enjoy active involvement the psychology’s scientific community.
College teaching positions are highly competitive, even positions that open at 2-year
colleges. Be prepared. Expect a very thorough hiring procedure. A committee will meet to
review the criteria for screening the applications, and will develop a set of questions to ask
those invited for interviews. Take care in preparing the application form. Candidates get off to
a poor start when they submit a sloppy application form (e.g., handwritten responses); a copy
of the completed application is the first thing members of the hiring committee will examine.
Second, if the interview requires a teaching demonstration, take time to prepare a good
demonstration; the demonstration carries a good deal of weight. Finally, don't lose heart.
Hiring committees don't always make the correct decision. Be aware that being invited to an
interview indicates that you definitely have job-landing potential in this highly competitive
market. Learn from interview experience. After the interview, write down as many questions
as you can recall. Think about how you could have given better answers, and how you could
have made an even better presentation of what you can offer the college.
It is typical for the interview process, as conducted by a group, to identify several
candidates whose names are then forwarded to the college president for final interviews.

Some presidents require a minimum number (e.g., three) of names be forwarded for
consideration to be invited to this interview. The president, perhaps with the help of another
administrator and the committee chair, then makes the final determination about whom, from
those names forwarded, to offer the position. The final interviews are usually less structured,
and more casual than the group interviews. Don’t allow this moment to become little more
than a pleasant chat. Instead, prepare for the final interview by having a list, in your mind, of
the unique strengths you will bring to the department and the college. The list should describe
how you meet the important criteria set forth in this chapter.

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 References
Halpern, D. F., & Hakel, M. D. (2003, July/August). Applying the science of learning.
Change, 35, 36-41.
Halpern, D. F., & Hakel, M. D. (Eds). (2002). Applying the science of learning to university
teaching and beyond. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

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 13

Characteristics of Successful Community College Academicians

Ann Tway Ewing, Mesa Community College

Training for an academic career often focuses primarily on gaining academic

credentials but entails little instruction regarding acquiring of a teaching position and
achieving success as a faculty member. In this chapter, I will draw from my 25 years of
experience teaching and serving on hiring committees at Mesa Community College to unveil
the qualities that distinguish those who are likely to be hired and to become successful
academicians in the two-year college setting.
Mesa Community College (MCC) is the largest of ten colleges in the Maricopa
Community College District. Mesa College is located in Mesa, Arizona and has a student
body of 27,000 students who matriculate on two separate campuses. Mesa College is a
publicly funded two-year commuter institution, located approximately 15 min from Arizona
State University. Many MCC students transfer to Arizona State University after two years and
many are also simultaneously enrolled in both institutions, so called “swirlers.” The MCC
student body is quite diverse in regard to ethnicity, age, and academic preparation. The
Psychology Department consists of 12 full time faculty, three men and women, and about 35
adjunct faculty. Each semester, approximately 4,000 students enroll in the 25 different courses
offered by the Psychology Department.
Academic Preparation for Teaching
The minimum requirements for someone to teach in the Maricopa Community College
District are a Masters Degree and at least 18 hours of graduate work in the specific subject
area. Often there are many applicants for a full-time teaching position in Psychology, so
candidates must have much more than the minimum even to merit an interview when a
position becomes available. Although not technically required, a PhD is almost a prerequisite
for final selection.

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 When an interview committee reviews the curriculum vitae (CV) of prospective
candidates, it may be looking for expertise in a particular specialty or they may be looking for
breadth of background. Regardless of the specifics of a given hiring situation, a solid
background in statistics and research, both academic and experiential, is often highly valued.
This strong research background often correlates with an emphasis on the scientific approach
to the study of psychology, a perspective that MCC heartily advocates.
Teaching Experience Desired
During the educational process, you focus on the acquisition of knowledge. When you
prepare to teach, the focus shifts. You still must have a deep reservoir of knowledge, but the
emphasis shifts to your ability to transmit that information to others effectively. A hiring
committee will be much more impressed with a candidate who can formulate an effective
analogy to explain a concept than with a candidate who can explain the concept to the “nth
degree,” but only in technical terms. Prospective candidates who have recently graduated
must learn to shift from trying to demonstrate how much they know to trying to demonstrate
how well they can communicate that information to students. Teaching experience is highly
valued, so prospective candidates should build a CV with documented teaching assistantships
and adjunct teaching experience. Experience and teaching expertise are primary hiring
considerations.

Teaching experience in statistics and research methods is particularly desirable. Many

people shy away from teaching these subjects, so those who are willing and have shown
competence in this area are often prized candidates. Since approximately eight sections of
Statistics and four sections of Research Methods are taught at MCC each semester,
demonstrated competence to teach these subjects is advantageous.
Many successful candidates get their “foot in the door” by teaching as adjunct faculty
at the prospective employment site, which provides them with an opportunity to gain needed
experience as well as to become familiar with the faculty, the mission, and goals of the
department. It also affords the department the opportunity to observe the prospective

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candidate’s ability to relate to students and manage the various tasks associated with being an
effective faculty member. Candidates are well advised to take advantage of opportunities for
adjunct teaching at a local community college while they are completing their graduate work.
Technical expertise is another valued characteristic of potential faculty members.
Although this factor alone will not get you hired, it is a valued asset and can facilitate
effective teaching. At MCC, a “micro-teach” presentation is included as part of the interview
process. This opportunity allows candidates to demonstrate effective use of technology in
their mini-lecture. A command of the technological tools available today signals that
candidates are progressive and likely to prefer to be leading rather than following the pack
throughout their careers.
Professional Experience and Affiliation
Practical experience in the psychology lab, the clinical world, or the
industrial/organizational world is also a valued asset. Candidates who can draw from previous
applied experience often bring new perspectives, applications, connections, and great practical
examples to their classrooms. Candidates should emphasize their practical experiences,
including research, on their CV and other application materials. If discussed during an
interview, these experiences may set one candidate apart from the rest.
Another valued entry on a CV is membership in professional organizations such as the

Society for Teaching of Psychology or the American Psychological Association. These

affiliations may demonstrate strong identification with the field and a commitment to
continued professional growth, as well as interest in organizations that facilitate excellent
teaching and leadership opportunities. A potential candidate should strive to form such
connections and take advantage of the opportunities that they offer.
Tacit Characteristics of Successful Academicians
So far, the discussion has focused on some of the tangible characteristics of faculty
who are likely to be hired. Equally important, but less obvious, are the tacit characteristics
that selection committees seek in a candidate. A love for teaching is a primary characteristic

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of a highly desirable candidate. This quality is difficult to measure but is often evidenced by
an emphasis on the process of teaching. Sometimes during an interview, a good teacher will
refer to the joy that is generated when a student suddenly seems to “get it” or the satisfaction
that comes when a student asks a good question. This interest in the individual experience of
each student in the classroom is often indicative of a potentially good faculty member.
Candidates may benefit from including student and colleague evaluations in their initial
application materials as evidence of passion and talent for teaching.
Another highly sought after characteristic of a good candidate is a willingness to go
beyond the specific teaching situation in the performance of the job. This quality may be
manifest in various ways but the dedicated teacher is often interested in opportunities
available for interaction with students outside the classroom. Dedicated teachers are
passionate about their teaching, and as with any love affair, they show a constant desire to do
more and to do it better. They are creative and venturesome, always searching for better ways
to teach and not afraid of trying something new that could possibly fail.
In an interview, these teachers can readily describe an example of a classroom
situation that provided them with an emotional high. Typically, these candidates have a high
level of energy and enthusiasm for teaching. They are also avid lifelong learners with a
hunger for new information and a passion for sharing what they have discovered with others.

These characteristics should surface in candidates’ written applications and teaching

statements. Successful candidates should include letters of recommendation and contact
information for individuals who can give concrete examples of their creativity and passion for
teaching. Graduate students might also look for ways to document their interest in teaching
through attendance at teaching workshops as well as their publications or conference
presentations related to teaching.
Finally, collegiality is a characteristic that is hard to document but highly desirable in
a faculty member. This quality may be one of the most important determinants of a
candidate’s eventual success and satisfaction in any given department. Because teamwork is

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essential to optimal functioning of an academic department, a candidate who is willing to
support departmental goals and to encourage colleagues becomes a potentially invaluable
resource to the department. (A faculty member who fails in this regard may become a liability
and may handicap the effectiveness and functionality of the entire department.) Candidates
should carefully review the job description and the missions and goals of the department and
institution prior to applying for a position to ensure that the position is a good fit for them.
Although faculty are essentially autonomous in their individual classrooms, effective faculty
are collegial and hold the welfare of their students and their departments in the highest regard.
For the individual who is passionate about teaching and about psychology, enjoys
interacting with undergraduates, and is innovative and enthusiastic, the community college
may be the ideal setting for a very rewarding academic career. In order to be successful, a
candidate should carefully prepare the application, teaching statement, letters of
recommendation, and CV to reflect a strong academic background in psychology, practical
experience, teaching expertise, and evidence of passion for teaching and for students.

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 14

Desirable Qualities in Psychology Faculty at Tuskegee University

Marcia J. Rossi and Reginald A. Gougis, Tuskegee University

Tuskegee University (TU) is a private, state-related historically black university

founded in 1881 as a land-grant institution through the efforts of Booker T. Washington. TU
is located in Tuskegee, Alabama in rural Macon County. TU’s student population is
approximately 3,000. Although 90% of the students are black or African American, they
represent many states across the nation. The Psychology and Sociology Department currently
has four full-time faculty members in psychology and approximately 120 majors, graduating
26 majors in 2003-2004 with the Bachelor of Arts degree.
Mission of Tuskegee University
TU was founded at a time in our nation’s history when education for black citizens
was either denied or severely limited. TU is one of a number of historically black universities
whose mission is to provide higher education to all people but especially to black students and
to those that have been traditionally denied access to higher education in America’s
mainstream institutions. Due to a variety of circumstances, Historically Black Colleges and
Universities (HBCUs) have sought to fulfill their mission with relatively limited financial,
material, and personnel resources as compared to mainstream institutions. However, premier
HBCUs educate significant numbers of black students in the U.S. population.
Faculty Duties
The unique history and mission of TU and the particular discipline determines the
unique mix of duties required by faculty as well as the emphasis placed on particular duties.
The primary faculty duties at TU include (a) teaching, (b) advising, (c) professional
development, and (d) service to the Psychology Department, TU, and the community. Each of
these will be discussed separately, although in many cases duties overlap categories.
Teaching

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 With the rich academic history and mission of TU instruction has always been a
primary concern. Because TU has a flexible admission policy, some students come to the
campus unprepared academically for higher-level college work. At the same time, many
students come from college-preparatory backgrounds and are valedictorians or possess
outstanding academic skills. Thus, the student body exhibits a wide range of abilities and
learning styles. Successful faculty recognize that being able to reach and challenge students of
different abilities and learning styles effectively requires a willingness to adjust their teaching
styles to accommodate those differences. In some cases, extra effort is needed to help students
learn effective study strategies, and in other cases, faculty members employ different teaching
strategies to address different learning styles.
In all cases, we expect faculty to challenge students to think critically through various
teaching methods. For instance, one faculty member primarily lectures, but often employs
small-group problem-solving sessions or discussions. Another faculty member stresses
developing good study skills through requiring students to outline their chapters as homework
assignments. This same teacher also requires active participation in class as well as requiring
teams of students to present material in creative ways. Another teacher incorporates a wide
range of techniques in almost all classes, including participatory lectures, small group
exercises and problem-solving, discussion sessions, student presentations and demonstrations.

Through a recognition that different students have different strengths and learn best through
different strategies, successful faculty attempt to adjust their instructional style to meet the
needs of our students.
The current teaching load for TU psychology faculty is four courses per semester
during the academic year, with three preparations. Faculty members generally teach one or
two courses in their area of expertise and one or two service courses.
Advising
Because one of TU’s missions is to provide higher education to all students, including
those who may have suffered added obstacles to higher education, TU faculty give extra care

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and time in the realm of academic advising, personal counseling, and mentoring. Black
students in particular may find role models at Tuskegee who are willing to provide academic
engagement, career direction, and personal advice. Traditionally unprepared students may
find TU faculty who are more willing to provide tutoring outside of class and the extra care
that these students require to complete registration schedules and survive their first year.
Professional Development
Like most institutions of higher learning, TU encourages its faculty to continue their
professional development beyond the terminal degree and tenure. However, as in teaching and
advising, the meaning of professional development at Tuskegee has a unique interpretation
depending on the college and discipline. TU administrators encourage faculty to conduct
research and to communicate their findings through publications, conferences, and
networking. However, rank and tenure at Tuskegee are not a simple matter of “publish or
perish.” Because faculty development is theoretically linked to TU’s mission, rewards for TU
faculty for engaging in professional activities are defined more broadly. For some faculty,
professional development may mean developing an innovative teaching program to include
technology in the classroom, directing a summer program to give high school students a head
start, or supervising students in hosting a mini-conference. Because of the relatively small
faculty, many opportunities for interdisciplinary research exist; thus a willingness to be

flexible in faculty approaches to research is desirable.

Service to the Department, University and Larger Community
TU places significant demand on its faculty to contribute to administrative duties in
the Psychology Department, to serve on TU committees, and to become involved actively in
the surrounding community. It is likely that available resources and its unique HBCU history
combine to place this greater service demand on its faculty than on those at many mainstream
institutions. Psychology faculty participate in all aspects of departmental business including
recruitment, admissions, registration, advising, curriculum development, assessment, and
preparation for graduation and beyond. TU faculty serve on a variety of university level

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committees such as Admissions, Faculty Senate, Curriculum, Athletic, and Personnel
committees. TU administrators strongly encourage faculty to become involved in community
activities and invite community members to campus activities. Perhaps due to its status in a
rural community, TU provides many service and learning opportunities to the surrounding
community.
Conclusion
TU has not only contributed tremendously to the professional and educational
development of America at large but has provided education to countless citizens that may
have never achieved the same quality of education in the mainstream. TU faculty perform
many duties expected of faculty at many institutions of higher learning, but TU’s available
resources and unique history and mission have evolved to provide a creative definition of
professional development and to emphasize the priority of duties different from those at many
other institutions. Relative to many institutions of higher education, TU places tremendous
emphasis on innovative teaching, advising, and all aspects of service.

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 15

The Successful Job Applicant at Alabama State University

Tina Vazin, Alabama State University

Alabama State University (ASU) is a public Historically Black University (HBCU)

located in Montgomery, Alabama, the heart of the civil rights movement. ASU was
established in 1867 with an initial enrollment of fewer than 20 students for the purpose of
preparing African Americans to teach at the elementary and secondary levels. Today, ASU
enrolls over 6,000 students, 89% of whom are African American, and offers 32 undergraduate
programs, 11 Masters programs, 2 Education Specialist programs and 3 Doctoral programs.
The Carnegie Classification is Masters Colleges and Universities I.
ASU’s Psychology Department is currently housed in the College of Education, but
plans are underway to relocate the Department to the College of Arts and Sciences in the near
future. ASU offers a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology and has experienced
significant growth in the number of students during the past five years, increasing from 70 to
over 300 majors. The Psychology Department currently includes five full-time faculty
members and 11 adjunct faculty members.
Psychology faculty must be able to teach a variety of psychology courses, provide a
nurturing academic environment for minority students and to secure external funding to
support research that involves undergraduate research assistants. The undergraduate
curriculum is revised every two years and currently includes 21 psychology courses. Faculty
members each teach four classes per semester with an option of teaching two classes during
the summer. The large number of psychology course offerings, the growing number of
students, and the limited number of faculty make it necessary for faculty members to be able
to teach at least three or four different courses each year. Applicants for faculty positions with
experience teaching a variety of courses as a graduate student or adjunct, who have
experience teaching students from diverse backgrounds, and who have well-developed

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research skills so as to be able to integrate research across the curriculum, are regarded
favorably.
Many African American students who attend an HBCU are seeking a college
experience that includes one-on-one interaction with faculty, small class sizes, and a nurturing
and comfortable environment that permits intellectual and social growth in an atmosphere of
acceptance and understanding. Some students come to ASU from predominately White high
schools to escape the burden of being the representative of their race in each class, other
students come to ASU from predominately Black high schools to postpone their immersion
into a world of racial injustices and look to ASU to provide a temporary safe haven, and some
students come to ASU because they come from a long line of proud ASU alumni. However,
many students come to ASU because of it’s commitment to offering an opportunity to pursue
a college degree to students inadequately prepared for college by offering rigorous
remediation courses.
As a result of these varied reasons for students attending ASU, there is a wide range
of students’ academic preparedness that results in special challenges for instructors. Meeting
these challenges is especially crucial for psychology instructors, since almost all psychology
majors aspire to go to graduate school. Faculty members must be able to develop instructional
strategies that provide high-quality instruction to students at every level of academic

preparedness. This means setting high standards that will prepare high-performing students
for the rigors of PhD programs while simultaneously meeting the needs of other students who
may want to apply to masters programs in psychology, who have career aspirations outside
psychology or who may be undecided about their career path.
Providing quality research experiences for all students, but especially for those
students who will be competitive applicants for PhD programs, is a critical element of the
undergraduate program. Traditionally, graduate programs primarily consider grade point
average, GRE scores, and to some degree, research experience, in making decisions about
which applicants will be accepted and offered financial support. Evidence of strong research

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skills is paramount for many of our outstanding students because it has made the difference in
tipping the scales in favor of applicants who were considered marginal due to low GRE
scores. Many of our students who have grade point averages of 3.7/4.0 or above, write and
speak well, and are highly motivated to pursue a doctoral degree, do not perform well on the
GRE. The Educational Testing Service (2004) reported that African Americans scored -0.80 σ
below the population mean on the verbal section and -0.87 σ below the population mean on
the quantitative section in the 2003-2004 exam administrations. In addition, women of every
racial group scored lower than their male counterparts. Since 89% of ASU’s students are
African American and 68% are female, the odds are not in their favor. Thus, as long as
universities continue to rely on GRE scores as a primary predictor of academic performance,
it is imperative that every effort be made to strengthen students’ applications by providing
evidence of research competency to offset potentially low GRE scores.
The Psychology Department has limited resources for research, so it is advantageous
for applicants for faculty positions to commit to seeking external funding sources. Being a
researcher at a minority institution may facilitate the acquisition of federal funds because
federal funding agencies strongly encourage and sometimes solicit researchers at minority
institutions to apply for competitive funding. Some agencies provide additional technical
support for faculty at minority institutions, and a few agencies occasionally will restrict

applications for funding for a specified program to minority institutions. Often, funding that is
restricted to minority institutions focuses on institutional capacity building for a specified area
of research, so the funding is often very generous. Also, large research universities will seek
collaboration with researchers at minority institutions in an effort to increase their probability
of being funded. This collaboration is beneficial to faculty because it can provide equipment,
release time, student research assistants, and a mentoring relationship with an established
researcher.
Students’ undergraduate preparation is greatly enhanced by assisting faculty with
funded research programs, because in addition to learning about the research process, they can

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attend conferences, present papers, and publish. These experiences create students who are
competent and confident in their ability to excel in graduate school.
ASU’s Psychology Department has much to offer new faculty members who are
dedicated to undergraduate education, who take genuine pleasure in helping students fulfill
their academic potential and who want to establish a program of research. Potential applicants
for faculty positions should prepare themselves by serving as graduate teaching assistants for
a variety of courses or obtaining an adjunct faculty position while in graduate school.
Preferable experience includes teaching students from diverse backgrounds, especially
minority students. In addition, potential applicants should take every opportunity to become
competent researchers by learning as much as possible about research methodology and data
analysis. While in graduate school, prospective applicants should seek out faculty members
who are successful grant writers, and ask to serve as their research assistants as well as to be
involved in the grant writing process. Preparation for teaching a variety of classes, working
with students from diverse backgrounds, and conducting research is the key to becoming a
successful job applicant at ASU.
Reference
Educational Testing Service. (2004). Sex, race, ethnicity, and performance on the GRE
General Test. Princeton, NJ: Author.

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 16

Applying to Teach at Religiously-Affiliated Institutions:

Advice for New Psychology Faculty

Vincent W. Hevern, Le Moyne College

A hundred and twenty years ago, the vast majority of postsecondary schools in the
United States—about 80%—were tied to religious organizations (Noseworthy, 2003). These
days the percentage is much smaller. In 2001, about 980 religiously-affiliated (RA) colleges
and universities which represent 20% of the 4279 degree-granting schools in the U.S. enrolled
more than 1.5 million students (Knapp, Kelly, Whitmore, Wu, & Gallego, 2003; Nosewothy,
2003). Although RA institutions may no longer dominate college teaching as they once did,
they still represent a notable segment of the American educational enterprise. Many future
psychology faculty will consider applying to teach at one or more RA schools. What might or
should such applicants consider in doing so?
Every department filling a tenure-track position ultimately asks itself how well a
candidate would fit into its overall mission and culture over the very long term. Similarly,
candidates must ask themselves frankly whether for (potentially) an entire career they could
entertain working within that institutional mission and a specific departmental culture.
RA schools differ considerably from other schools in their mission and cultural
identity. Consider the differences across what I will broadly term religiously-confessing,
guided, and historical institutions.1 Confessing schools adhere to an explicit faith tradition
that informs both academic and nonacademic activities of the institution in a more or less
pervasive fashion. Religiously-guided schools identify themselves with a specific faith
tradition, which in turn, affects selective aspects of the institution's work. These aspects might
include core courses in religious studies, campus ministry outreach to the school as a whole or

1
I will omit discussion of religiously-missionary or proselytizing schools like Bible colleges or seminaries
which primarily seek to train their students for ministry within a specific denomination.

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to resident dormitories, regular spiritual retreat weekends, volunteer service programs, and
observance of religious holidays. Note that religiously-guided schools are generally
welcoming of students and faculty of other traditions or even no faith. Finally, schools may
have a historical bond to a specific religious tradition that continues to affect campus life and
practices in mostly a residual fashion. My setting, Le Moyne College, is a Carnegie Masters
II, private, Catholic school with 2400 FTE undergraduates and 400 FTE graduate students.
Founded by the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in 1946, Le Moyne would likely fit under the
religiously-guided label.
Applicants should identify the type of RA school to which they are applying. They
should research the school's (a) overall mission statement, (b) history, and (c) any formal
presentations outlining the goals and expectations for members of the college's community.
School Web sites—particularly sub-pages connected to the president's office—usually
provide such data. Most institutions have their latest catalog posted online and applicants
should read it.
If the religious tradition of a school is foreign to an applicant, he or she ought to
address that lack of knowledge or understanding directly. Minimally, a candidate should
research the explicit values and historical character of the founders or continuing religious
sponsors of a school. Applicants at a Catholic college in the Benedictine tradition would not

strengthen their employment chances with an interview comment such as "I figure that
Benedictines are just like Jesuits or Franciscans." Job candidates can usually expect to be
asked explicitly by deans, chairs, or their equivalent about the institution's mission statement
and how they see themselves fostering or supporting the goals expressed therein. Other
interviewers may pose similar questions. A candidate ought not only to know a school's goals,
but to be able to hold an informed conversation about them.
Further components of the culture of an RA school include other faculty members, the
student body, behavioral and dress standards, the physical plant, and the curriculum.
Applicants need to get a sense of the composition and culture of both the departmental and

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school faculty. An obvious question directed by candidates to interviewers might be, "Would
you tell me something about how the faith tradition of this college affects the life of its faculty
members?" In many religiously-guided or historical schools, the impact might be quite
indirect, but in confessing schools, the effect is usually much broader. Thus, although no
explicit test of faith may be used in hiring, co-religionists may form a significant minority or
even majority of adherents across the teaching staff even in religiously-guided institutions.
Applicants should closely examine a school's policy on non-discrimination or affirmative
action (or note the absence of such a policy). Similarly, the student body may contain a
sizeable proportion of followers of the school's religious tradition, for example, at Le Moyne,
about 75% of our students identify themselves as Roman Catholic. Potential faculty might be
asked by interviewers how their teaching would respect the cultural roots and religious
outlook of such students.
There are relatively few explicit behavioral or, even, dress standards at religiously-
guided or historical schools though confessing colleges often expect their faculty to act or
dress in specific ways. Le Moyne mandates no religiously-sanctioned behaviors or dress
standards beyond general academic professionalism. Yet, confessing schools might forbid
male beards, drinking alcohol, or cohabitation by unmarried faculty. Applicants ought to
inquire discretely about such issues with their interviewers. Note, too, that the physical plant

itself may reflect a school's religious tradition. For example, most classrooms at Le Moyne
have a crucifix attached above the front chalk boards. Their presence is considered to be an
expression of the school's mission and potential faculty might not always grasp the affective
importance of such symbols. Thus, I would caution job applicants in making negative or
disparaging comments about religious aspects of a school's physical plant.
Pedagogical, curricular, and research activities are central to the professional identity
of teachers. In religiously-guided and historical institutions psychology faculty are usually
completely free to choose what they teach and how they choose and to carry out scholarly
work. However, it is noteworthy that half of the 24 censures on academic freedom issued by

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the American Association of University Professors between 1990 and 2002 were to RA
institutions (two Baptist, four Catholic, and one each to "Christian," Episcopalian, Methodist,
Mormon, Presbyterian, and Unification Church-affiliated schools; "Censured administrations,
1930-2002," 2003). Applicants should weigh their own scholarly agenda and pedagogical
expectations in light of the mission and cultural standards of an RA school, particularly
confessing colleges, to which they might apply. If there is any suspicion that such a conflict
might arise, it would be prudent to air these with interviewers in a measured but explicit way.
I have served on a half-dozen psychology hiring committees at Le Moyne and know
generally what I hope to find in a potential colleague: enthusiasm for students and for
teaching, a willingness to serve the department's needs collaboratively and with energy, the
potential for reasonable scholarly productivity, and a general openness to and respect for the
values of our college's mission, which is rooted in the Catholic and Jesuit tradition. I do not
know in any formal sense the explicit faith commitment of many of my colleagues on the
faculty. However, I do have an experience of mutual respect on matters of faith and the
Catholic and Jesuit tradition at Le Moyne. I would judge that we have hired very well, indeed.
References
Censured administrations, 1930-2002 (2003, August). American Association of University
Professors (AAUP). Downloaded May 15, 2004 from the AAUP Web site:

http://www.aaup.org/Com-a/allcen.htm
Knapp, L. G., Kelly, J. E., Whitmore, R. W., Wu, S., and Gallego, L. M. (2003).
Postsecondary institutions in the United States: Fall 2001 and degrees and other
awards conferred: 2000–01 (NCES 2003–158) [Electronic version]. U.S. Department
of Education. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics
Noseworthy, J. A. (2003). Colleges and universities with religious affiliations [Electronic
version]. In J. W. Guthrie (Ed.), Encyclopedia of education (Vol. 1, pp. 389-393).
New York: Macmillan Reference.

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 17

Prospects for the New Professoriate at Brigham Young University

Hal Miller and A. Manja Larcher, Brigham Young University

Brigham Young University (BYU) annually matriculates approximately 40,000

undergraduate students at its three campuses and approximately 3,000 graduate (master’s and
PhD students) at one of those campuses and is, by Carnegie classification, a
Doctoral/Research University-Extensive (McCormick, 2001). It is unique within that
classification because of its exclusive ownership by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints (hereafter, LDS Church). The question posed here is whether the fact of that ownership
has unique implications for those in the new professoriate who aspire to join the BYU
Psychology faculty in a tenure-track position. In other words, are there unique qualifications
of acceptable applicants that are distinct from the qualifications sought by psychology
departments at other institutions in the U.S. owned by, sponsored by, or otherwise affiliated
with formal religious organizations?
The short answer is yes. To be an acceptable applicant—at least at present and in the
foreseeable future—one is preferably a member in good standing of the LDS Church.
Although other institutions may have a similar insistence where their own adherents are
concerned, it may be worth inquiring whether BYU’s Psychology Department is otherwise
unique in its practice of faculty hiring. This question prompts a longer answer.
The University’s mission is succinct: “to assist individuals in their quest for perfection
and eternal life” (Brigham Young University Bulletin, 2004, p. 12). It seeks “the balanced
development of the total person” in an “environment enlightened by living prophets and
sustained by those moral virtues which characterize the life and teachings of the Son of God.”
The success of the mission rides on four goals: that every student be “taught the truths of the
gospel of Jesus Christ,” that students “receive a broad education,” that students also “receive

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instruction in the special fields of their choice,” and that “scholarly endeavor among both
faculty and students” be both essential and encouraged.
As a complement to the mission statement, the University has also articulated four
aims of a BYU education. The first is that it be “spiritually strengthening.” Specifically, each
faculty member should “keep his subject matter bathed in the light and color of the restored
gospel” (Brigham Young University Bulletin, 2004, p. 13). Doing so is consistent with the
“common purpose of all education at BYU—to build testimonies of the restored gospel of
Jesus Christ.” All at the University are “brothers and sisters, seeking together to master the
academic disciplines while remaining mastered by the higher claims of discipleship to the
Savior.”
The second aim is an “intellectually enlightening” education. Specifically, “members
of the BYU community rigorously study academic subjects in the light of divine truth” (p.
13). Third among the aims is an education that is “character building”: “This process begins
with understanding humankind’s eternal nature and ends with the blessing of eternal life,
when human character reflects in fully flowered form the attributes of godliness” (p. 14).
Ultimately, students’ “character begins to resemble [Christ’s], not just because they think it
should but because that is the way they are.” The final aim is “lifelong learning and service.”
The University’s success in meeting all four aims means that “the lives of its students will

confirm Brigham Young’s [the University’s founder’s] confidence that education is indeed ‘a
good thing,’ blessing all those who humbly and faithfully use it to bless others” (p. 15).
The mission statement of the BYU Psychology Department embraces the University’s
mission and aims and “honors the restored gospel as vital for psychological theory, as a guide
for professional conduct, and as a source of unique insight” (Brigham Young University
Bulletin, 2004, p. 321). In doing so, the department “distinguishes itself as a community of
scholarship, moral principle, and devotion to the elevation of humankind.” Membership in the
Church does not suffice. Integral to the successful applicant’s qualifications are familiarity
with the Church’s doctrine and policy and demonstrable adherence to its orthodoxy. The

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applicant should not only know the restored gospel and exemplify its precepts but should also
espouse its truth and the divinity of its origin. Doing so would qualify the applicant spiritually
for the important roles of nurturing students’ testimonies while concurrently contributing to
both the breadth and the specialization of their BYU education. On this view, BYU is a
faithful community that is also scholarly rather than the obverse.
We conducted an informal, anonymous survey of the full-time Psychology faculty; of
32 persons to whom the survey was forwarded, 14 responded. The survey asked them to: (a)
rate the desirability of 16 characteristics of potential assistant professors in the department, (b)
identify additional desirable characteristics of candidates who be would considered highly
qualified, given BYU’s religious affiliation; (c) list the characteristics that are currently most
influential in the department’s hiring decisions, and (d) indicate ways in which those
characteristics may be different from the characteristics most influential at other institutions.
Of the 16 characteristics the survey specified, “active research program and
publication” rated highest, followed by “demonstrated potential to provide high-quality
mentorship for student research,” “demonstrated potential for high-quality teaching,” and
“ability to work in effective scholarly collaborations within the department.” “Demonstrated
potential to secure extramural funding” and “ability to articulate and pursue the department’s
mission and vision” were next and tied. Following, and also tied, were “ability to provide

leadership within the department” and “demonstrated potential to integrate a

religious/spiritual perspective with the formal discipline of psychology.”
As to whether faculty appointment within the Psychology Department would require
additional characteristics in light of the University’s religious affiliation, three respondents
said no. Other respondents cited the need for Church membership, personal values and
behavior consistent with the Church, collegiality and social skills, a “growing testimony” of
the Church, a commitment to Church activity and service, and “abiding faith” in Jesus Christ.
One respondent made the point that the highly qualified candidate would “understand that
BYU is a Church institution first and university second,” that while questioning and

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considering had their place, there was a need to “ultimately respect the legitimate authority of
the University and Church leadership.”
The three characteristics currently most influential in hiring decisions within the
Psychology Department were identified as, first, an active research program and publication
(11 respondents), second, a demonstrated potential for high-quality teaching (7 respondents),
and, third, membership in the Church and a demonstrated potential to provide high-quality
mentorship for student research (tied with 5 respondents each).
Six respondents gave no answer to the final item regarding potential differences
between the department and departments at other institutions regarding the most influential
considerations in faculty hiring. The remaining respondents pointed to other institutions being
“not so interested in personal values and character” and having greater interest in faculty
diversity and less interest in faculty mentorship of students. One respondent opined that BYU
requires “more loyalty, willingness to sacrifice, support, and mentor, and to work for a cause
larger than oneself.”
These results frame the bottom line: Although the scholarly qualifications the
department seeks in a successful applicant are resonant with those at many other institutions,
they are only operative once the premise of LDS uprightness is secure.
References

Brigham Young University bulletin: Undergraduate catalog, 2004-2005. Provo, UT: BYU
Publications and Graphics.
McCormick, A. C. (Ed.). (2001). The Carnegie classification of institutions of higher
education, 2000 edition. Menlo Park, CA: Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement
of Teaching.

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 18

Four Desirable Qualities for Teaching at a Small Liberal Arts College

Ruth L. Ault, Davidson College

Davidson College is a private, liberal arts, baccalaureate college, located in Davidson,

NC (just north of Charlotte). The 1700 students, all of traditional college age, hail from 46
states and 34 countries (4% are international). Half are men, 11% are students of color, 33%
are on need-based financial aid. Davidson is a “highly selective” institution, consistently
ranked by US News and World Report in the top 20 for national liberal arts colleges. The
student/faculty ratio is 11:1. All of the 162 full-time faculty with tenure or on tenure-track
have the highest degree in their field.
Recognizing that it is difficult to distill a long list of potentially desirable qualities, I
have chosen to focus on four that I look for when selecting applicants to interview and
subsequently hire as a new assistant professor.
Love Teaching—It’s not an Afterthought, It’s a Requirement
Although you can assert your love of teaching in cover letters and statements of
teaching philosophy, there’s no substitute for actual experience. Full responsibility for
teaching a course is better than being a teaching assistant, which is better than nothing. It is
unlikely that you will have taught at a school comparable to Davidson (such schools do not
tend to hire pre-PhD adjuncts or lecturers), but the closer you can come to that situation, the
better. For example, if you can teach a section of a survey course (developmental, social,
abnormal, etc.) at your PhD-granting university, even if your enrollment is 100 rather than our
size of 30, that will make you more desirable than teaching a 500-person section of
Introduction to Psychology (our size is 40) or teaching 30 students at a local community
college (students are too different).
Be realistic about what courses you are prepared to teach. Unlike a department of just
2 or 3 people, one of our size (8-9 FTE) allows each person to specialize, so we expect you to

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have extensive background for teaching your course list. Taking one graduate-level course in
a topic is not sufficient. When candidates boast that they can teach anything in the discipline,
our suspicions are aroused that the person does not understand the rigor of our courses or the
caliber of our students.
Be truly interested in and capable of teaching at all undergraduate levels. Most
members of the department teach Introduction to Psychology, a sophomore-level survey
course, a junior-level research-intensive course, and a senior-level seminar. These courses call
for different teaching styles and steadily increasing expectations about what students are
capable of doing. Although new PhDs are unlikely to have had this breadth of experience,
your statement of teaching philosophy or cover letter should yield cues about your
preparedness. For example, you might articulate an active learning technique or assignment
that you would propose in a course you could prepare.
We pay particular attention to candidates who attended a small liberal arts college or
an honors college within a large university. We believe this gives them an edge in
understanding the culture of the school: its size and its liberal-arts focus. Because you cannot
go back in time to re-do your undergraduate experience, if you attended Enormous State
University, you can compensate by articulating how you will get to know your students,
accommodate their individual needs, take an interest in their futures, and support their non-

psychology, non-academic life. Our faculty are expected to give essay questions on tests, have
writing assignments, hold in-class discussions, and require challenging projects that will bring
lots of students to your office for individualized help. To the extent that you have had similar
experiences, you will be better prepared to teach at Davidson College. In the absence of such
experience, you should be able to describe some realistic assignments that you would like to
try out.
A liberal arts focus means, among other things, that students have a range of academic
interests. To the extent that faculty share that breadth of focus, there is a desirable
compatibility. Faculty office hours and open-door policies invite interaction with students

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outside of class. If your research focus is so heavy that you do not have time to meet with
students, your goals are incompatible with our interests.
Have a realistic idea of what the teaching load entails. Without graduate students, you
are unlikely to have a teaching assistant, although you might have an undergraduate assistant
if you teach statistics, and work-study/secretarial assistance will be available for some simple
course-preparation chores. Schools of our caliber vary widely in the number of courses and
different course preparations faculty will have per year. Being unfamiliar with a college’s
teaching expectations will make you seem at best, naïve, and at worst, unacceptable.
Therefore, talk to faculty at undergraduate colleges before you hit the job market.
Have a Research Program Compatible with an Undergraduate Environment
Bright undergraduates will want to work on research projects, not merely as data
collectors but as thoughtful, if inexperienced, collaborators. If your research is so highly
specialized that only trained post-docs can be helpful or if it is done in settings to which
undergraduates have no access, then we would not be interested in your candidacy.
Be interested in a broader range of research questions than you probably trained for in
graduate school. Some students will approach you to supervise their senior thesis or other
independent research on a topic in which they are interested, as well as to work with you on
an ongoing project you have on-going. Although you would not be expected to accommodate

all inquiries, you would be expected to supervise some.

Schools differ considerably in the space they can provide you and the research support
they can offer. My school happens to be fairly well endowed on both counts. However, we do
not pretend to compete with major research universities. If you need highly specialized and
expensive equipment for your research, you had better be able to collaborate with others who
have that equipment or to be able and willing to write grants to acquire it.
Scholarship is expected. It would be a mistake to assume that liberal arts colleges are
interested only in classroom teaching. Successful candidates have several journal publications
or have even co-authored book chapters before obtaining their PhD, especially if they have

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lingered for a while in graduate school. Many colleges like mine would rank teaching and
scholarship/research of equal importance, and the latter matters for promotion, tenure, and
keeping yourself marketable in case the unthinkable happens. When we solicit outside
reviews of an assistant professor’s scholarship for tenure and promotion considerations, we
say (and mean) “quality is more important than quantity.” We judge favorably publications of
textbooks or pedagogical aids, research on the pedagogy of teaching, as well as more
traditional top-tier research journal articles. If you dislike research and think of teaching as a
way to avoid doing any more, then you are not going to be happy or successful at a school
like Davidson.
Have the Right Attitude
We value collegiality, collaboration, cooperation, and good departmental citizenship.
To prepare yourself, you can gain experience by being on research or teaching teams, and you
can serve on a graduate school committee. You could also be involved in professional
associations’ graduate student groups (e.g., APAGS or STP’s Graduate Student Teaching
Association) or help a professor put on a conference. Such activities can not only teach you
more about the profession but also demonstrate your interest in committee or service work. To
get past the paper application stage and be invited for an interview, you need to make sure
these personal qualities are highlighted, most likely by those who write letters of

recommendation for you.

Write Well
To be able to communicate effectively is important in every area of academic life, but
at a college that emphasizes teaching in particular, you will probably be involved in some
writing-across-the-curriculum initiative. Your own writing skills will be critically appraised,
from your cover letter (which you have, of course, proofread) to your sample syllabi to your
professional publications. If you are not currently a strong writer, get help until you are. The
payoff for this hard work will be improvement in your ability to teach students to

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communicate better, both in writing and orally, as both modalities require the same
organizational skills and precision in thinking.

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 19

The Office Next Door: Making Yourself an Excellent Faculty Candidate

Kenneth D. Keith, University of San Diego

I chair the Department of Psychology at the University of San Diego (USD), a private
Catholic-affiliated Doctoral II institution comprising of the College of Arts and Sciences,
School of Law, School of Education, School of Nursing, and School of Business. USD enrolls
approximately 7,000 students, 4,000 of them in the College of Arts and Sciences. More than
7,000 students typically apply for the 1,000 places available in each first-year class, and
nearly half are accepted. The student/faculty ratio is 15 to 1, and the freshman retention rate
approaches 90 percent. Despite USD’s status as a national doctoral institution, the Department
of Psychology is an undergraduate program housed in the College of Arts and Sciences, the
heart and soul of the University, having more in common with liberal arts colleges than with
research universities. We are a teaching-oriented program, but we do have expectations for
faculty scholarship, especially as embodied in research involving students.
So You Are in the Job Market?
As you complete your graduate studies and look ahead to a career in academe, your
first encounter with prospective academic employers is likely to come via advertisements
describing position openings. Although these ads provide some description of the hiring
institutions and departments, they are typically brief. For example, I recently examined a
sample of 10 typical academic ads for psychologists and found their average length was about
200 words, with the occasional announcement containing as few as 75 words. This brief
introduction may whet your appetite, but is not likely to provide enough information to tell
you very much about the college or university and the likelihood that this job was meant for
you.

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 Know Thyself
The injunction to know thyself is as important to us today as it was to Socrates.
Teaching, to many outsiders, appears easy; after all, they may reason it involves nothing more
than appearing two or three times each week to entertain a group of young people. However,
as anyone who has done it is well aware, good teaching is hard work—and, as Brewer (1996)
argued, it is perhaps more appropriately seen as a calling than a profession. There are some
things you can ask yourself as you attempt to determine whether you have been “called.”
Are You a Hard Worker?
Thomas Edison is supposed to have said that genius is 99 percent perspiration, and I
believe that maxim may apply to teaching. Yes, you must have knowledge and the ability to
convey it, but you also must prepare, show up, and do the job, day (and night) in and day (and
night) out. Nearly anyone with appropriate education would have the technical content
knowledge and skills to do what teachers do; it is other traits—characteristics like work ethic,
integrity, and reliability—that will set you apart as an outstanding candidate. To the extent
you can do it, get the experience, particularly in teaching, which will allow you to
demonstrate these strengths; doing so will prove indispensable if you pursue a position at
institutions like USD.
Are You a Team Player?

Good departments depend on constructive interpersonal dynamics and shared

responsibility for getting work done. Departments like USD that value teaching call upon
their faculty in myriad ways that go beyond academic or scientific specialties. You are likely
to serve on committees, provide consultation to students and faculty alike on issues related to
your area of specialization, and to play an integral role in such processes as program
assessment, academic advising, and curriculum development. You may also need to be
flexible enough to prepare and teach courses needed by your department, even when they are
not in your preferred area. These activities and many others require the cooperative attitude
and effective interpersonal skills that characterize effective teamwork.

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Do You Have Patience and Love for People?
Nothing is more fundamentally important in teaching than the recognition that,
although you may have taught a particular concept a hundred times, the beginning student is
hearing it for the first time, today in your class. You must therefore teach the material with the
enthusiasm and passion the student deserves, and not with the weary demeanor of someone
who is tired of hearing (or saying) it. When your students present you with papers from which
any respect for APA style seems totally absent, you must remind yourself that, although you
have seen these same errors more times than you can count, this may be the first time this
student has been asked to complete this type of assignment. If you can see yourself taking
pleasure from these things, and doing it year after year, in an environment in which students
routinely expect personal attention and time from faculty, perhaps you are the teacher we
seek. If, on the other hand, you find the campus more pleasant when the students are away, or
if you always know how many days remain until the next vacation, you probably are not our
candidate.
Do You Know What You Want to Do?
You will be better prepared to make good decisions about your career and your future
if you have found (or created) opportunities to sample key aspects of academic life: teaching,
research, committee service, and community work. It is one thing to tell a search committee

you believe you would enjoy campus service or that you would be a good research mentor for
undergraduates; it is quite another thing to be able to demonstrate it, based on your experience
in graduate school.
Know the Institution
Colleges and universities are not all the same. As Freeman (2002) made clear in his
discussion of research universities and liberal arts colleges, there are important differences
among institutions, in teaching, research, advising, diversity, and sense of community, for
students and faculty alike. Understanding the character of these differences is fundamental to
making good choices and to finding an academic home.

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 When we recruit faculty at USD, we look for people with a passion for undergraduate
teaching and with programs of research that are likely to engage undergraduates in
meaningful ways as collaborators.
Not so long ago, we received a letter of application that named a group of
distinguished researchers with whom the applicant looked forward to working in our
department. This might have been a very useful tactic if the researchers had actually been
members of our faculty; unfortunately, however, they were faculty members at a well-known
research center at a nearby university. The candidate had mistaken our university for a
different campus across town, and as a result was applying to the wrong department, one quite
different from ours. Experiences of this nature do not, of course, serve applicants well, and
they prompt me to offer some suggestions:
Read the Job Announcement
Is the position in your specialty area? Are the job requirements consistent with your
interests and abilities? Search committees routinely receive numerous applications from
individuals whose credentials clearly indicate their failure to read (or respect) the position
description and their lack of background in the area required. Such lack of interest is not a
good way to impress potential colleagues.
Do Your Homework

Every college and university makes a wealth of information available via Web sites
and print material. Take advantage of these resources during the job search process. Different
types of institutions really do emphasize different aspects of applicant experience and interest
in their recruitment of faculty (Landrum & Clump, 2004), and it will be to your advantage to
be aware of key characteristics of the department and institution to which you are applying.
Know the faculty and their interests, the nature of the student body, any special marks of
distinction that characterize the school, and something about the local community. Knowledge
of this sort will be helpful as you decide whether you would be well suited to the institution,
and if you can use it in the application and interview process you will demonstrate to the

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search committee that you cared enough to invest time and effort in finding a good fit as you
seek an academic home.
Assess the Organizational Climate
Matsumoto and Juang (2004) distinguished between organizational culture and
organizational climate. It may be possible to learn a fair amount about an institution’s
organizational culture (beliefs, values, procedures, and the like) from readily available
sources, whether electronic or print. Organizational climate, however, has more to do with the
“feel” of the campus, and may be more readily assessed when you actually visit. How do the
faculty relate to one another? What do students say about life on the campus? Do you feel
comfortable in the environment of the department?
The Office Next Door
These days, when I read applicant files and interview prospective colleagues, my mind
often wanders to the office next door. I am of course interested in the education and the
experience of the candidates, and I read their letters of recommendation, curricula vitae, and
teaching portfolios with care. However, as I survey these credentials, consider teaching
experience, and listen to what applicants say, I am also reminding myself that the person we
hire is likely to live in the office next door well beyond my own retirement. We are not only
selecting a teacher-scholar, but a colleague, a neighbor, a team member, and, we hope, a

friend. We have set aside many applications from individuals with prestigious educational
pedigrees when, in the final analysis, we simply did not believe the individual would be a
good fit.
If you apply for a position in our department, and if you read the ad carefully enough
to know you are qualified, your job then becomes to convince us that you will be an
outstanding colleague. You will be competing with many others who are highly intelligent,
well-educated, experienced, and perhaps well-published. If you hope to stand out from the
crowd, you will need to show us your passion, your capacity for hard work, your love of
students, and your potential to thrive in our particular kind of environment. In short, you must

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give us a reason to believe that our campus will be a better place if you live in the office next
door.
References
Brewer, C. L. (1996). A talk to teachers: Bending twigs and affecting eternity. Platte Valley
Review, 24(2), 12-23.
Freeman, J. E. (2002). Differences in teaching in a liberal arts college versus research
university. In S. F. Davis & W. Buskist (Eds.), The teaching of psychology: Essays in
honor of Wilbert J. McKeachie and Charles L. Brewer (pp. 247-257). Mahwah, NJ:
Erlbaum.
Landrum, R. E., & Clump, M. A. (2004). Departmental search committees and the evaluation
of faculty applicants. Teaching of Psychology, 31, 12-17.
Matsumoto, D., & Juang, L. (2004). Culture and psychology (3rd ed.). Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.

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 20

Ithaca College: Balancing Teaching and Scholarship

Ann Lynn, Ithaca College

Ithaca College is a private, residential, comprehensive college with approximately

6,100 undergraduate and 220 graduate students. The college has a Carnegie classification of
Master’s College and University I (McCormick, 2001). The college is located in a small city
in upstate New York, and most of the undergraduates are of traditional age and attend full-
time. Ithaca College began as a music conservatory, and its mission to blend theory and
performance reflects this legacy (Ithaca College, 2001). Successful faculty members at Ithaca
College are both excellent teachers and productive scholars.
The Psychology Department is the fourth largest on campus with 13 tenured or tenure-
eligible faculty and approximately 300 majors. Although the department does not offer a
graduate degree, it has an unusually strong research orientation for an undergraduate program.
Psychology BA majors are required to take a three semester Research Team course in which
they learn to conduct programmatic research under the guidance of a faculty member. The
project always involves original research. The college supports high quality scholarship by
providing laboratory space and extensive computing equipment. In addition, faculty have an
18 credit a year (3/3) teaching load, partially to provide time for scholarly activities. However,
the primary responsibility of faculty members is to be engaging and dedicated teachers. Thus,
a successful candidate for a tenure-eligible position in the Psychology Department must
demonstrate a commitment to and evidence of excellent undergraduate teaching and the
ability and skills to produce high quality scholarship in a small college environment.
One of the challenges in successfully applying for a position in an undergraduate
program is that the culture and expectations for faculty are different from those that produce
and socialize PhDs. In many graduate programs, teaching is an afterthought and research
productivity is the measure of success. However, Ithaca College faculty revel in their

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identities as teachers, and excellent teaching is the key to success. An applicant with a strong
publication record is not sufficient to get the attention of the Ithaca College faculty. The
applicant must also provide evidence of quality college-level teaching experience.
Teaching and research are initially evaluated in the file submitted by the applicant.
Files should contain a cover letter, curriculum vita, evidence of successful teaching, and
evidence of productive research. The cover letter should describe the applicant’s career goals
and fit with the position and the department. An effective cover letter should also reflect the
applicant’s understanding that commitment to teaching is necessary to obtain the position.
Thus a summary of teaching experience and philosophy should precede and be longer than the
section on research.
Applicants who have limited teaching experience should acknowledge that fact. A
lengthy and complex philosophy of teaching does not substitute for actual experience.
Similarly, in the research summary, applicants should summarize research experience and
plans for scholarly activities at Ithaca College. Research that is of interest to undergraduates
and can involve undergraduates as research assistants is highly valued. Applicants should
realize that although Ithaca College has outstanding laboratory space, it has a limited subject
pool, is in a small city, and has limited research funding. Applicants should provide some
indication of how they would conduct research under these conditions. For example,

applicants should indicate plans to apply for grants to obtain specialized equipment and
materials if these are needed for the proposed research program.
The purpose of the vita is to summarize educational attainments and relevant teaching
and research experience. Applicants should indicate when, where, and how many times they
have been the instructor of record and mention any professional development activities,
awards, or memberships related to teaching. Research that has been accepted for publication
or presentation should be clearly differentiated from research that is in preparation. Applicants
should also distinguish between scholarship that was peer-reviewed as a condition of
acceptance, and scholarship that was not peer-reviewed. As with the cover letter, padding the

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vita is transparent to most faculty, and does not advance the applicant’s case. If the applicant
has no record of published or in press scholarship, a long list of work “in preparation” looks
more like a wish list than actual productivity. The department recognizes that conducting and
submitting research for publication is easier in graduate school than during the first few years
at a teaching intensive institution such as Ithaca College. Consequently, applicants who were
not productive scholars in graduate school will be evaluated as less likely to be productive
under the added stress of a new tenure track position.
The applicant’s file should contain evidence to support the cover letter and vita, but
applicants should be selective in the materials they include. Because most positions generate
at least 100 applications, faculty appreciate a concise file. With regard to teaching, the
applicant should include representative syllabi, teaching materials, and all quantitative and
qualitative teaching evaluations. Applicants who submit selected teaching evaluations are
suspected of covering negative information and are evaluated less favorably. Although
uniformly high evaluations are desirable, they are not necessary. The department recognizes
that low evaluations may occur, but that dedicated teachers work to improve their teaching
skills over time. If the file contains evidence of improvement and a discussion of how this
change was achieved, the department will appreciate that commitment to teaching. Finally,
reprints of published or preprints of in-press scholarship should also be included in the file.

Any letters of recommendation from co-authors should mention the role of the applicant in
the work.
Applicants with relevant and high quality teaching experience and evidence
supporting the potential to have a productive research career at Ithaca College may be invited
to campus for an interview and to make a presentation to the department. The campus
experience is an opportunity for the department to evaluate personality, social skills, and
teaching ability and is the candidates’ opportunity to determine realistically if this position is
consistent with their career goals. During individual meetings with faculty, the best candidates
are animated and ask questions that indicate they have researched the department, college, and

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faculty. In addition, they communicate a strong commitment to undergraduate education,
caring and concern for undergraduate students, and an interest in engaging in scholarly
activities. It is important that candidates appear to understand that teaching and mentoring
students will be their primary responsibility.
The presentation to the department is a crucial part of the department’s evaluation of
the applicant as a teacher. Whereas in institutions offering doctoral degrees this talk is
expected to include significant methodological and conceptual detail oriented toward
specialists, candidates for positions at Ithaca College are most favorably evaluated when they
give talks geared toward well-educated generalists. A successful strategy is to structure the
talk as a graduate course lecture, highlighting the role of the applicant’s work in the context of
the larger field of research. The faculty will listen critically regarding methodology but will be
less interested in picking apart the methodological or conceptual details of the research and
more interested in evaluating the candidate’s ability to engage and educate a non specialist
audience—in other words, to teach.
In summary, applying for a position at Ithaca College should not be made as a fallback
or “safety” application. Successful applicants must make a strong case both in the file and in
person that they can be successful and happy in an environment that expects and rewards
excellent teaching and that they have the skills to become scholars of at least regional stature.

References
Ithaca College (2001). Ithaca College institutional plan. Ithaca, NY: Author.
McCormick, A. C. (Ed.) (2001). The Carnegie classification of institutions of higher
education. Menlo Park, CA: The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of
Teaching.

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 21

The Successful Job Applicant: What the University of Nebraska—Kearny

Seeks in a New Assistant Professor

Richard L. Miller, Robert F. Rycek, and William J.Wozniak

University of Nebraska at Kearney

Located in south central Nebraska, the University of Nebraska at Kearney (UNK), is a

Carnegie Masters I Comprehensive public institution comprising 5,400 undergraduate and
1,000 graduate students. Most UNK students are Nebraska residents (94%), first-generation
college students, graduates in the top half of their high school class (86%), and at least part-
time workers. UNK has a 16 to 1 student-to-faculty ratio with 296 full-time and 86 part-time
faculty. Faculty teach a 12-hour load but 3 hours can be reassigned for research. A notable
feature of UNK is its commitment to undergraduate research, and as a result, UNK
consistently sends one of the largest contingents of students to the National Conference on
Undergraduate Research.
The department has 9 full-time faculty, 175 majors, and offers only bachelor’s
degrees. The curriculum has a series of core courses that includes laboratory experiences in
statistics and experimental psychology plus two additional lab courses in cognate areas. As a

result, 67% of our graduates have made research presentations at either regional or national
conferences. The department has hosted a number of conferences over the years and has a
strong commitment to undergraduate research.
Teaching
Teaching is preeminent at UNK. Teaching, however, is not limited to the classroom
but also includes mentoring students in research and field experiences or both. We believe
that students learn best through experience, thus we use experiential learning to teach
psychology. The values that we look for in a new faculty member include not only having a
passion for one’s discipline, but a desire to share that passion with students. Faculty members

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should have a good, broad-based command of their specialty area since the person may be the
only representative of that area in the department. However, a generalist’s perspective and a
willingness to expand their horizons are essential values.
The teaching skills we expect include a command of the discipline, a good presence in
the classroom, and an ability to work with and supervise students. We expect new faculty to
be able to take a student’s idea and facilitate development of that idea into a researchable
question. We look for mentoring skills that help guide a student to form a hypothesis, develop
the design and data analysis, complete a manuscript, and present the finished product. We
seek evidence of eclectic research interests, statistical skills, computer literacy, and the ability
to use technology to enhance teaching and learning. Finally, since collaborative work is
common in our department, it is valuable to have good teamwork skills.
A job applicant's prior teaching experiences should include full responsibility for both
introductory and upper level courses. Demonstrated ability to teach within one’s specialty
area is essential, and evidence of a willingness to teach outside of one’s specialty area is an
asset. Familiarity with teaching techniques other than the lecture approach is also important.
Mentoring experience, especially as a graduate student mentoring undergraduates, is
desirable. Finally, we look for professional activity in the area of teaching of psychology (e.g.,
attending teaching conferences scholarly work in the teaching of psychology, and so on).

Scholarship
Our department expects faculty to engage actively in scholarly activities that lead to
the advancement of knowledge. We look for someone who not only has a research program
but who also has a desire and the commitment to find answers wherever questions and
controversy exist. Collaborative research is our norm, especially research on the scholarship
of teaching, which provides an arena that all members of our faculty find interesting. It is also
important that the new faculty member's scholarly interests connect with colleagues in other
sub-disciplines and with student interests. Although programmatic research can be pursued,
the new faculty member's research interests should transcend a particular area and be adapted

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to the process of providing a quality education for students. The willingness to pursue a
student proposal, even on a topic outside of one’s area of expertise, is an asset to our
experiential learning model.
Scholarship in our department requires a variety of skills. New faculty members must
have the ability to design research projects that can be completed with students and within the
framework of the academic semester or year. They must have the ability to write and edit the
documents required for successful research, including IRB protocols, grant applications,
conference presentations, and journal articles. They must be able to keep abreast of the latest
developments in their area of expertise on their own, and from a distance via e-mail contacts
and an occasional specialized convention. They must be able to represent their specialty when
working with other specialists, possibly from other departments. Finally, they must have the
ability to create student interest in research, and to mentor students in all aspects of the
research process, from data collection to publication.
Some of the experiences that we think are predictors of future scholarly success at
UNK include: collaboration with peers and with undergraduate students, work that addresses
a diverse range of questions rather than questions concerning a single topic and from a single
perspective, presentations and publications outside of the thesis and dissertation, completion
of research without using sophisticated equipment, and involvement at the “hands-on” level,

such as writing grant applications and coding data.

Service
We view service as a set of activities that go well beyond committee work. Service is a
way of connecting across the academy, a commitment to educating the student not only within
our discipline, but also through general studies, service learning, and research mentoring. We
value service to the profession, especially activities that provide opportunities for our
students. We value active academic citizenship at UNK and believe that it can enhance the
education of students via policy and curriculum development, as well as encouragement and
support of the scientific enterprise. We encourage faculty to become involved in service

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activities to ensure that sound educational principles are used to inform academic decision-
making. Ultimately, service becomes leadership, an essential element for innovation and
growth.
As much as scholarship involves the sharing of ideas within a community of scholars,
service that supports scholarly communication provides a valuable lesson for students. From
simply organizing travel to a convention, to reviewing papers for publication, to organizing a
large conference, service provides opportunities for students and faculty to enhance teaching
and scholarship. Some of the experiences that could help prospective faculty members
develop service skills include volunteer activities at their graduate institution and in their
community as well as service on academic committees and task groups.
Some Additional Insights
Skills and experiences in these three domains can certainly be assessed in application
materials. However, the values of candidates are more difficult to assess. Some evidence of an
applicant’s professional values can be collected from the application letter, teaching portfolio,
and letters of recommendation. More important to us are the questions that candidates ask
during the interview process and how well they listen and respond to our answers. These
interactions help us judge the extent that they will be able to incorporate UNK’s mission and
values into their professional plans for teaching. From this information, we try to judge how

well they match our department and predict the likelihood of their becoming a respected
colleague.

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 22

Kennesaw State University: Teaching is the Key

Randolph A. Smith, Kennesaw State University

Kennesaw State University (KSU; in Kennesaw, GA; 25 miles northwest of Atlanta) is

a rapidly changing university. Chartered in the mid-1960s as a junior college, the college
gained four-year status in 1978 and moved to university status in 1996. The student body is
also changing rapidly, with the first dormitories opening in 2002 and the total number of
students increasing by 25% to almost 18,000 from 2002 to 2004. KSU has had master’s
programs scattered around campus since 1985 and thus has a Carnegie classification of
Master’s Colleges and Universities I.
The KSU Psychology Department does not offer graduate degrees, choosing instead to
focus on quality undergraduate instruction. The department is housed within the College of
Humanities and Social Sciences, along with Departments of Communication; English;
Foreign Languages; History; Political Science; and Sociology, Geography, and Anthropology.
This alliance of departments (many of which have a strong service orientation), combined
with Kennesaw’s history and Psychology’s focus on undergraduate education, has led to a
unique situation for Psychology faculty with respect to performance evaluation. Consistent
with the situation for the entire university, all Kennesaw Psychology faculty must use
teaching performance as the first item on which their evaluation takes place. However, rather
than having scholarship mandated as the second area of emphasis, as is common at many
schools around the nation, Psychology faculty choose their second area to emphasize—either
scholarship or service. Thus, Psychology faculty can choose to work on a
teaching/scholarship/service track or a teaching/service/scholarship track. The track chosen
provides the basis for evaluation for both tenure and promotion. Although KSU has not
assigned percentages of time to devote to each area, a faculty member’s primary evaluation
comes from the first two areas.

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 Early in the fall semester, each new faculty member has a conference with me (as
chair of the department). We review the requirements within each of the three categories so
that new faculty are fully informed of the expectations before they decide which area to
designate as their second and which to list as third. At that time, we also develop a list of
goals on which the faculty member will work during that first semester. These goals will form
the basis for the evaluation that takes place after the first year, which for new faculty is
actually only one semester (KSU’s evaluations are on a calendar year cycle), so it is important
to set immediate goals that are realistic and attainable.
The primary focus is on establishing high quality teaching from the outset. Success in
the classroom is vital to the new faculty member’s performance rating. I also work with the
new faculty member to establish realistic, attainable goals for the second area of emphasis.
Faculty who choose scholarship, for example, typically have research projects already
underway on which they can work during that first semester. Faculty who choose service as
their second area will need guidance about how they can begin to use their skills to focus on
serving the department and, perhaps, the college. During the first semester, I am happy to see
a new faculty member working on the first two areas, so I am content to let the third area
slide. During the goal setting for the second year, then we can add some goals for the third
area of emphasis.

The workload within the department is conceptualized as 24 semester hours a year,

with a teaching load of approximately 21 hours (teaching load is only approximate because
we have courses that credit the faculty member with 2, 3, 4, or 4.5 hours toward the load). The
3 hour difference (reduction) between 24 and 21 is given to the faculty member in recognition
of time spent on the second and third areas of emphasis.
The evaluation format at KSU entails each faculty member compiling a self-report in
each of the three areas of responsibility (teaching, service, and scholarship), which they
submit to the chair. The chair evaluates each faculty member in each of the three areas with
one of three possible labels: not achieving expectations, achieving expectations, or exceeding

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expectations. Because of the relative rank ordering of the three areas, faculty would be best
served by exceeding expectations in their first (teaching) or second areas rather than their
third.
With a great deal of background in place, I can finally address the question of what
KSU’s Psychology Department (and many other teaching-oriented schools) looks for in an
outstanding job candidate. First, in the Kennesaw system, it should be abundantly clear that
our first criterion is an applicant’s teaching ability. To this end, graduate students should get
as much teaching experience as they possibly can (Benson & Buskist, in press). There are two
reasons for this recommendation. First, we want to know as much about applicants’ teaching
ability as we can. In our opinion, it is far better to have taught a class as the sole instructor
than to have served as a teaching assistant. Also, it is better to have taught more classes than
fewer and to have taught a variety of classes, particularly those related to the position
description. The second reason for graduate students to get as much teaching experience as
possible is to strengthen their applications. Job applicants should use their cover letter and
statement of teaching philosophy (see Korn, 2003; Seldin 2004) to communicate their view
and vision of teaching. These documents give applicants a chance to write about their
teaching experience as engrossing and invigorating despite its challenges. Candidates should
provide teaching evaluations (from students, peers, or supervisors) to show that not only have

they taught classes, but also that they have taught them well.
The second most important aspect about becoming a psychology faculty member at
KSU depends, of course, on one’s second area of emphasis. For candidates interested in
service, we are looking at service to the department, the school, the university, the
community, and the discipline. Obviously, we do not expect extensive service involvement by
a single faculty member at all of these levels, but the list gives an idea of the possibilities.
Coming from a graduate school environment, many applicants might think more along the
lines of scholarship than service, but service may be particularly suited for candidates who are
training in applied areas or for candidates whose scholarship is in applied areas.

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 Candidates who are interested in scholarship should know that KSU is not a typical
university research facility. Although the Natural Sciences have moved into newer facilities
with laboratory space, the Psychology Department is housed in one of the original junior
college buildings that was built as a classroom and office building, so there are no laboratory
facilities. Because Psychology is part of the Humanities and Social Sciences, the
administration has less knowledge about the need for lab space. Although we are pushing to
convert space into lab facilities, the rapid growth at KSU has put all building space at a
premium for classrooms and faculty offices. Despite these limitations, several psychology
faculty at Kennesaw have active research programs and count scholarship as their second area
of emphasis. The reality of the situation, then, is that prospective faculty who wish to pursue
scholarship must either be able to do so with limited equipment and space needs or to find
collaboration opportunities with colleagues (perhaps from their graduate programs).
In conclusion, the future of Kennesaw’s Psychology Department seems as bright as
that of the university. A new building is on the horizon, the number of majors is up (more
than 600 at last count), and there are several new faculty positions to fill in the near future.
These trends show no signs of slowing as both the department and university continue to
grow.
References

Benson, T., & Buskist, W. (in press). Understanding “excellence in teaching” as assessed by
psychology faculty search committees. Teaching of Psychology.
Korn, J. H. (2004). Writing a philosophy of teaching. In W. Buskist, V. W. Hevern, B. K.
Saville, & T. Zinn, (Eds.), Essays from e-xcellence in teaching, 2003 (Chap. 7).
Retrieved August 9, 2004 from the Society for the Teaching of Psychology Web site:
http://teachpsych.lemoyne.edu/teachpsych/eit/eit2003/index.html
Seldin, P. (2004). The teaching portfolio: A practical guide to improved performance and
promotion/tenure decisions (3rd ed.). Bolton, MA: Anker.

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 23

Hiring a New Assistant Professor at a Large Mid-Level Public University

D. F. Barone, D. F. Graybill, and T. S. Critchfield, Illinois State University

Academic hiring is a search for individuals whose skills and credentials map well onto
characteristics of the position being filled and of the institution attempting to fill it. The
former varies across positions and cannot be addressed in generalities. The latter we illustrate
for those currently in training for academic positions by referring to our own institution.
Description of Institution and Department
Illinois State University (ISU) is a public Research-Intensive University that was once
a teachers college. It is located 130 miles south of Chicago and about 160 miles north of St.
Louis in the town of Normal which, in combination with the adjacent city of Bloomington, is
part of a metropolitan population of 150,000. ISU competes with other state universities for
undergraduates not attending private universities or the state flagship university. Our 18,500
undergraduates are almost all from Illinois. In 2003, the average ACT score was 23.6 (middle
50% = 21-25). Additionally, ISU is home to 1,500 graduate students in 30 masters and seven
doctoral programs.
The Psychology Department is one of the largest on campus. It has 38 full-time faculty
lines and averages 500 majors and 500 minors. It provides thousands of general education
seats in General, Social, Life-Span Developmental, and Personality Psychology, and in
Introduction to Social-Science Statistics. It also provides thousands of seats in Educational
Psychology and Adolescent Development to the large teacher-education programs on campus.
The department has 150 graduate students, divided into three areas: master’s in psychology
(with sequences in Cognitive and Behavioral Sciences, Developmental,
Industrial/Organizational-Social, and Quantitative Psychology), master’s in clinical-
counseling psychology, and specialist and doctoral programs in school psychology. About 50
graduate students are employed 8-10 hours per week by the department and assigned to

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faculty members. Most other graduate students are employed throughout the university and in
community placements.
As at many large state universities, undergraduate education dominates, but the faculty
successfully integrates this mission with graduate education and research. The nominal
faculty course load of four courses per semester is reduced by one for those with active
scholarly programs, and by two for those involved in the School Psychology doctoral
program. Many of our courses enroll over 100 students, and such courses receive double
teaching credit. Thus, in a typical semester, the functional teaching load for psychology
faculty members is two: one large and one smaller course, the latter at the advanced
undergraduate or graduate level. Given the large faculty, professors need to prepare only a
few courses that are within their central areas of competence. They also are expected to
supervise research: graduate theses, dissertations, and undergraduate research apprenticeships.
Many faculty also involve students in their teaching, both as paid graduate assistants and for-
credit undergraduate teaching assistants. There is a strong faculty governance tradition,
although incoming faculty members are protected from large service loads.
Hiring Needs and Practices
The Psychology Department hires faculty members whose activities demonstrate
interest and acquisition of competencies in the above set of activities. Previous teaching

experience (preferably as the instructor of record) and interest in teaching and mentoring
undergraduates are very important. Having interest in a lower-level survey course is an asset;
having experience as instructor or teaching assistant in such a course is even better.
Applicants whose main teaching interests are advanced graduate seminars are not a good fit
for us; neither are those whose who have been so focused on advancing a research agenda that
they did not have the time or interest to teach as a graduate student. We do, however, want to
hire applicants with clear research plans, as well as presentations and publications that
demonstrate a commitment to scholarship.

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 Once we have identified the most promising applicants from portfolio reviews and
telephone interviews, we invite them to campus. Faculty size up the applicant in individual or
small-group meetings, but the research colloquium is the most important basis of evaluation.
We look for depth of knowledge and broad research interest. We also evaluate the
presentation for communication effectiveness, such as how interesting it is, and how well it
gauges and adjusts to the audience’s level of knowledge. More generally, we evaluate the
candidate for confidence and sociability because introverts do not do well in lecture halls full
of teenagers. Our faculty thrive on collaborative research with each other (in the absence of
one’s own cadre of doctoral students), so promise in this area is also evaluated.
Survival After the Hire
Because hiring and training new faculty members are expensive, every institution
hopes to hire individuals whose skills and goals make them likely to succeed in the long run.
Thus, the contingencies of academic survival always inform the hiring process.
At ISU, teaching weighs heavily into annual evaluations and decisions about
promotion and tenure. Mediocre teachers may not receive annual raises, and it is impossible
for a poor teacher to be tenured. Where teaching quality is concerned, the bar is set rather
high. Each semester, the Psychology Department’s instructors award one of the most
conservative grade distributions on campus while achieving among the highest student

ratings. Some faculty members who earned rave teaching reviews at a previous institution
have garnered only average responses here.
Teaching assignments run the gamut from large lecture classes to small seminars to
individual supervision of research and clinical work (as appropriate to the area of specialty),
and most faculty members have regular experience with teaching in service courses that
heavily enroll students with majors outside of psychology. Thus, an effective faculty member
in our department is knowledgeable not only about psychology, but also about teaching and
learning. Faculty members should attend not only to subject matter goals for their courses but
also to process goals, by routinely asking questions such as “What class activities best suit the

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interaction of the subject matter with the type of students enrolled in the course?” and “How
can the success of my teaching activities be assessed most informatively?” In the latter case,
there is a strong institutional culture emphasizing the application to teaching of a problem-
solving orientation similar to that employed in research to teaching.
Candidates for promotion and tenure submit a teaching portfolio, containing examples
of course materials and student products, and there is great interest in the degree to which the
portfolio addresses the questions just mentioned. Scholarship on the process and outcomes of
teaching also is valued. Overall, the portfolio should show that teaching is an integral part of a
faculty member’s professional identity.
Research productivity also is a prerequisite to promotion and tenure. In the typical
case, research and teaching are weighted equally in the faculty evaluation process. Although
some formal on-campus support of research (e.g., laboratory start-up funds and seed grants) is
available, in general resources are scarcer than at doctoral institutions. Faculty members who
succeed at research have found creative ways to do it economically, or have obtained
extramural funding.
Time for research also is scarcer than at doctoral institutions, so faculty members who
succeed at research are good at multi-tasking and at organizing and supervising research
teams who divide the burden of the research process. In general, we are impressed by

applicants who have demonstrated the skill and motivation to bring research to fruition (even
when doing so was difficult), and who appear to have a realistic grasp of the relationship
between research ideas and resource practicalities.
Undergraduates often play a key role in research teams, and they receive valuable
mentoring in the process. Although only a small minority of our undergraduates have
research-related career goals, many report that work in faculty laboratories was the highlight
of their undergraduate experience, and supervising student research assistants counts as a
teaching contribution in faculty evaluations. In this regard, what is good for research

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programs also promotes the teaching mission of the department. Above all, we seek faculty
who embrace this synergy.

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 24

The Successful Job Applicant: What Syracuse University

Seeks in New Assistant Professors

Lawrence J. Lewandowski, Syracuse University

The Psychology Department at Syracuse University (SU) has 25 faculty and

approximately 75 graduate students. SU has an enrollment of approximately 15,000 students,
and almost 11,000 are undergraduates. It is a private university located in central New York,
known for its lakes, hills, orchards, wineries, basketball, and of course, snow. SU is a
Carnegie I research university. SU believes its niche is a Student-Centered Research
University. In this regard, it expects that students, including undergraduates, and faculty be
fully engaged in scientific research. This philosophy promotes the notion that scientific
pursuit and discovery are central to our collective intellectual growth. At the same time, it is
widely believed that teaching is an important characteristic of lifelong learning. To this end,
students at all levels, including undergraduates, and faculty are encouraged to engage in
teaching with the rationale that teaching is one of the better ways to learn any content
material. SU has a long-standing tradition of involving its students in research and teaching
processes. What I hope to describe in the next few pages is the type of faculty member we
attempt to hire, and in parallel, the type of training and teaching opportunities that we provide
graduate students at Syracuse University.
Importance of Research in Faculty Hiring
Over my 24 years in the Psychology Department at SU I cannot recall a hire that was
made on the basis of strong teaching. Similarly, I cannot recall a tenure or promotion decision
made primarily on the basis of teaching. Our department is traditional in the sense that all
faculty members are expected to be strong, independent researchers. When we interview and
mentor junior faculty, we make clear to them that research productivity is the most important
element of the job. In hiring an assistant professor several factors always seem to arise. First,

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we seek a person who has demonstrated independent research capability along with
scholarship productivity. It is important that even a new faculty member already have a
programmatic research trajectory. Another important aspect of candidates’ scholarship is its
potential for extramural funding. Candidates who have been funded in the past, or worked on
funded projects, are certainly viewed favorably. It is important, even at the interview stage,
that job candidates have ideas for grant proposals and a clear direction for seeking funding.
Lastly, the importance of the research interest and fit with other departmental research cannot
be overlooked in faculty hiring.
Psychology departments these days tend to develop research themes that involve a
critical mass of related faculty. New hires often are negotiated with a dean in order to
strengthen a particular research theme. If job candidates do their homework, they will know
the themes of a given department and be able to configure their application materials to match
the research theme(s) targeted in a job advertisement. In my experience, research fit and
productivity constitute the basis for an interview invitation. At SU, we are looking for a
researcher who can teach, and not the other way around. In our department, and many other
research-oriented departments, prospective faculty must realize that the “publish or perish”
mentality is still very much alive.
Importance of Teaching in Faculty Hiring

Regardless of an individual’s interest or expertise in research, there will always be

academic positions for those interested in post-secondary teaching. Not all professors do
research, but virtually all professors teach. Even in schools that have been traditionally driven
by research, the past decade has witnessed an increased emphasis on the importance of
teaching. For example, SU is a research university that is largely dependent on tuition
revenue. During the economic downturn around 1990, the university realized that students
and parents were important consumers. Syracuse University decided to redouble its efforts in
the classroom and other undergraduate services. This strategy represented a bit of a paradigm
shift in placing greater value on undergraduate teaching and advising. Even various state-

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supported universities were under the gun to improve teaching or face financial cuts from the
state legislature. Job applicants need to be aware of the teaching values of a given college or
university.
Institutions vary greatly in faculty commitment to teaching from 100% teaching effort,
to 50-50% research and teaching, to 75-100% research. In other words, job applicants should
know the emphasis placed on teaching by every institution to which they apply. The job
applicant must do some homework with regard to the teaching demands and needs of the
department. An applicant might be able to tailor his or her cover letter and teaching materials
to demonstrate capability to meet departmental teaching demands. Teaching fit is seen as a
definite plus in hiring.
Consistent with SU’s mission, our department looks for junior faculty with previous
teacher training and experience. This point is important because psychology is the largest
major at SU, so our courses are in high demand. Ideally, our job applicants have some breadth
in the courses already taught and those they are capable of teaching. In my experience, it is
helpful if the applicant can cover one or more of the “bread and butter” courses such as
introductory psychology, statistics, or research methods. These are in addition to courses in a
specialty area (i.e., social, developmental, clinical, etc.). Departments often mention
specialties in a job ad, and an applicant is wise to connect to at least one of these specialty

areas. Departments like ours seldom hire hybrids, people that are mixtures of psychology
training with no prevailing focus.
Evaluating the teaching ability of an entry-level professor is a challenge for most
departments. It is helpful if applicants already have teaching experience and can supply a
teaching portfolio (see Edgerton, Hutchings & Quinlan, 1993; Seldin, 1997; see also the
following Web sites: Penn State University <www.psu.edu/celt/portfolio/html>; The Ohio
State University <www.osu.edu/education/ftad/portfolio/>; Syracuse University
<www.syr.edu>; and the University of Texas
<www.utexas.edu/academic/cte/teachfolio.html>).

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 Many of our graduate students complete the compilation of their teaching portfolios
before graduation. They typically include a vita, teaching philosophy statement, course
syllabi, sample lesson plans, course evaluations, and letters of recommendation from mentors.
It is helpful if a job applicant has a documented track record of strong teaching.
Although such a background is extremely helpful, the applicant must pass muster at the
interview stage. Most job interviews require that the applicant give a colloquium to the
students and faculty. We require a research-based colloquium. In both cases, the audiences
scrutinize the candidate’s preparation, organization, teaching style, demeanor, speaking
ability, responsiveness to questions, and quality of the instruction. I have seen many paper-
qualified candidates essentially fail the colloquium test and lose a job offer. It is possible that
this single speaking event is over-valued; however, it is the one public and formal
performance put on by a job candidate. Like it or not, it carries tremendous weight in hiring
decisions. I have no doubt that teaching experience is a great help in preparing candidates for
their job talks.
My advice to all psychology graduate students is to get teaching experience before you
leave school, even if you have to do it as a volunteer. At SU, most graduate students are
involved in teaching, defending research, and presenting at conferences. I see a significant
difference in the presentation skills of those who have taught versus those who have not. I see

considerable growth in this regard across the students’ graduate careers if they have been in
the SU teaching program. This is a signature program of SU’s Graduate School, and I believe
it gives our students an advantage in the academic job market. I have provided the following
section for readers who may be interested in learning more about SU’s teacher training
program.
Graduate Student Teacher Training at Syracuse University
SU has one of the strongest graduate student teacher training programs in the country.
SU has made a commitment that not only will graduate students teach at SU, but that they will
learn to teach well. SU has cultivated teacher-training programs across campus. With support

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from the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education
(FIPSE), and Syracuse University Chancellor’s Fund for Innovation, the graduate school
launched the Future Professoriate Project in 1992. This program comprehensively prepares
future college and university faculty for teaching. This training begins with a teaching
orientation program in the summer prior to graduate students’ first academic semester. In this
ten-day orientation, approximately 300 prospective teaching assistants from all departments
on campus are brought together to listen to lectures, watch videotapes on teaching, discuss
teaching methods and classroom issues, design lesson plans, and practice teaching to one
another.
At the same time, they are given information about SU, the community, and the
undergraduate student body. Certainly this orientation is not enough training to become an
effective teacher, but it helps launch graduate students in the right direction. The graduate
school continues to sponsor speakers, workshops, seminars, and training sessions throughout
the year on various aspects of teaching. It also offers a graduate course on various aspects of
teaching and preparation for the professoriate. Although this centralized teacher training goes
on throughout the year, most direct teaching training is turned over to the departments.
For the past eight years I have had the good fortune, or poor judgment, depending on
how you looks at it, of teaching our large Introductory Psychology course. This course

enrolls over 1600 students per year, and employs 10 teaching assistants and a graduate
assistant coordinator. Most of our graduate students at some time or another have a tour of
duty in the “Intro” course. It has been my job, and pleasure, to serve as a liaison between our
department and the graduate school with regard to our students’ teaching development.
Graduate students may use the teaching opportunity as little more than a funding stream, or
they may view teaching as an important aspect of their career development. Those who want
to pursue teaching as a significant part of their career can enter into the Future Professoriate
Program (FPP).

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 Once students join the FPP, they are identified within the department as having a
particular interest in teaching psychology. The students find a faculty mentor with whom to
work on teaching-related activities. FPP students discuss their teaching experiences with the
mentor and have the mentor observe them while teaching. Students in the FPP move from
teaching in the introductory course to serving as a teaching assistant in a higher-level class.
Typically, in these cases, the graduate student is working closely with his or her mentor, and
may be teaching various parts of the class (i.e., some lectures, labs, or recitations). Students
who are in their second year of teaching in the department are often involved in formal and
informal discussions and colloquia on teaching. Such students also are likely to attend
teaching activities sponsored by the graduate school.
Those graduate students who find teaching rewarding and important eventually will
become Teaching Associates. They will be given their own course to teach under the
supervision of their faculty mentor. Beside the usual graduate stipend and remitted tuition,
these students are provided with additional funds to foster the development of their teaching
(i.e., travel to a conference on teaching). At this level of teaching, the graduate student has
responsibility for all aspects of the course. The student must order the books, design the
syllabus, handle all grading, provide the class instruction, and manage all student issues. The
mentor is involved in reviewing all aspects of the graduate student’s work. The student creates

a teaching portfolio that includes syllabi, lecture notes, teaching materials, and course
evaluations. These teaching products now include materials from the introductory course, plus
materials developed as a teaching assistant for another course, as well as all materials from
the independently taught course.
It is not uncommon for experienced graduate students to teach at local community and
four-year colleges. This teaching provides additional experience as well as a broader array of
teaching products. Various recognition awards for teaching (i.e., Summer Teaching Fellow,
Outstanding TA Award) are based on the quality of the graduate student’s portfolio, letters of
recommendation, nominations from faculty, and course evaluations.

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 Some of our doctoral students will have participated in all phases of the FPP program
in addition to their research and clinical training. They submit their teaching portfolio to the
department liaison, and then it is forwarded to the Graduate School with a letter of
endorsement. SU then awards the student a Certificate in Undergraduate Teaching, which is
presented at the graduation ceremony. Our institutional research suggests that students value
the FPP program, and they believe that the teaching experience, certificate, and portfolio help
them in their job pursuits. I believe that students primarily interested in teaching positions
should have an FPP type of experience. With research positions so competitive these days, a
candidate with a strong teaching resume definitely has an advantage over those with limited
teaching backgrounds. As long as graduate students can balance the demands of both research
and teaching in graduate school, I believe a teacher-training program such as the FPP provides
great preparation for an academic job. Not only may this training help land the job, it certainly
will make the transition to academe a lot smoother. Thus if you are a graduate student in
psychology, embrace teaching, get experience, document your performance, master teaching
technology, learn to teach core courses, and find a good teaching fit. I can’t think of a better
job than teaching psychology and training others to do the same.
References
Edgerton, R., Hutchings, P., & Quinlan, K. (1993). The teaching portfolio: Capturing the

scholarship in teaching. Washington, DC: American Association for Higher

Education.
Seldin, P. (1997). The teaching portfolio: A practical guide to improved performance and
promotion/tenure decisions (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Anker.

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 IV

Making the Transition from Graduate Student to

Assistant Professor: Six Exemplars

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 25

An Office of Your Own:

The Virtues and Challenges of Independence as a New Faculty Member

Amy T. Galloway, Appalachian State University

Appalachian State University (ASU) is situated in the beautiful northwestern

mountains of North Carolina and it is part of the University of North Carolina system, along
with 15 other institutions. ASU has 12,750 undergraduates and 1,350 graduate students. The
Psychology Department has 29 full-time doctoral-level faculty members and approximately
450 undergraduate majors and 36 master’s-level graduate students. I am currently finishing
my first year as a tenure-track assistant professor, with an emphasis on Developmental
Psychology. Before accepting this position, I obtained my doctoral degree from the University
of Georgia (UGA), completed a teaching postdoctoral program at Northern Michigan
University (NMU), and completed a research postdoctoral fellowship at Pennsylvania State
University (PSU).
Transition From Graduate Student to Faculty Member
When I finished my dissertation I had two job offers for faculty positions and an offer
to do a teaching post-doc at NMU. Although it was tough for me to turn down tenure-track
positions for a temporary post-doc position, I chose the riskier route because I felt I was not
ready to commit to a faculty position. By the end of my graduate career I knew I strongly
valued teaching and research, but I was unsure how much I wanted to do of each. I suspected
it would be more difficult to change positions as a faculty member than to delay committing
to a particular type of institution. I also wanted more experience in developmental
psychology. Most of my formal coursework was in biopsychology at UGA where I studied
eating behavior in nonhuman primates, but over time my research interests shifted toward
developmental questions about eating behavior in children. At NMU, I could teach
developmental courses and explore the possibility of doing research with children. The

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reduced teaching load at NMU afforded me the time to write an NIH training grant proposal. I
received the grant and then moved to Penn State to begin a three-year research postdoctoral
assignment working in the area of children’s behavioral nutrition. By the way, my husband is
a graphic designer and illustrator so luckily he was able to move fairly easily from Georgia to
Michigan to Pennsylvania to North Carolina.
My transition from graduate student to postdoctoral student to my current faculty
position has been long, but smooth. The decision to do the post-docs was a good one for me in
the long run. I think I experienced considerably less stress starting the position at ASU than if
I had started a tenure-track position immediately out of graduate school. For instance, I no
longer feel overly anxious in the hour just before teaching a class. The most challenging part
of my first year has been continuing my work with collaborators at research-intensive
institutions. Although I feel satisfied with my teaching and research accomplishments here at
ASU, I am often concerned that my research productivity is a disappointment to my
collaborators because I cannot work at their pace due to my teaching responsibilities.
Daily Activities
Ideally I should spend 50% of my time on teaching, 40% on research, and 10% on
service. So far, this distribution of effort is a fairly accurate breakdown. Although most of my
time is spent on teaching, decisions about tenure will be based primarily on my research

productivity. Therefore, in addition to being a successful teacher, I am expected to publish

either four peer-reviewed papers or publish three papers and receive funding for one
externally-funded grant in five years. The papers may be published in 1st or 2nd tier journals; if
I publish in a top-level journal, it might count as two publications. I am also encouraged to
present research at conferences and to become a journal reviewer. I am fortunate that I have
been given fairly explicit guidelines about what is expected of me. Many of my colleagues at
other institutions have to guess about these sorts of things.
Currently I teach two sections of Life-span Development that meet a total of five
hours a week, and one section of Psychology of Parenting that meets two and one-half hours a

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week. During my first semester, I spent two to three hours preparing for every class I taught.
Because I taught similar versions of those courses during my teaching post-doc, I did not have
to spend as much preparation time as if the course had been a completely new one for me. I
always feel that I could spend more time developing my lectures, reading more about the
content, and perfecting the activities I plan. However, I know that spending too much time
preparing lectures would be detrimental to accomplishing my research goals. I still aim for the
highest quality in my teaching, but I now know that spending an inordinate amount of time on
a lecture does not necessarily improve it (see Boice, 1990; McKeachie, 2002).
Another important part of my day is socializing, when possible. Unlike graduate
school, there is not as much socializing with colleagues outside of work time. I am fortunate
to be in an incredibly collegial department, so there are often activities on the weekend to
attend. Although there is collegiality among faculty members, there is not the intense
camaraderie that is often experienced among graduate students who are likely to spend large
amounts of work time and free time together. I think this difference in relationships at the
faculty level has the potential of making new faculty members feel alienated if they are not
prepared for the change.
Graduate Training
When I think about how I might have done things differently during graduate school

there are a couple of points that come to mind. First, I suggest that graduate students take their
journal club experiences seriously. If you do not participate in a journal club, you should start
one. During my post-doc I began to receive requests to review manuscript submissions from
various journals. It was then that I valued my journal club experiences. If you learn how to
critique research in graduate school with colleagues, you will be much better able to do the
same thing while alone at your desk as a new professor.
Another area in which I felt ill-prepared, until my post-doc, was grant writing and
management. I wish now that I had asked my major professor more about the grants she had.
For example, I thought at the time that it would be intrusive for me to ask her budgetary

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questions because I was part of her budget. Now I know that I should have been willing to
approach people in order to get the answers I needed. I have learned how important it is to
talk with program officers long before a grant is ever written as well as during the grant
writing and grant management process. I think it is important to get grant experience even if
you do not plan to be at a research-intensive institution. There are many kinds of grants
available, including those for teaching, so faculty at any institution should be able to find one
suitable to their needs.
At this point in my career I feel well-trained for my current position and I have
thoroughly enjoyed life as a faculty member. Overall, I think my teaching and research have
most benefited most from observing my psychology professors starting with my
undergraduate institution, Furman University, from my interdisciplinary research experiences,
from my opportunities to mentor undergraduates in research, and from participating in UGA’s
phenomenal Teaching Assistant (TA) Mentoring program. The TA Mentor program was
particularly useful because I learned about teaching techniques, developed a teaching
philosophy and a teaching portfolio, and was introduced to the scholarship of teaching for the
first time. More than anything, participating in the program gave me a sense of
accomplishment and self-confidence that I had not previously experienced as a graduate
student. It was not my specific intent in graduate school to become a professor, but my

experiences teaching in graduate school made me I realize that I wanted teaching to be a

major part of my career. The crowded office of my graduate school days served as an
important laboratory for my development, but I am enjoying the freedom that accompanies
my role as a faculty member.
References
Boice, R. (1990). Advice for new faculty members. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
McKeachie, W. J. (2002). McKeachie's teaching tips: Strategies, research, and theory for
college and university teachers (11th ed.). Boston: Houghton-Mifflin.

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 26

Transition Part One: 1999-2004

William Douglas Woody, University of Northern Colorado

I am still in transition from graduate school to the professoriate. I completed my PhD

at Colorado State University (CSU) in 1999. I spent two and a half years at the University of
Wisconsin–Eau Claire (UWEC), and then I transferred to the University of Northern Colorado
(UNC), where I have worked for the last two and a half years, earning tenure in May, 2004.
Both universities are regional public universities with approximately 10,000 undergraduates.
UWEC enrolls nearly 500 graduate students, and the Carnegie Foundation classifies it as a
Masters University I; UNC enrolls approximately 3000 graduate students and is classified as
an Intensive Doctoral/Research University. In both positions, my workload has officially been
60% teaching, 20% research, and 20% service. My transition from graduate school to the
professoriate has been academically challenging but culturally difficult.
Teaching
As a graduate student at CSU, I had more opportunities to teach than most graduate
students, and the extra experience has paid dividends. First, in Wayne Viney I had an
exceptional advisor who is an inspiring master teacher. Second, I completed an excellent
interdisciplinary course on university teaching from Frank Vattano and Jack Avens. Third, I
had several other strong teaching models throughout the department, the university, and the
region, including Edouard Thai, Michael Losonsky, Edie Greene, and Michael Wertheimer.
Fourth, I taught at or beyond a full load throughout graduate school, and I was able to gain
experience in a variety of contexts including laboratories, large lecture classes, senior-level
capstone courses, and interdisciplinary seminars.
As expected at undergraduate-oriented institutions such as UWEC and UNC, teaching
occupies the majority of my time. Preparing, teaching, reading and incorporating new ideas,
assisting students, meeting with teaching assistants, and grading can be overwhelming.

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Additionally, conducting research and preparing presentations with students takes time. Most
of my Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays fill with class and teaching-related activities, even
when I continue my graduate tradition of eating at my desk while working or meeting with
students. Although I had my eyes open as I entered the professoriate, teaching requires more
time than expected and remains the most demanding and the most rewarding of my daily
duties.
Research
Wayne Viney truly enjoys working with graduate and undergraduate students, and he
provided a model that I followed even before I finished my degree. As expected at
undergraduate-oriented institutions, I mentor advanced students in research projects.
Additionally, I involve students in each aspect of my own research work from the
development of an experimental design through data collection and analysis to a final
presentation. Productive research collaboration with students is encouraged at UNC, and
UWEC is the UW-System Center of Excellence for Student-Faculty Collaboration. UWEC
rewards faculty members with grants as well as with department, university, and state-wide
recognition for collaborative research with students. The experiences I had in graduate school
helped me prepare for the organization, time commitments, and general challenges involved
in conducting quality research with undergraduates.

Advising
As a graduate student, I did not advise undergraduates, and my introduction to
academic advising came in seminars combined with advice from senior colleagues. Most of
my learning happened on the job via legwork and helpful colleagues. Individual advising
meetings with students require a surprising amount of time, particularly during the spring and
fall advising seasons when a line of students streams out my door and down the hallway. The
time demands of advising often slow my productivity in other areas.

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 Service
I was least prepared for service, and I walked blindly into my first faculty meeting.
More extensive preparation would have been helpful; my introduction to parliamentary
procedure and Robert’s Rules of Order (2000) came in meetings. Additionally, environments
are rarely apolitical, and my political fears preceded me into meetings. Such concerns remain
paramount for untenured faculty, and learning the political landscape involves intimidating
challenges. Despite my initial fears, I have been pleasantly surprised by my colleagues at both
universities.
The Unexpected
Faculty positions incorporate many duties, and I have been prepared for a large part of
what I face on a daily basis, but for some events preparation is not possible. For example, a
student started and ended a paper with theologically-based attacks on William James’s
pragmatism. Between his opening and concluding paragraphs, however, he devoted several
pages to an excellent exposition of conditional truth as a process based in time, context, and
available methodologies, and he described how truth can genuinely change as the world
progresses and our knowledge grows (see James, 1907/1975a, 1909/1975b). After he read my
comments on his paper, he entered my office and faced a personal crisis as he grasped the
conflicts between his views of truth and his understanding of his faith. I was unprepared to

face this predicament with him.

Throughout the professoriate we may also face more than just intellectual crises. A
student-centered approach has been extremely helpful, but emotional crises occur. Knowing
the available campus resources for registration, financial aid, and counseling services at my
universities has been vital.
Cultural Change
The most significant facets of my transition have been cultural. When I arrived at
UWEC, I was shocked, surprised, and a bit frightened. Students, administrators, and my
colleagues respected me as an autonomous person with integrity. My colleagues expressed

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hope that I would succeed and contribute to the success of the department and the university. I
did not handle this situation well.
In Mark Twain’s classic, Puddn’head Wilson (1894/2002), a slave secretly exchanged
a European-American infant and her own infant, who remained a slave because he was 1/32
African American. More than twenty years later the truth became known. Although the
transition was excruciating for the newly enslaved adult, his counterpart, the newly freed
slave, suffered extensively. “He could not endure the terrors” (p. 178) of the parlor in the
house that was now his, and “[t]he family pew was a misery to him” (p. 178) after years of
sitting in the slave section of church. Sudden respect and recognition of his personal integrity
proved to be more than he could easily face. My transition from graduate student to faculty
member, while obviously less severe, has followed similar patterns.
For example, at the conclusion of one of my first department meetings at UWEC, the
department head announced that a second meeting would begin and that this meeting would
be limited to tenured and tenure-track faculty. I left. I was eligible to remain, but this meeting
involved people in whom the university invested, and this group, surely, did not include me.
Afterward, a senior member of the department invited me to future meetings, but my feelings
persisted. After living through graduate school without recognition of professional integrity, I
could only slowly accept my new status, and, as the freed slave learned in Twain’s work, the

respect and value associated with my faculty position remained uncomfortable.

The environment of graduate school encourages overwork, exploitation, and
mistreatment of students (Woody, 2004). Although many graduate programs today allow
more autonomy than was typical in the 1950s or the early 1900s, graduate students continue
to be devalued as teachers, as researchers, at conventions, and in everyday life, and this
devaluation affects them personally as well as professionally. Even those of us blessed with
amazing advisors are not immune to the pressures inherent in academic culture. Emerging
from what is, for too many individuals, the darkness of graduate programs into the light of
faculty positions can be difficult. As the protagonist in Plato’s (1961) allegorical cave learned,

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not until we emerge into the light can we understand the degree of the darkness. After
graduation or, for some, after tenure, many faculty members must relearn to believe in
themselves. For many of us, the process moves slowly. For me, it has been only five years. I
hope that Transition: Part Two will go more smoothly.
References
James, W. (1975a). Pragmatism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. (Original work
published 1907)
James, W. (1975b). The meaning of truth. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
(Original work published 1909)
Plato (1961). The republic. P. Shorey (Trans.). In E. Hamilton & H. Cairns (Eds.), The
collected dialogues of Plato including the letters (pp. 575-844). Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press.
Robert, H. M., III, Evans, W. J., Honemann, D. H., & Balch, T. J. (2000). Robert’s rules of
Order: Newly Revised (10th ed.). Cambridge, MA: Perseus Publishing.
Twain, M. (2002). Pudd’nhead Wilson; and those extraordinary twins. New York: The
Modern Library. (Original work published 1894)
Woody, W. D. (2004). Universities, psychology departments, and the treatment of graduate
students. In W. Buskist, V. Hevern, & G. W. Hill, IV (Eds.), Essays from e-xcellence

in teaching (Vol. 3). Electronic book available at

http://teachpsych.lemoyne.edu/teachpsych/eit/eit2003/index.html

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 27

Making the Transition from Graduate Student to Assistant Professor

Amy Hackney, Georgia Southern University

I received my PhD in social psychology from Saint Louis University in the summer of
2003 and began my professional career as assistant professor of psychology at Georgia
Southern University (GSU) that fall. GSU is a comprehensive regional university that serves
the rural coastal area of Southeast Georgia. It is located in Statesboro, GA, a small
(population 23,000) town 60 miles west of historic Savannah. GSU has a current enrollment
of 15,700 students, most of whom are Georgians who began as full-time freshmen. The
Psychology Department has approximately 400 undergraduate majors, offers a master’s
degree in Experimental Psychology and a master’s degree in Clinical Psychology, and has 14
full-time faculty members. When I interviewed at GSU, I fell in love with the Psychology
faculty. They are a warm and compassionate group who genuinely care about each other. The
department prides itself on following the GSU’s “teaching first” philosophy, yet it also values
and supports research endeavors. This philosophy was a great match with mine, as I equally
love teaching and research. As a new faculty member, I was especially encouraged to focus
on my teaching first, followed by research and service.
Teaching
During my first semester of teaching, I marveled at how fast the days flew by. I did
not think it was possible, but I found myself being even busier than when I was a graduate
student. In our department the typical course load is three courses per semester. My
department chair gave me a break, assigning me to teach two sections of undergraduate
research methods, and one section of graduate applied research methods for the first-year
clinical master’s students. Hence, I taught three courses, but only had two course preparations,
and they were in the same content area. Nevertheless, I found it difficult to balance my time
between the two different courses. Knowing that undergraduate students usually dread taking

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research methods, I focused my time and energy into this course, with the goal of making it
the best research methods course ever. I may have come close to succeeding (with an average
evaluation of 4.8 on a 5-point scale), but my graduate course suffered for it. My relative
inattention to the graduate course was evident to the students, and they were not happy about
it. This lesson was important for me to learn—that balance is a key to being a successful
teacher. Instead of striving to make any one course the “best ever,” it is a much better and
more obtainable goal to have several “good” courses. In my second semester, I taught three
different courses, the undergraduate research methods course, a new graduate research design
course, this time for the first-year experimental master’s students, and a psychology and law
course (for undergraduate and graduate students). I made myself spend an equal amount of
time preparing each course, and the result was that each course was evaluated very well. None
were the best ever, but more importantly, none were poor.
Research
I had every intention of collecting data my first semester as an assistant professor,
although it was certainly not expected of me by the department. I anticipated conducting a
follow-up experiment to my dissertation on stereotype suppression and collectively writing up
the studies for publication during the winter break. I imagined returning to the subject of my
master’s thesis, sexual harassment research, and dreamed of conducting focus groups to start a

new line of research on date rape, but time eluded me. Days, weeks, and then months rushed
by, and I still had not begun collecting any data, nor, for that matter, written an IRB proposal.
I wondered how other faculty members managed both to teach and conduct research, and then
I realized how much they utilized their graduate assistants. I had been assigned two graduate
assistants, but thus far, had made little use of them—the memory of being a stressed out
graduate student was too fresh in my mind. I found it extremely difficult to ask my assistants
to do any work for me, especially any work that I thought might seem tedious or trivial to
them. This lesson was another important experience for me to have—that delegation of tasks
is important to being a productive researcher. Furthermore, I realized that a graduate student’s

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role of helping a professor is not inherently stressful. As long as I treated my assistants
respectfully, and remembered what it was like to be a graduate student, I could make the
research process beneficial for all of us. During my second semester, congruent with the tasks
assigned by other faculty members, I asked my assistants to help me conduct literature
searches, make copies, and collect and enter data. With their help, I was able to collect all of
the data I needed for the follow-up experiment to my dissertation, and my graduate assistants
gained important knowledge and skills.
Service
In our department, faculty members typically advise 25-30 undergraduate students
each semester. This advisement involves meeting individually with each student, often several
times, to plan the student’s course schedule. During my first year my department chair gave
me a break on my service requirements, by eliminating this expectation. Instead, I sat in on a
few advisement sessions so that I would be prepared to advise during my second year. Other
service activities include serving on committees (e.g., master’s theses, graduate student
admissions, new faculty searches, annual awards ceremony, and newsletter). Faculty members
are also expected to provide service outside of the department, both to GSU and to the
surrounding community. In my first year I chaired a master’s thesis and served on two
master’s committees. I also served as the faculty advisor for Phi Sigma Pi, an undergraduate

honor fraternity. These service activities were time consuming. Initially I regretted making
such commitments, sure that it would detract from my beloved teaching and research.
However, I learned another important lesson—that mentoring students is one of the greatest
joys of being a professor. Mentoring allowed me to get to know students on a personal level. I
learned their personalities and their social backgrounds. I learned their fears and hopes for the
future. In short, interacting closely with students brought new meaning to my teaching and
research—I am inspired to do my best so that I can help these wonderful students.

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 Conclusion
I loved my first year as an assistant professor at GSU. Life as a faculty member is
more rewarding than I ever imagined it would be. However, it is also much more time
consuming than I thought it would be. (I now feel compassion and admiration for my
graduate professors—whereas in the past I sometimes found the time it took them to return a
paper inconceivable). During this first year, I learned many valuable lessons, including the
importance of balance and task delegation and the joys of mentoring. I have a wonderful job,
and I cannot wait for the next semester to begin.

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 28

My First Year as Assistant Professor: Learning to be Free

Brian L. Burke

Fort Lewis College

We might facilitate the production, through our educational system, of persons

who will be adaptive and creative, able to make responsible choices, open to the
kaleidoscopic changes in their world, worthy citizens of a fantastically expanding
universe. It seems at least a possibility that in our schools and
colleges…individuals could learn to be free.
Rogers and Stevens (1967)

Fort Lewis College (FLC) is a state-supported, public 4-year liberal arts college with
accredited programs in Arts, Humanities, Natural and Behavioral Sciences, Business
Administration, and Education. FLC is proud of its special commitment to peoples of the
Southwest—roughly 20% of its 4400 students are Native American or Hispanic. The college
rests on the arts, sciences, and humanities as the core of a liberal education and as the
essential foundation for professionalism. FLC has been called Colorado's "campus in the
sky,” since it is located in Durango, a town of 16,000 residents situated at 6,512 feet above
sea level in the Four Corners region.
In Spring 2004, I completed my first year as an assistant professor in the FLC
Psychology Department, which is the third-largest on campus with about 280 majors. Because
FLC is primarily a teaching college, I am not subjected to the dreaded “publish or perish”
axiom of pre-tenure academia. Instead, my job performance is judged in three different areas,
listed in order of importance: teaching, scholarship, and service. My teaching load is “3-3” so
I teach 3 courses each semester. Scholarship is defined broadly at FLC, ranging from
traditional research published in peer-reviewed journals to conference presentations,
workshops, books and book chapters, and even clinical work. The goal is for professors to

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stay active and current in their field, with the ultimate aim of enriching their own teaching as
well as involving students in research. Service includes “extra” things that we do for the
college or for the community. For example, I am the advisor for Psi Chi (the National Honor
Society in Psychology) and I work part-time in the student counseling center.
My typical day as a first-year faculty member was busy, especially because I am
working on my post-doctoral hours for licensure as a psychologist in Colorado (1500 total
clinical hours, although teaching can count for 500 and research can count for another 500 of
this total). On a typical day, I taught a class at 8 AM and another at 11 AM, with office hours
in between, before going to lunch in our common cafeteria, sitting with other faculty,
administrators (at FLC you can dine with the VP), and sometimes students. After lunch, I
went either to the recreation center to workout or to the counseling center where I worked
from 1-5 PM twice a week, counseling students, supervising an intern, and attending staff
meetings. I would take one day off on weekends, usually to do something in our wonderful
Colorado outdoors such as ski, bike, or hike. On the other day of the weekend, I would finish
my teaching preparation for the coming week (6-8 hours of work) so that I could do other
things during the working day or on weekday evenings. I would use my free time during the
working day for those essential, but seemingly small tasks that seem to pile up for professors:
meeting with students, grading, reading (articles or teaching ideas), writing (reference letters,

my own scholarship), and, of course, e-mailing. I worked about 40-50 hours per week during
this first year, quite reasonable considering I can take the entire summer off if I so choose.
Overall, I would describe my year as a rousing success—both professionally and
personally—in which I fell in love with my surroundings and the Durango community. I
attribute my success partly to the fact that I figured out early on as a clinical psychology
graduate student at the University of Arizona that I liked teaching, counseling, and research—
in that order. Although my colleagues in graduate school spent hours in the research lab, I
spent more of my time teaching my own classes every summer (as instructor of record) and
attending teaching conferences (e.g., NITOP). I also created my own minor in College

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Teaching as a graduate student, enabling me to take several academic courses to improve my
pedagogical practices. When I started my job at FLC, I had already taught four different
classes, which helped me construct a detailed teaching portfolio, which is handy for job
applications, and made my first-year workload significantly lighter. Looking back on the year,
I have culled 10 tips for new professors at teaching-oriented colleges and universities:
1. Move to town at least a month before the academic year begins. Make a
comprehensive list of what you need to do in order to set up at the job (e.g., office, computer,
e-mail account, Web page, phone and copy number, business cards, campus ID card, parking
pass, orientation). Settle in at work and at home before the students arrive.
2. As you prepare for the upcoming semester, work in short, regular sessions rather
than trying to cram your preparation into marathon days—your enjoyment and engagement
will undoubtedly be enhanced in this way (Boice, 1996).
3. Learn to manage your time effectively so that the many small tasks you have will
not become overwhelming. Time management guru Stephen Covey (1994) explained that
effective people spend little time on tasks that are “urgent and important,” often called
problems or crises. Instead, these people spend most of their time on tasks that are important
but not yet urgent. Activities in these areas include preparation, planning, relationship-
building, and recreation.

4. Take at least one day off weekly to play or relax in order to keep your life in
balance.
5. Be involved on campus, for instance, by engaging in college service or by attending
graduation and other events.
6. Respect institutional culture. Start slow in terms of suggesting changes, learn how
things work before criticizing them, and be attuned to your own interpersonal functioning. Do
others find you bossy, arrogant, grumpy, or timid? Think about how you can make small
changes in your own approach to be a better “teammate.” My wife suggested a brilliant

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strategy for befriending your essential ally, the department’s administrative assistant: Take
time to make small talk when you don’t need something.
7. Get to know people. Keep a list of names and add to it whenever you meet someone
new on or off campus.
8. Connect to the community outside of campus (e.g., join a team or group, meet your
neighbors). If you love where you live, you will be happier at your job.
9. Consult with your colleagues (e.g., ask for course materials and sample syllabi).
This type of interaction serves two vital purposes: it conveys respect, and you can learn a
great deal from those who have been teaching at your institution for many years.
10. Get to know your students—even in large classes, take photos so you can learn
your students’ names within a few weeks. It is by far the most effective of all classroom
management tools.
Above all, take Dr. Rogers’ advice about learning—and teaching others—to be free;
it’s within your grasp if you arrange your life so that you’re free to do what you love most.
References
Boice, R. (1996). First-order principles for college teachers: Ten basic ways to improve the
teaching process. Boston: Anker.
Covey, S. R. (1994). First things first: To live, to love, to learn, to leave a legacy. New York:

Simon & Schuster.

Rogers, C. R., & Stevens, B. (1967). Person to person: The problem of being human. New
York: Pocket Books.

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 29

It’s a Wonderful Life

Laura L. Vernon, Auburn University

The glamorous life of an assistant professor is not terribly dissimilar to the glamorous
life of a graduate student, but there have been a few surprises along the way. I have found
some important differences between being in training and being on faculty. I expected many
of these differences, but some have caught me by surprise.
I completed my PhD at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a hard-hitting
research-focused institution with 28,000 undergraduate and 10,000 graduate students. My
clinical internship at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center took me in the
opposite direction, with complete immersion in clinical work. My post-doctoral fellowship in
the Trauma and Anxiety Disorders Clinic at Central Michigan University felt like the
beginning of a balanced diet of research, teaching, and clinical work at a medium-sized
institution with 17,000 undergraduates and 2,000 graduate students. I am currently in my first
faculty position as an assistant professor at Auburn University, which the Carnegie
Foundation ranks a Doctoral/Research Extensive institution. With some 20,000
undergraduates and 3,000 graduate students in the university and a department that values
research, teaching, and clinical work, Auburn afforded me a good balance between the
research and clinical extremes I encountered throughout my training. My Auburn contract
divides my time into 50% teaching, 45% research, and 5% service. It sounds fairly straight
forward, right? Well, not always. I will tell you about some of the surprises I have
encountered.
Pleasant Surprises
There have been delightful surprises in the transition from trainee (graduate student,
intern, post-doc) to faculty member. One unanticipated aspect of becoming a faculty member
has been the amount of respect, encouragement, and general positive reinforcement I have

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received from colleagues, administrators, and students. When you are in training, you spend a
lot of time being corrected, critiqued, criticized, scolded, edited, evaluated, examined,
assessed, analyzed, appraised, and judged. It is all in the name of improving and developing
you—making you the best that you can be. All that improving, and the seemingly endless
negative feedback that tends to go along with it, can be more than a little discouraging,
especially when you are breaking your back and breaking the bank to try to get over the many
hurdles and hills necessary to earn a degree.
Don’t get me wrong, my graduate school mentors were supportive and encouraging
and had my best interests at heart. Nonetheless, constantly being pushed to grow and improve
could be painful. As a faculty member, I have been pleasantly surprised that no one seems
terribly bent on examining or perfecting me. It may sound subtle or unimportant, but it is
neither. When I started interviewing for faculty positions I was taken seriously and viewed as
a professional and an equal by the faculty. Now, colleagues cock their heads and listen
attentively to my thoughts and ideas. It is assumed that I know what I am talking about—I am
rarely questioned. Administrators and colleagues seem to trust my judgment and try to be
helpful and accommodating when I have a problem or request. In fact, in the classroom many
students appear to take what I say as the “Truth”—a scary thought and a stance I try to
discourage. Before you imagine my ego ballooning out of control, let me reassure you that it

hasn’t gone to my head. Journal reviewers have a way of seeing that you don’t get an inflated
sense of your own brilliance. It is easy, however, to feel a growing sense of competence and
confidence when others are respectful, attentive, and courteous.
Another fairly surprising outcome of the trainee to faculty member transition is that
most aspects of my job are fun. Teaching, research, clinical work, supervision—I enjoy them
all immensely! Maybe my enjoyment is an outgrowth of the hazing process of graduate
school and the insufficient justification effect. Regardless of the cause, now that I am freely
choosing my activities rather than completing them to fulfill PhD requirements, I have
renewed enthusiasm and joy in them. I have had the luxury of hand-picking my graduate

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students and I value each of them. They are bright, quick, thoughtful, hard-working, and fun.
If you were to stand outside my door during research meetings, nearly as much laughing as
serious scholarly discussion and debate might be overheard.
The clinical supervision I do is also a pleasure. It is exciting to watch graduate
clinicians change and grow and it is a challenge to foster growth in the most positive,
supportive, and effective manner possible. I also get to know graduate students as people and
they are an incredible, giving, upbeat group.
Similarly, teaching undergraduate Abnormal Psychology and Health Psychology
courses can be a ball. Around Halloween last year I introduced “Terrorific Trivia” as a quiz
bowl. Shy students cheered teammates on and good students became prized commodities. The
students have been very positive about my efforts to make classes fun, organized, and
accessible. It still amazes me that I am getting paid to talk about fascinating topics with
intelligent and engaging people. Being a professor offers many chances to get to know
interesting people and make positive differences in their lives. It is very satisfying.
Annoying Surprises
To be consistent in my headings I should have titled this section “unpleasant
surprises,” but that would be inaccurately negative. The less-than-pleasant surprises I have
had since joining the faculty have largely consisted of minor annoyances. None have been

devastating or earth-rending and most don’t interfere with my daily functioning as a

professor. Many I had been warned about but had underestimated.
As adults, many of us gradually adjust to the notion that our parents are not the perfect
superheroes we imagined during childhood. From the vantage point of adulthood, our parents
appear to be unique and wonderful people with their own struggles, flaws, and failings. Our
early views become more realistic and balanced. In much the same way, I have had to
recalibrate my views of faculty. Many are fine people with a desire to help others and
enlighten young minds, but some do have political or selfish agendas. All of them have faults
and weaknesses. As a faculty member, I have a ring-side seat to the functioning or

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dysfunction of my department and my colleagues. I have sometimes been disappointed and
have needed to develop more reasonable expectations that take into account the imperfect
humanness of my colleagues.
Henry Kissinger is quoted as saying that faculty disputes are acrimonious because the
stakes are so low. I had heard that quote previously, but was not fully prepared for its reality.
Faculty political disputes can become disagreeable and downright unsightly. Faculty meetings
typically fall into one of two categories: mind-numbingly boring or electrically charged
emotional melees. To be fair, temper tantrums are often triggered by topics about which the
faculty member is passionate. Hiring new faculty members, structuring the graduate
curriculum, and making decisions about troubled students are important and are never clear-
cut. In charged debates, it is easy for untenured faculty to err in the direction of being overly
timid and passive or overly outspoken, rushing into disputes that they may not fully
understand. Surviving disagreements and debates unscathed has required diplomacy,
attention, caution, and restraint. I have found it especially important to listen to and consider
the various sides of each issue, even when one side initially sounds illogical. On occasion this
strategy has involved approaching a senior faculty member, sometimes one with whom I was
not well-acquainted, to ask for clarification and further explanation. Although I was initially
nervous about how this approach would be received, senior faculty members typically have

been pleased to be asked their opinions and were happy to share their views with me. I, in
turn, became better educated about the larger departmental, administrative, financial,
historical, and interpersonal contexts surrounding each debate.
In stark contrast to the metaphorical pushing and shoving before faculty votes on
important topics, when the department chair asks for volunteers to serve on departmental
committees, the silence is resounding. Committees seem to proliferate in academic settings.
There are endless tasks, some trivial and some important, that you might be asked to do in
service of the department or the university. It seems to be the rule that the better you are
functioning, the more you are asked to do. It is a struggle to balance the desire to be a good

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departmental citizen with the very real publishing demands that ultimately determine whether
you will keep your position and secure your academic future. Drawing careful boundaries and
saying no on occasion can be uncomfortable but is essential.
Ultimately, for me, interpersonal and political annoyances pale in comparison to the
concern about suddenly being responsible for the academic and professional progress of
graduate students. The buck stops here? Do I know what I’m doing? Being responsible for the
experiences and, in some respects, foundations of future careers of my graduate students can
be an intimidating prospect. The same way parents undoubtedly worry about whether they
have raised their children “right,” I worry about mistakes I might be making with my students
and the potential impact of those mistakes. Consultations with senior faculty members to
check my judgment have eased some of this anxiety and I am hoping that the residual anxiety
will decrease with experience.
Conclusions
All in all, being on the faculty is much the same as being in graduate school. There are
multiple demands and to be successful you need to juggle and multi-task, albeit with more
freedom and control. However, no one is assigned to look after you in role as a faculty
member. It is easy to get caught up in the tyranny of the urgent. Instead, set rules for yourself
about how you will spend your time. It is up to you to seek guidance, consider its merits, and

then make your own decisions. I have benefited greatly from the expertise of colleagues who
have provided comments on manuscript drafts, suggested data analytic strategies, and advised
me on teaching, supervision, career choices, and departmental politics. Although I would
suggest being an observer for the first year, withholding judgment about colleagues until you
have more information, I would also urge you to stand up for what is right and give your
opinion when it is genuinely sought. In most cases your colleagues will respect you more for
it. With a thoughtful approach, being a professor can be fun. If you enjoy people and variety,
it is hard not to like being a professor. I do.

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 30

Moving On: Making the Transition from Graduate Student to Faculty Member

Tracy E. Zinn, Stephen F. Austin State University

I began teaching in the fall of 2002 at Stephen F. Austin State University (SFA), a
Master’s I level, public institution of approximately 10,000 students in Nacogdoches, Texas.
SFA’s Psychology Department of 13 faculty members serves approximately 350
undergraduate majors and supports four master’s-level graduate tracks—Clinical,
Experimental, Industrial/Organizational, and Teaching of Psychology. SFA’s atmosphere has
been ideal in making the transition from graduate student to faculty member.
Recently a student in my class interviewed me for a project in another class; my task
was to describe a typical workday as a professor. I discussed reviewing student grant
proposals, editing an electronic column for the Society for the Teaching of Psychology
(Division 2 of the American Psychological Association), reading students’ theses, and
working on a paper of my own. After 15 min, he said, “You haven’t mentioned teaching our
class.” I realized then that although some of the tasks I enumerated are teaching related, they
are activities I do outside the classroom. Although being in the classroom is (almost) always
the highlight of my day, it is also, for better or worse, the least time consuming part of my
day. Below, I discuss this point and other lessons I’ve learned since moving from being a
graduate student to becoming a faculty member.
Juggling: Learning How to Multi-Task
One surprising aspect of my new job is how much time I spend on non-teaching, non-
research tasks. As a graduate student, I was busy teaching and finishing my dissertation.
However, that type of busyness—single-minded and individually focused—is not the same
busyness that you experience when you have to juggle your time as a faculty member. In
comparison to myriad activities in my day now, my relative focus in graduate school seems
like a luxury.

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 During the first years as an assistant professor, research can easily take a back seat to
more pressing demands on your time, especially new course preparations (Taylor & Martin,
2004). In addition, starting your own lab is considerably more time consuming than working
in a lab for which you do not have sole responsibility. You might be struggling for start-up
costs or managing logistics of ordering equipment. These tasks can be overwhelming,
especially when added to your other duties.
Thus, appropriate time management is imperative to success as a new faculty member.
As my mentor told me, it’s very easy to be busy doing unimportant activities. Spending time
setting short- and long-term goals, and matching your daily activities to those goals, can make
your first years more effective, rather than simply efficient.
Changing How I Taught
As a graduate student, I was fortunate to be the instructor of record for several classes.
I also had the opportunity to take several teaching seminars; unfortunately, the majority of
graduate students do not have such preparation for teaching (Buskist, Tears, Davis, &
Rodrigue, 2002), although the STP is currently attempting to address this problem. Because I
had the chance to teach in graduate school, and had active teaching mentors, my teaching
transition may have been less difficult relative to many new faculty members. Nevertheless,
teaching in graduate school was very different from teaching as a full-time faculty member.

As a graduate student instructor, I loved teaching and devoted much of my time to teaching
only one class. As a faculty member, suddenly I was teaching two undergraduate classes and
one graduate class, and I wanted to grant the same attention to each of those courses. It was
not possible. I had to select carefully activities that would add the most value to my students’
experiences and jettison things that added less value. This has been—and remains—a very
difficult task for me.
Overzealous new faculty members can easily take on too much with their classes.
They may continually alter their classes, include time-consuming activities, learn and
incorporate new technology into classes, and neglect delegating duties to their TAs (if they

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are lucky enough to have one). These practices can result in unnecessary stress for a new
faculty member. Finding ways to reduce stress is vital to maintaining the quality of, and
enthusiasm for, your teaching (King, 2004).
The Things No One Tells You
Although I felt qualified to teach and conduct research, there were some things for
which I was not prepared. First, being a graduate student kept me partially insulated from the
budgetary and political issues that confronted me as a new faculty member. Department chairs
and administrators make decisions in a fiscal climate. If you are aware of the possible issues
and have some knowledge about how administrators make decisions, you will be more
prepared when these decisions do not go the way you had hoped.
University politics was a new experience for me as well. Taylor and Martin (2004)
suggested that new faculty members “not take strong stands on issues [they] do not
understand immediately after arriving at the university” (p. 370). I have found that this advice
includes most issues. Although it is advantageous to learn about topics and participate in
discussions, you may not have enough information to be definitive in your position until you
have been at the institution for a while. Nonetheless, it is good practice to be informed and
speak up for yourself. For example, when moving from graduate student to faculty member,
you are not used to having resources and, therefore, may accept relatively little in terms of

start-up costs or research space (Rasmussen, 2001). Being vocal about these things is a good
practice and is important for your academic success. The key is knowing when to have a
strong opinion and being able to support that opinion.
Next, learning how to say, “No” to activities that do not contribute to your overall
goals is imperative to success as an academic. Because you will be juggling many duties as a
new faculty member, it is important to select your commitments carefully. If you do not learn
to make judicious choices, you may perform tasks poorly, thus affecting your reputation as
both teacher and scholar. A better route, as I have learned, is to add extra tasks slowly, so that
you are always performing optimally. If you link your daily tasks to your short- and long-term

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goals, you can be sure that you are spending time on truly worthwhile investments (King,
2004).
Finally, faculty life can be lonely and isolated (King, 2004). In graduate school, you
have a built-in network of friends; your social support system and your work intertwine. As a
new faculty member, the departmental dynamics are different. You have to start building such
a supportive network of friends and colleagues anew. You may not have time immediately to
make friends outside of your department. However, making time for friends and family is
crucial for your overall well-being and success (Taylor & Martin, 2004).
Love Your Job
Recognizing the benefits of academic jobs helps keep the minor difficulties in
perspective. Take time to enjoy and celebrate your own and your students’ successes and
maintain your enthusiasm for teaching (see Lloyd, 1999). In Teaching Tips, McKeachie
(2002) said, “I continue to be exhilarated going to class…Teaching is still fun for me” (p.
319). I feel the same way after 2 years. I plan to feel the same way after 50 years.
References
Buskist, W., Tears, R. S., Davis, S. F., & Rodrigue, K. M. (2002). The teaching of psychology
course: Prevalence and content. Teaching of Psychology, 29, 140-142.
King, R. M. (2004). Managing teaching loads and finding time for reflection and renewal. In

B. Perlman, L. I. McCann, & S. H. McFadden (Eds). Lessons learned: Practical

advice for the teaching of psychology (2nd ed., pp. 3-10). Washington, DC: American
Psychological Society.
Lloyd, M. A. (1999). As time goes by: Maintaining vitality in the classroom. In B. Perlman,
L. I. McCann, & S. H. McFadden (Eds). Lessons learned: Practical advice for the
teaching of psychology (pp. 7-10). Washington, D.C.: American Psychological
Society.
McKeachie, W. J. (2002). Teaching tips: Strategies, research, and theory for college and
university teachers (11th ed.) Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

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Rasmussen, E. B. (2001, October). Reflections on the first month: Struggles of a brand new
faculty member. E-xcellence in Teaching. Retrieved April 30, 2004, from
http://teachpsych.lemoyne.edu/teachpsych/eit/eit2000/eit00-18.pdf.
Taylor, S. E., & Martin, J. (2004). The academic marathon: Controlling one’s career. In J. M.
Darley, M. P. Zanna, & H. L. Roediger III (Eds.), The compleat academic: A career
guide (2nd ed., pp. 363-392). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association

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 V

Selected Bibliography in

College and University Teaching

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 31

Books to Enhance Your Teaching Life

Baron Perlman, University of Wisconsin—Oshkosh

On some days teaching is glorious and uplifting, on others it is a matter of teacher

survival, and on still others it is tedious and repetitive. As is true of any teacher, teachers of
psychology need to know a great dealcontent, classroom techniques, their teaching goals,
the importance of and how to connect with their students, and a perspective on academeif
they are to offer the best education they can. Thankfully there is a great deal writtenwith
wide and varied focus and contentabout the teaching of psychology and teaching in general
to assist new (and experienced) teachers.
Good teachers read regularly to know where to look when a teaching problem arises,
to enhance their teaching, or simply to refresh their pedagogical souls. In this chapter, I
suggest some of the best of academic books with which to begin building a professional
library. All are “must” reads but note that some do not describe classroom teaching
techniques. There is much more to quality teaching than honing one’s classroom skills. My
hope is that one or two books will interest you. I have an annotated reading list of many more
books to which you are welcome. Simply let me know of your interest
(Perlman@uwosh.edu).
A Few of the Best
The Academic Life: Small Worlds, Different Worlds (Clark, 1987). A classic book and
the last time faculty spoke in their own voices about the world of the faculty member. This
book captures the academic profession better than any other I know.
Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher (Brookfield, 1995). Anything Stephen
Brookfield writes is worth reading. An informed and perceptive book on the need for teachers
to be reflective practitioners of what it is they value and do. Brookfield (and Parker Palmer,

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see below) will force you to think about what teaching is and what you value in your teaching
more than anyone you will read.
Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers (2nd ed.)
(Angelo & Cross, 1993). This handbook describes a multitude of ways teachers can obtain
feedback from their students. It also guides assessment of their teaching and of student
learning through observation, collection of data, and the design of experiments. The goal is to
learn more about how students learn and how they respond to particular teaching approaches.
The Courage to Teach (Palmer, 1998). Parker Palmer takes teachers on an inner
journey toward reconnecting with their vocation and their studentsand recovering their
passion for one of the most difficult and important of human endeavors, teaching. Palmer
guides us through the work of teaching to help us create communities of learning, calling on
educational institutions to support teachers in this work.
Effective Grading: A Tool for Learning and Assessment (Walvoord & Anderson,
1998). The book examines the link between teaching and grading. It uses grades as part of the
process that provides rich information about student learning. The book is more valuable,
useful, and interesting than my description can convey.
Faculty in New Jobs: A Guide to Settling In, Becoming Established, and Building
Institutional Support (Menges, 1999). Based on a study of faculty in their first three years of

teaching at five different types of institutions, this book contains wonderful chapters on
mentoring, faculty of color, recruitment, and stress. The book raises a series of questions
invaluable to anyone involved with improving the quality of recruiting and retaining good
young faculty, and in building a quality institution.
Handbook for Enhancing Undergraduate Education in Psychology (McGovern,
1993). This book is an excellent resource for faculty development. It contains contributions on
topics such as curriculum assessment, promoting active learning, student advising, faculty
development and networking, and transforming undergraduate education for the 21st century.

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 Lessons Learned: Practical Advice for the Teaching of Psychology (Volumes 1 and 2)
(Perlman, McCann, & McFadden, 1999, 2004). These books present the Teaching Tips
columns appearing in the APS Observer since 1994. They contain content on a wide variety of
teaching issues and techniques: steps in a teacher’s life, course planning, using technology, in-
class skills, themes across psychology courses, writing, tests and grading, student and faculty
integrity, and enhancing student performance and participation.
McKeachie’s Teaching Tips: Strategies, Research, and Theory for College and
University Teachers (11th ed.) (McKeachie, 2002). The book presents issues and techniques
most relevant to beginning teachers to methods and issues likely to be of more concern after
teachers have gotten beyond the difficult, immediate problems of starting their teaching.
Moo (Smiley, 1995). An imaginary university such as Wisconsin State University (it
does not exist but it should) with the chancellor’s secretary running the institution and a pig as
one of the novel’s protagonists. Sounds like academe, doesn’t it? If it does not, you have not
worked in a college or university long enough.
Peer Review of Teaching: A Sourcebook (Chism, 1999). The best book on peer review
written to date. An excellent treatment of the process with a variety of forms and ideas in the
appendices to add structure and reliability to the process.
Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate (Boyer, 1990). The term

scholarship typically refers to research, but Boyer suggests an expanded definition of

scholarship to include the scholarship of teaching. He describes the dependence of collegiate
instruction on scholarship in a manner that appreciates the strengths of American higher
education and shows how to use these strengths to improve it. This book began the renewed
emphasis on teaching in higher education.
Straight Man (Russo, 1998). A Pulitzer Prize winning author writes about higher
education with an insightful depiction of middle age for men. The protagonist is an English
department chair in a poor state university. Who will be the next department chair, will the

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budget ever come, and will the ducks be murdered or survive? Stay tuned. Perhaps the best
fiction ever written about academe!
The Teaching of Psychology: Essays in Honor of Wilbert J. McKeachie and Charles
L. Brewer (Davis & Buskist, 2002). A wonderful book with a wide variety of chapters useful
for and interesting to the novice and experienced teacher alike. The book emphasizes essential
qualities and skills of effective teachers, teaching within the context of modern academic life,
teaching with technology, teaching about psychology’s domains, and has a wonderful
conclusion with two chapters, one written by Dr. McKeachie and the other by Dr. Brewer.
The Teaching Portfolio: A Practical Guide to Improved Performance and
Promotion/Tenure Decisions (3rd ed.) (Seldin, 2004). A hands-on look at the why, what, and
how of preparing and successfully using the portfolio. It includes the differences between
portfolios for personnel decisions and portfolios for teaching improvement, as well as
descriptions of how 10 different institutions use portfolios.
Tools for Teaching (Davis, 1993). The aim of this book is to encourage faculty to
become more aware of how they teach, how they might teach more effectively, and to provide
them with the tools for doing so. As a reference book, it consists of 49 tools organized into 12
sections representing the key teaching responsibilities and activities of college instructors.
References

Angelo, T. A., & Cross, K. P. (1993). Classroom assessment techniques: A handbook for
college teachers (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Boyer, E. L. (1990). Scholarship reconsidered: Priorities of the professoriate. Princeton, NJ:
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
Brookfield, S. D. (1995). Becoming a critically reflective teacher. San Francisco: Jossey-
Bass.
Chism, N. (1999). Peer review of teaching: A sourcebook. Bolton, MA: Anker.
Clark, B. R. (1987). The academic life: Small worlds, different worlds. Princeton, NJ:
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Princeton University Press.

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Davis, B. G. (1993). Tools for teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Davis, S. F., & Buskist, W. (Eds.). (2002). The teaching of psychology: Essays in honor of
Wilbert J. McKeachie and Charles L. Brewer. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
McGovern, T. V. (Ed.). (1993). Handbook for enhancing undergraduate education in
psychology. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
McKeachie, W. J. (2002). McKeachie’s teaching tips: Strategies, research, and theory for
college and university teachers (11th ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Menges, R. J. (1999). Faculty in new jobs: A guide to settling in, becoming established, and
building institutional support. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Palmer, P. J. (1998). The courage to teach. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Perlman, B., McCann, L. I., & McFadden, S. M. (Eds.). (1999). Lessons learned: Practical
advice for the teaching of psychology. Washington, DC: American Psychological
Society.
Perlman, B., McCann, L. I., & McFadden, S. M. (Eds.). (2004). Lessons learned: Practical
advice for the teaching of psychology (Vol. 2). Washington, DC: American
Psychological Society.
Russo, R. (1998). Straight man. NY: Vintage Books.
Seldin, P. (2004). The teaching portfolio: A practical guide to improved performance and

promotion/tenure decisions (3rd ed.). Bolton, MA: Anker.

Smiley, J. (1995). Moo. New York: Knopf.
Walvoord, B. E., & Anderson, V. J. (1998). Effective grading: A tool for learning and
assessment. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

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