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.
46 Enhancing Student Engagement in the Learning Process Linda R. Tropp Boston College pp. 314-318

I received my BA from Wellesley College and my PhD in Social psychology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. I am currently an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Boston College, where I teach undergraduate courses on social psychology, statistics and research methods, as well as graduate and undergraduate courses on intergroup relations. For the past 10 years, my research and teaching have focused on psychological processes associated with group membership and intergroup relations, including outcomes of intergroup contact among members of minority and majority status groups, and responses to prejudice and disadvantage among members of devalued groups.

I received the 2000 McKeachie Early Career Teaching Excellence Award from the Society for the Teaching of Psychology (STP; Division Two of the American Psychological Association [APA]), as well as the 2003 Gordon W. Allport Intergroup Relations Award from the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (Division Nine) for a meta-analytic study of intergroup contact effects. Within these organizations and at my home institution, I work in a range of capacities to mentor and promote the professional development of young scholars, in addition to speaking about these issues on panels organized by the APA Ad-Hoc Committee on Early Career Psychologists and the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues. I now serve as a member of the Governing Council of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues as well as on committees for undergraduate and graduate training at Boston College.

My Early Development as a Teacher

I think my early development as a teacher grew largely as a function of my early educational experiences. I was fortunate enough to have attended a small, private, non-traditional elementary school in the Midwest, with mixed-age classrooms rather than conventional grade levels. Our classes emphasized both independent and collaborative learning, and we benefited greatly from individualized feedback from our teachers. We also had opportunities to mentor students in the younger grades.

I believe these early experiences instilled in me a general appreciation for the learning process. I also learned that people learn and retain information in different ways, and that each person's strengths and weaknesses affect their attempts to master new information. Perhaps not surprisingly, then, I have had an interest in teaching for just about as long as I can remember. During my elementary school years, I wanted to be an elementary school teacher; by high school, I wanted to be a high school teacher. While other teenagers were taking on babysitting jobs, I began to work as a tutor (which I continued throughout my high school and college years). Eventually, by my junior year of college, I realized that I wanted to become a university professor. As I recall, my decision to become a university professor was largely due to two factors.

First, what appealed to me about teaching university students was the expectation that we could all approach the learning process as mature, independent thinkers. Rather than feeling responsible for trying to make students do their homework (as I imagined with high school students), I wanted to work with students who were motivated to learn as adults and who were prepared to make their own decisions regarding their academic commitments. Consistent with this view, I still remind my students that it is ultimately up to them to decide how much they are willing to invest in our coursework, while encouraging them to recognize that the more effort they put into learning the course material, the more they will get out of the course.

The second reason I became interested in teaching at the college level was because of the close attention and mentoring I received from faculty at Wellesley. I recall feeling that my professors were truly invested in my education. One particular instance stands out in my mind. I was taking a research methods course with one of my favorite professors (who later became my undergraduate thesis advisor). As part of this course, we were required to submit an extended critique of an empirical research article. Rather than simply returning the assignment to me with a grade, this professor added a brief note at the end of my paper to suggest that it was my fate to continue to do research in psychology. Had it not been for this feedback and guidance, I do not believe I would have pursued a career in psychological research and teaching at the university level.

Defining Myself as a Teacher

I have come to define my teaching role as that of a coach. To me, the role of a coach means a number of things. In part, it means that I can let my students know that I am committed to them, I care about them, and that I genuinely want them to succeed. At the same time, being a "coach" means that I can maintain high standards and make it clear to students that my primary goal is to help them realize their potential, but that it is ultimately their responsibility to work hard and give of themselves in order to succeed.

Of course, there are also the practical aspects to being a coach, such as giving students opportunities to hone their skills and providing them with feedback about where they stand and where they need to go. Students who enroll in my courses become aware of the fact that a great deal will be expected of them, and I find that they typically rise to the challenge. Similarly, students who join my research lab soon learn (often from past generations of research assistants) that they can expect to revise draft after draft after draft of our research materials and protocols, not to mention the multiple rounds of edits that go into producing final versions of their senior theses. My sense is that students understand that although the work may be challenging or even daunting at times, it is not pointless. Rather, the work involved is designed to be directly relevant to their learning goals so that they begin to recognize that it is in their best interests to take advantage of opportunities to enhance their academic skills.

Needless to say, providing students with such opportunities to learn requires a substantial commitment of time and energy. Although I believe that undergraduate training and research can often complement each other, I also think that there can sometimes be a conflict between accomplishing all that we hope to do on the research front and providing personalized guidance and attention to students. Especially for those of us who are at the earlier stages of our careers, I think it is important to think deeply about how we wish to define our careers, and how we can incorporate teaching and mentoring into the rest of our lives as academics.

I try to make myself fully available to students when I can while making sure that I set firm limits so that I can guard the time needed to conduct independent research. Specifically, I have structured my schedule so that I preserve my best "writing hours" for research, which then allows me the freedom to schedule meetings with students during my "off hours." Distributing my time in this manner has worked well in terms of helping me to accommodate both my research and teaching responsibilities. This schedule gives me the time I need to focus on my many important research-related activities (e.g., preparing manuscripts for publication, applying for grants). At the same time, when I meet with students, I find that I can actually enjoy the time that I spend working with them, rather than feeling like I should be spending my time engaged in other activities.

The Examined Life of a Teacher

As I reflect on what stands at the core of my teaching philosophy, one of the first themes that comes to mind is that students feel engaged in their own learning process. One of the things I find most rewarding about teaching is being able to work with students who are motivated to learn and to develop their potential. Although I believe that students should take on a great deal of responsibility for their own learning, I feel that faculty can play an important role in inspiring students to dedicate themselves to learning by demonstrating that the faculty member is engaged and invested in students' development.

My thoughts about this issue date back to one of my earliest teaching experiences, when I was a tutor for a fifth-grader during my high school years. When I first spoke with the student's mother about tutoring her son, she expressed concern about his ability to perform well in school and explained that she wanted me to tutor him to enhance his chances of being able to attend an ivy-league institution. At the time, I remember thinking that tutoring this student would be quite a challenge because I would need to help him overcome some academic deficiencies. However, once I began to tutor him, I found that my work largely consisted of making myself available to him for questions if and when he needed them while he sat working diligently and independently. This experience had a profound impact on me in that it showed me how simple gestures such as expressing interest in our students and showing them that we care about their development could have a powerful impact on their motivation to learn. Thus, I regularly use a variety of strategies to try to engage students, enhance their investment in the learning process, and provide them with as much detailed feedback and individualized attention as possible. Whether in the classroom or in the research laboratory, I find that the more enthusiastic and dedicated I am about working with students, the more enthusiasm and commitment they express for learning.

My sense is that these efforts help not only to establish a norm that learning is something to be valued, but that they help students recognize that their own educational development is something to be valued. Although they may be studious and accustomed to hard work, many students' educational experiences have consisted largely of memorization and regurgitation, and many students are not used to developing and exploring their own thoughts and views. Similarly, when students stop by my office, I find that they are much more likely to ask questions concerning what they should do to get a good job rather than asking about what they should do to figure out their own interests and goals. Thus, by attempting to engage students in the learning process, I believe we may also help students to discover where their true interests lie, which could serve to guide and direct them as they consider options for the future.

Advice for New Teachers

I have two pieces of advice to offer to new teachers. First, I recommend that new teachers take some time to think about the type of relationship they would like to have with their students. It can sometimes be difficult for new teachers to learn how to manage a balance between maintaining some degree of professional distance from students and attempting to develop close mentoring relationships with them. Also, as a graduate student, I had the opportunity to serve as a teaching assistant with many different faculty in our department, and I noticed that different kinds of students tended to gravitate toward different kinds of teaching styles. Through these experiences, I learned that there are many pathways to becoming an engaging and successful teacher, and what perhaps matters most is that faculty uncover a teaching style that is comfortable and suitable for them.

I also strongly encourage new faculty to discuss their expectations with students, so that faculty and students have a shared sense of what to expect as they work together. Whether in the classroom or in the research laboratory, I take efforts to communicate my expectations to students, so that they feel better prepared and able to meet demands set before them, and so that I can feel more entitled to demand a certain level of performance from them. For example, I usually prepare study guides for my students to help prepare them for course examinations, to give them a sense of the topics to be covered and the format of the test. On the one hand, I believe that sharing this type of information helps me to communicate to my students that I care about their success and that I believe they are capable of doing well if they apply themselves. On the other hand, I believe this type of communication can also help to remind students of their role and responsibility in the learning process: Once they know the criteria on which they will be graded, it then becomes up to them to decide how much they are willing to invest in the work for the course.

I also believe that communicating expectations can be useful in setting up ground rules for class discussions. Whether the course material involves sophisticated statistical procedures or sensitive topics surrounding intergroup relations, I find it useful to establish a norm of mutual respect, such that everyone has a right to ask questions and offer comments, along with an obligation to listen to others. By establishing such norms at the beginning and by reinforcing those norms as needed, I believe teachers can substantially minimize potential conflict and frustration among students at later stages in the course.

This page was first posted online on November 12, 2005 and was last updated on November 12, 2005

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