The Teaching of Psychology in Autobiography: Perspectives from Exemplary Psychology Teachers Edited by Trisha A. Benson, Caroline Burke, Ana Amstadter, Ryan Sidey, Vincent Hevern, Barney Beins, & Bill Buskist.
38 From the Streets of The Bronx to Academia Joseph J. Palladino University of Southern Indiana pp. 260-266

In 1931, the poet Ogden Nash wrote one of the shortest poems on record: "The Bronx? No Thonx!" Although this poem summarizes Nash's feelings, it does not convey my own. I was born in the Bronx in 1950 and spent the first 26 years of my life there. In fact, most of those 26 years I lived no more than 10 minutes from the institution that would play a pivotal role in my life. When I was a child, my family would often ride down Southern Boulevard past the campus of Fordham University (in our grandparent's car, as we could not afford a car ourselves). To this day, I recall my parents and grandparents telling me that some day I should attend Fordham because it had a good law school. My father told me that Fordham was the place for me because someone named Lombardi went to school there. Neither my mother nor my father attended college, but they valued education. My father worked two jobs to insure that his family would have some of the opportunities that my parents did not have. He lost his battle with cancer in 1961, so he did not live long enough to see me graduate from even elementary school.

In 1964, I stepped onto the campus of Fordham University as a student at Fordham Preparatory School. To this day I do not understand how my mother managed to find the money to pay the tuition, especially when the tuition almost doubled right before my senior year. Years later I would leave the campus of Fordham University having earned a PhD in General-Theoretical Psychology. I am the first person in my family to graduate from college.

My graduate program in General-Theoretical Psychology was specifically designed to prepare us to become college teachers. How ironic that the program was terminated a few years ago. My academic career took me first to small schools in Kentucky and then to Pennsylvania. In 1981, Indiana State University Evansville offered me a position in their Psychology Department. Two weeks after arriving at ISUE (as we were known then), I walked into the Vice President's office to request funds to establish an undergraduate research conference. That conference, the Mid-America Undergraduate Psychology Research Conference (Palladino, Carsrud, Tanke, Aubrecht, & Huber, 1983), will celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2006. The success of the conference led me to try my hands at organizing another conference; this time a regional conference dedicated to teaching (at the time it was a novel idea). The Mid-America Conference for Teachers of Psychology (MACTOP) began in 1984 (Palladino, 1988) and ushered in what Barney Beins (2004) described in his Presidential address for the Society for the Teaching of Psychology (STP) as the "Golden Age of Regional Teaching Conferences." Barney noted that many of the leading figures in the teaching of psychology had spent time at MACTOP over the years. "If you look at the list of MACTOP presenters, you will see that 13 of the last 18 STP presidents gave talks at the conference. And other notable figures in STP graced the program over the years" (Beins, 2004).

In 1985, ISUE became the University of Southern Indiana (USI) and shortly I would be tenured and promoted to the rank of Associate Professor, then Professor. I spent a significant amount of time working on matters related to STP: Methods and Techniques Editor of Teaching of Psychology (ToP), Program Chair, and President (1991-1992). In 1989, I was elected to Fellow status in APA; in 1990, I received STP's Robert S. Daniel Teaching Excellence Award. My work on teaching conferences was recognized by receipt of a National University Continuing Education Association Faculty Service Award in 1991. The University of Southern Indiana Alumni Association awarded me its Faculty Recognition Award in 2000.

At the current time, I am Chair of the Psychology Department at USI where I teach Introduction to Psychology, Psychometrics, and an interdisciplinary course called Perspectives on Humor. A great deal of my time is spent in meetings of one kind of another. As a chair and a senior faculty member, I am asked to serve on a wide variety of committees, including personnel committees and a committee to select my institution's next student evaluation of teaching instrument.

My Early Development as a Teacher

In Fall 1973, I remember walking across the Fordham University campus on my way to present my first lecture. The sound I heard was probably my knees knocking. Monday morning at 8 is not a great time to give your first lecture; the MMPI is not the ideal topic! Somehow, the students and I got through the lecture; how, I will never know. I recall the slow walk back to my graduate student office as perspiration bathed my body and I kept thinking that if I am to make a career of teaching I had better get a lot better than I was that day. This lecture was part of a Teaching Practicum that was required of all students in the General-Theoretical program. Although discussions of pedagogical issues and current literature on teaching were enlightening, it would take much more to make me into the teacher I hoped to be someday.

My immediate task was to deal with my nervousness. I decided that the simple technique of pacing would release some pent-up energy. To this day, I still pace before class. In fact, I have actually worn a pedometer and been amazed at the distance I log before class! The pacing allowed me to practice my lecture by visualizing each part of the presentation, sometimes in minute detail.

The single most important event in my professional and teaching careers occurred early in 1981 (months after I arrived at ISUE). I received a package from Dr. Robert S. Daniel that contained an article he asked me to review for ToP. I was honored to be asked to review an article by someone of Bob's stature. Based on earlier submissions and accepted manuscripts, Bob knew of my interest in undergraduate research conferences (the topic of the submission he wished me to review). I was determined that my review would be so meticulous that he would ask me to do others. This was indeed the case; in fact, he asked me to join the editorial board of ToP.

As a result, Bob became my mentor. Whatever I have accomplished as a teacher, organization leader, and so forth can in no small way be traced to Bob's influence. Simply put, Bob showed confidence in my ability, respected my opinion and most importantly, opened doors for me that probably would not have been opened for me without his help. So extensive was Bob's contribution to teaching and teachers of psychology that I invited him to give the opening address at the MACTOP in 1986. At the end of the address, we (a group consisting of several individuals with chapters in this book) awarded Bob a plaque inscribed with the words "Teacher of Teachers." With the help of his lovely wife, Nola, we had arranged to obtain a color photograph of Bob, which was centered on the plaque.

When our daughter Sharin decided to attend graduate school in psychology, she traveled to several campuses around the country accompanied by my wife Marie. One of these trips was to the University of Missouri. Marie tracked down Bob Daniel who was in a nursing home at this time. Sharin and Marie went to visit him. Although the room was rather barren with few items on the wall, Marie spotted a familiar item. The "Teacher of Teachers" plaque hung prominently on the wall. Thanks again, Bob.

There were times early in my career when I wondered if teaching was the career for me. In fact, at one point I began to investigate other related careers. Without Bob Daniel, I would not be writing this chapter.

Working at Defining Myself as a Teacher

The first few years of teaching can be hell and in many ways, they were for me. We (my family) were not in places we wanted to be geographically, and we were separated from the support structure of our families. Although there were many lows over the many years, one of the lowest occurred when as a second year faculty member I was assigned to teach five different preparations, including two night courses. I was stretched beyond what I thought was reasonable. I realize that teaching load is relative and at some institutions this might not be a heavy load, whereas at other institutions it would be unimaginable. Taking my wife's advice, I did not say anything (as I was untenured at the time). However, I made a promise to myself: If I were ever in a position to set policy I would insure that no faculty member would ever be forced to teach this number of preparations in a single semester. As Chair of the department, I established a policy that limits the number of preparations per semester (3) and overall preparations (6).

Frankly, I have never struggled with the "zero sum game" in which teaching takes away from laboratory time. I was fortunate to find an institution where teaching really was the number one criterion for tenure and promotion. Virtually every institution says teaching is number one but there ought to be a wink symbol that can be inserted into faculty handbooks at institutions that give no more than lip service to this belief.

I threw myself into teaching, which clearly can occur in the classroom and outside. The majority of my publications have been in ToP and many of my presentations and publications deal with topics such as undergraduate research. I took every opportunity to involve my students in research. For example, when I received a phone call from an attorney asking for help on a death penalty case, I seized this as an opportunity to involve students. The end result was the largest project I on which had ever worked-a survey of hundreds of potential jurors that became part of a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Examined Life of a Teacher

There are a few basic principles that are at the heart of my personal teaching philosophy. First, I am a firm believer in providing a great deal of detail about a course to students (essentially informed consent). My syllabi now run 10 to 11 pages because of such detail. I view the syllabus as essentially a legal contact (although I doubt courts would or should view it as such). As I tell my students, I expect to be held to my end of this agreement and I also expect them to be held to their end.

Second, I believe in setting appropriately high standards for students. They will let us know when the standards are unreasonable. In addition, I believe it is imperative to provide the assistance needed to meet these standards. For example, I teach a course called Psychometrics. Frankly, the title alone would frighten most students. This course is basically the course I took in graduate school from Dr. Anne Anastasi. From day one, the students know what is expected of them. Imagine how gratifying it is to complete such a course, knowing you have accomplished what many might have thought was impossible.

Third, students are entitled to know where they stand in a class in a timely manner. Not only does this feedback give them a measure of their success in the class, it is also important for making decisions about whether to remain in the class.

When I began teaching, I was primarily a lecturer. I guess with practice one can get pretty good at lecturing. I am not putting down the lecture format, although I came to the conclusion that even the greatest lecturer in the world needs to inject some variety into a class that is basically a lecture class. Over time, I have found, for example, that interesting and humorous stories are one way to inject variety. When my daughter (Karin, who is now a lawyer) was growing up I had ready-made material for class. My list of Karin stories (night terrors, toilet training, etc.) is interspersed throughout my lectures. I am heartened when students come up to me (sometimes 15 years after taking the class) and tell me they remember some of the details of the stories. For example, they remember the frightening experience of Karin's night terrors or how we overcome her fear of toilets after she was frightened by an "industrial-strength" toilet during a visit to Seaworld in Orlando. I try to be as visual a teacher as possible. For example, I invite several students to the front of the class where we act out the parts of a neuron (with body parts becoming the dendrites, soma, axon, etc.). Even in large classes, it is possible to involve students as I learned over time (sometimes reluctantly) and I continue to this day to try to create new and innovative ways of presenting course material.

One of the techniques I use is to team teach with one of the junior faculty members in my department (frankly, they are all junior faculty compared to me). Technique borrowing goes both ways. I have been learning quite a bit about technology from younger faculty who cut their teeth when laptops were first around compared to someone like me who was in graduate school when we put data on IBM cards.

Advice for New Teachers

The question I think everyone should ask each of the faculty members at this point in their autobiography is this: Would you enter the profession of teaching again, knowing what you know now, and having struggled with what you have had to struggle with over time? My resounding answer is "in a heart beat." How many of us have swelled with pride when one of our students aces a presentation at an undergraduate research conference? A diffident student is now filled with confidence. How many of us have had students come up to us and been told that we had made a difference in their lives?

I am fortunate in many ways. I am the chair of an outstanding department consisting of very collegial faculty members. Yes, they are quite young so I refer to my department as "Joe and the kids." From a personal perspective, I am also lucky because I have a significant amount of freedom over what I do. Simply put, I teach what I want, when I want to teach it. In addition, my list of courses includes Perspectives on Humor (which I would not recommend until you are tenured).

Here are my keys to success in teaching. First, borrow, borrow, and borrow. One of the amazing aspects of our profession is that we compete with each other quite often: to be published, to get presentations accepted, for grants, and for jobs. However, in my almost 30 years of teaching I cannot recall a single instance in which a faculty member refused to share teaching-related materials with a colleague. Why would anyone write a syllabus from scratch? The majority of the demonstrations we use are borrowed from someone else. Just ask and you will be surprised how helpful even strangers can be.

Second, get yourself mentors (note the plural). I am not a proponent of programs that attempt to connect junior faculty with potential mentors. Such programs strike me as similar to arranged marriages. The word "mentor" does not even have to be mentioned for a successful mentoring relationship to occur. I have been amazed and gratified at the number of colleagues who have told me I was one of their mentors. Mentors can serve as useful sounding boards, offer advice, or in my case open doors that can make all the difference in the world.

Third, do not try to be a hero. As I tell my own faculty members: No one has ever been granted tenure or promoted based on the number of different preparations he or she teaches. Some degree of focus (which may well change over time) is to your advantage. In addition, find ways to involve your students in your research, which can funnel right out of your class.

Fourth, do not be afraid to try new approaches and/or techniques. For years, my preferred teaching technique was lecturing. Then, I was allowed to teach a course on humor, which required a variety of teaching techniques. This new course stretched my abilities and opened up new avenues for me.

Fifth, try to inject some humor into your own life for some needed balance as well as into your classes. I am afraid that many in our profession fail to understand that classroom rule number one is "Get their attention." What better way than using humor? Please note that I am not suggesting that you become a stand-up comic. I have always argued that humor in class should be appropriate and flow from the material. I also realize that you will be fighting an uphill battle here because academia in general and the profession of psychology are filled with those exhibiting Humor-Impaired Personality Disorder (Palladino & Handelsman, 1996). If you doubt this statement, please spend some time at a conference.

Sixth, get a life outside teaching and your institution. Do not spend every minute on either. Inject balance into your life. In my case, I am sports fanatic, so I spend a fair amount of time following various teams like the New York Yankees who were robbed 2004! For nine years, I wrote a humor column for the Psi Chi newsletter with another faculty member profiled in this book, Mitch Handelsman. I recently presented Psych Follies (with Charles Brewer, who is also profiled in this volume) at the Southeastern Psychological Association conference. A little balance and a little laughter go a long way.

Final Thoughts

I never did become the lawyer my family wanted but I am confident they would be pleased with how I turned out (at least, so far). Many years ago, I took a group of students to a psychology conference in Chicago. They decided to thank me by giving me a plaque they purchased in a gift shop. The plaque hangs in my office today and the inscription contains the words of Vince Lombardi (a Fordham graduate): "The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor."

References

Beins, B. C. (2004). Teachers of psychology, keepers of psychology. STP Presidential address presented at the convention of the American Psychological Association, August, Honolulu, HI.

Palladino, J. J. (1988). A faculty development conference: Psychology as a model. Journal of Staff, Program, & Organization Development, 6, 169-174.

Palladino, J. J., Carsrud, A. L., Tanke, E. D., Aubrecht, L., & Huber, R. J. (1983, February). Student conferences recognize research, APA Monitor, pp. 26-27.

Palladino, J. J., & Handelsman, M. M. (1996, Spring). The humor-impaired personality disorder. Psi Chi Newsletter, 14-16

This page was first posted online on November 10, 2005 and was last updated on November 10, 2005

Copyright 2005 APA Division 2, Society for the Teaching of Psychology. All rights reserved. Copyright Policy. Copyright in this web site is owned by APA Division 2, Society for the Teaching of Psychology. Copyright in individual articles and similar items are generally owned by the author(s), except as otherwise noted. You may review the materials in this site for information purposes and may download and print ONE copy of the materials for your own personal use, including use in your classes and/or sharing with indiviual colleagues. No other permission is granted to you to print, copy, reproduce, or distribute additional copies of these materials. Anyone who wishes to print, copy, reproduce or distribute additional copies must obtain the permission of the copyright owner.