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.
48 The Joy of Getting Up in the Morning Frank J. Vattano Colorado State University pp. 325-331

I am a Professor of Psychology and University Distinguished Teaching Scholar at Colorado State University (CSU). I received my PhD in General Experimental Psychology from The Ohio State University. I taught at The University of Denver where I also served as Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences and Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs. I returned to my undergraduate alma mater as Assistant Academic Vice President for Instructional Services and subsequently as Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. I returned to full-time teaching in psychology in 1987 as coordinator of the Introductory Psychology course, which enrolls over 3,000 students annually.

I developed and produced the widely adopted video teaching modules on The BRAIN, the MIND, The Social Connection, and The Many Faces of Psychology. I have received numerous teaching awards from my institution and I am the recipient of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Colorado Professor of the Year in 1999, and the American Psychological Foundation Distinguished Teaching of Psychology Award in 2001.

When I was a youngster I use to hear people greet each other in the morning with, "Hi, how are you today?" I noticed that the response varied, depending on the day of the week. On Mondays many people would say, "Oh, it's Monday. On Friday, the response was more like, "Yea, great, it's Friday." At the time I couldn't quite figure out why the response was so different from Monday to Friday. As an adult I discovered that not much had changed. The fact is many people seem to be down on Monday and up on Friday. I finally came to the realization that many people are not all that happy about what they do for a living. These people have not discovered what we teachers mostly take for grantedevery day can be an up day experience!

My Early Development As a Teacher

My career as a college teacher began as an undergraduate at Colorado State University. Having changed my major from forestry to psychology, I had the good fortune to enroll in Advanced Introductory Psychology taught by a newly minted PhD from The Ohio State University, Dr. Richard H. Peairs. Peairs was a phenomenon; young, debonair, oozing with enthusiasm, and brilliant. I had never encountered such a person in all my years as a student. I enrolled in every course he taught and I was inspired by his knowledge and total dedication to his students.

By my senior year I began to think of a future beyond the BS degree and one afternoon after class Peairs called me into his office to inquire about my plans after graduation. Hesitantly, I said I was thinking of applying to graduate school somewhere but I was not quite sure. Peairs jumped to his feet, looked me in the eyes, and declared, "Mr. Vattano, what do you mean, "thinking about it." You're going to graduate school at The Ohio State University and earn your PhD. He then proceeded to tell me about the world of academe and how I might aspire to become a member of the professoriate. The fact that he thought I had the ability to achieve this goal was enough to ignite a flame which continues to burn. That was 48 years ago and to this day, Dick Peairs and I are in almost in daily communication through e-mail. After a successful career as Professor of Psychology and Western Regional Director of the AAUP Office in San Francisco, Peairs remains an active psychological consultant. The man is as sharp as the day I first entered his class-use it or lose it!

My experience at the Ohio State University was just as Peairs had described. He had paved the way for me as a research assistant under his former mentor, Dr. Delos D. Wickens, which was another stroke of luck! Wickens was a dynamo, a productive scholar, and a wonderful mentor. In my third year of graduate school, Wick (it took me a long time before I could refer to him as "Wick") invited me to become a Teaching Assistant in Introductory Psychology. What an opportunity to work with a Teacher/Scholar who at that time authored of one of the leading introductory textbooks-the very book I had in my freshman introductory course at CSU. Wickens suggested that I enroll in a graduate seminar on college teaching offered by a professor in the Philosophy department, Dr. Anthony Nemitz. What an experience! Nemitz was one superb teacher. He knew all the ins and outs of academe and pulled no punches about life in the professoriate. The seminar made a real impression on me and provided an insight into college teaching unavailable at most mature research institutions of that time-with the exception perhaps of Bill McKeachie's program at the University of Michigan. Little did I know then that 11 years later I would initiate my own seminar on college for GTAs aspiring to become college teachers. Reflecting back on my formative years as a wet-behind-ears graduate student, I realize that I had the finest mentors one could every hope for, and have tried to follow their example of encouraging students to be all that can be.

Working At Defining Myself as a Teacher

One of the things I discovered early in my career was that teaching is a public activity. Anyone can walk into a classroom on a college campus, find an empty seat, and observe the proceedings. I took every opportunity to observe other teachers in action and assumed that there was nothing wrong with stealing ideas from the pros. Some of these "pros" were fellow graduate students who had mastered the craft of communicating their ideas to students in different and novel ways. Whenever I could find the time, I wandered into a classroom to observe teachers in action. If I have achieved anything as a college teacher, it is because I had outstanding mentors willing to share their knowledge and experience. Among the many great features of our profession, openness and sharing are high on the list. I realize that lighting a person's candle does not diminish the light from mine. I have been the recipient of many such candles.

A few years into my career as an assistant professor, my department chair asked me if I would be interested in teaching Introductory Psychology on television. Our university had decided to experiment with the medium and looked to a large enrollment course for obvious reasons-economy of scale. Having worked my way through college playing in a jazz combo, I was not intimidated by the camera. However, let me tell you, seeing yourself teach is no ego trip. After the shock wore off, I realized that self-confrontation through video tape has to be one of the best ways to sharpen some of the rough edges and to gain insight into your own persona. To this day, I use the medium, along with my graduate teaching fellows as a means for improving our class presentations. I believe it is essential for anyone who teaches to tape a class periodically for the purposes of self analysis and critique. (It is not a bad idea to hide all sharp objects prior to reviewing your initial tape).

I discovered that a valuable resource for gaining insight into my teaching was a friendly and supportive colleague. I had many such individuals in my career. Everyone should have at least one person in whom they have complete confidence as a good source for peer review. Once established, the benefits can be enormous.

College teaching, like any profession, has its share of frustrations and obstacles. Most of us live with 50 min class periods, quarters or semesters, an ever growing body of knowledge to uncover (I hope I never cover things), and ever-increasing class sizes. There is the constant dilemma of how to allocate time in your 168 hr week. We all know that working in a major research university requires that faculty teach, engage in research and scholarly activity, and perform service. A given department and university culture will dictate the relative value of this triplet. Interestingly, teaching is always mentioned first, as if it were the most important-or at least as important as research and service. In reality, this is not always the case.

I hit the jackpot when I returned to my Alma Mater as a faculty member. Although Colorado State University is a major Carnegie Class I research university, teaching is highly valued, and appropriately rewarded. Generally speaking, Land-Grant universities value outreach and scholarship as an integral part of their mission. This philosophy is in tune with Ernest Boyer's thesis articulated in his often cited, Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate (1990). The thrust of his argument is unambiguous:

The time has come to move beyond the tired old "teaching versus research" debate and give the familiar and honorable term "scholarship" a broader, more capacious meaning, one that brings legitimacy to the full scope of academic work. (p. 15)

Following Boyer's lead, Division 2 of the American Psychological Association Task Force on Defining Scholarship in Psychology, proposed a 5-part definition of scholarship to include: (a) original research (creation of knowledge), (b) integration of knowledge (synthesis and reorganization), (c) application of knowledge, (d) the scholarship of pedagogy, and (e) the scholarship of teaching in psychology. The recommendations of the APA Task Force chaired by Diane Halpern (1998) were already in place in my university as part of our Land-Grant mission. More recently, emphasis on the "Scholarship of Teaching" (Hutchings & Shulman, 1999) has opened the door to greater recognition for those who concentrate their efforts on the application of knowledge about the science of psychology and its implications for the practice of our craft (see Halpern, 2003). Granted, it took me longer to attain the rank of full professor than is normally the case, but my work in the development of teaching materials was valued by my department and university as it fit nicely under the rubric established by the APA Task Force and Boyer's definition of "scholarship."

One of the real joys and frustrations of teaching introductory psychology is the rapid growth of our field. We have increasing material to deal with in a fixed and rigid unit of time-semesters and quarters. Textbook authors and publishers continue to add content as our knowledge expands, making it more and more difficult deciding what to leave out of our course syllabi. It is an ever increasing problem and one of the most frustrating aspects of my teaching. It finally occurred to me that the way to deal with this problem was to assign more responsibility to students for their own learning. This idea has now become a mantra in the teaching and learning literature (Weimer, 2003). I take the position that students should come to class already in possession of information, rather than to simply take information away. When students come to class prepared to deal with what they already know about the subject-having read their assignment prior to class-I can meet them where they are, and take them to the next level of understanding. After all, is not that what it is all about anyway? All new learning is based on previous learning. Adapting to circumstances has helped to shape my philosophy of teaching.

The Examined Life of a Teacher

My philosophy of teaching is predicated on the realization that I am first and foremost a student. What sets me apart from my students is my age and the fact that I know more than they do about psychology. Therefore, I feel qualified to assume responsibility to help them learn. I realize that many of my students are more intelligent than I am, and have grown up in a very different world than I experienced. Many have lived and traveled in places I will probably never see. I respect my students as learners and I inform them that my efforts at facilitating their learning is a function of a number of very important elements in the teaching-learning equation.

I see my role as a facilitator (not teacher per se) and that if certain conditions prevail, I can increase the probability that learning will occur. I am in total agreement with Eble (1976) who asserted that "above all else, learning is a pleasurable experience." So, what are these conditions? Simply put: If students come to the learning environment that I establish (class, office, laboratory, etc.) prepared to engage the subject-having read the assigned material-and if I come to the learning environment prepared to engage the students' current level of knowledge in an environment of mutual respect, the probability of learning is greatly increased. In short, I can increase the probability that learning will take place if I do my job, and the students do theirs.

I take great pains to ensure that the learning environment (room, place, technology, materials, etc.) offers me the opportunity to orchestrate what I consider important principles in teaching: (a) to maintain student attention through stimulus variability, (b) apply principles of reinforcement, (c) strive to make the material meaningful, (d) remain open to and encourage student comments, and (e) apply a little humor where appropriate. If executed properly, these principles can result in an emotional and enjoyable learning experience.

I think it is important to connect with students on as many levels of their experience as possible. I want students to learn at a cognitive level and to acquire an appreciation for the beauty and complexity of behavior. Students should be different at the end of a given course in a way that has meaning for them in their day-to-day interactions with the world of people, places, and ideas. As Halpern and Hakel (2004) aptly put it,

The underlying rationale for any kind of formal instruction is the assumption that knowledge, skills, and attitudes learned in a particular setting will be recalled accurately, and will be used in some other context at some time in the future. (p. 38)

This is, at least in part, what is meant by transfer of learning. I try to reinforce this principle by presenting the content of psychology through world related examples, with a bit of story telling thrown in for good measure.

When I first started teaching, I concentrated my efforts on knowledge mastery, and becoming a dynamic lecturer. My emphasis was on my own teaching not necessarily on student learning. That was the paradigm under which I operated: I know; I teach; you learn. Over the years I have come to realize that learning does not always occur simply as the result of a good lecture. In fact, there may be very little relationship between the two. My current approach to teaching has been greatly influenced by the work of Barr and Tagg, (1995) on the paradigm shift from teaching to learning.

Psychology is a visual discipline, as evidenced by the richness of today's introductory textbooks and the plethora of ancillary materials available. I have become convinced that if students read, hear, and experience psychology, they will leave courses with a greater depth of understanding and excitement. My hat is off to the publishers of today's textbooks who make all this possible.

In the course of my 42 years of teaching, I have never neglected to distribute student course evaluations. I find them invaluable, and at times, intimidating. I would never think of teaching a course without getting student input. About 25 years ago I adopted a policy of both mid-term and final course evaluations. I have learned much from students about my teaching and have made many mid-course and permanent changes as a result. And, as mentioned earlier, one of the most revealing forms of evaluation for me is the use of micro-teaching through video recording.

Advice For New Teachers

I think the most important factor contributing to success as a college teacher is to find an institution that matches your values for teaching. Institutional climate is critical to a rewarding career as a college teacher. Finding the right fit between your goals and the goals and reward structure of a particular college or university is the most important thing to keep in mind when looking for an academic position. Keep in mind that many institutions do recognize and reward scholarship on teaching as a worthy area of investigation (see Hutchings & Shulman, 1999).

Do not hesitate to step out of your discipline and read widely on all aspects of teaching and learning. Most professional societies publish periodicals on teaching and many publications address topics of mutual interest across disciplines. Books, periodicals, conferences, the Internet, and your colleagues right down the hall are all valuable resources available to you.

Final Thoughts

As I think back at my 42 years of college teaching I feel very fortunate that I chose to become a college teacher. It has been a most rewarding career and I have been blessed to have worked with supportive colleagues in an institutional climate that recognizes and rewards teaching. Working with young people has to be the most challenging, exhilarating, and humbling activity on the planet, and it is why the act of getting up in the morning--Monday through Friday--is my greatest joy. I have been blessed to have had the opportunity to contribute to such a worthy endeavor. I think Lee Iococca, former CEO of the Chrysler Corporation, said it as well as anyone:

"In a totally rational society, the best of us would be
Teachers and the rest would have to settle for something else"

References

Boyer, E. L. (1990). Scholarship reconsidered: Priorities of the professoriate. Princeton, NJ: The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Barr, R. B., & Tagg, K. (1995, November/December). From teaching to learning-A new paradigm for undergraduate education. Change, 13-25.

Eble, K. (1976) The craft of teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Halpern, D. F., Smothergill, D. W., Allen, M., Baker, S., Baum, C., Best, D., Ferrari, J., Geisinger, K. F., Gilden, E. R., Hester, M., Keith-Spiegel, P., Kierniesky, N. C., McGovern, T. V., McKeachie, W. J., Prokasy, W. F., Szuchman, L. T., Vasta, R., & Weaver, K. A. (1998). Scholarship in psychology: A paradigm for the twenty-first century. American Psychologist, 53, 1292-1297.

Halpern, D., & Hakel, M. (2003, July/August). Applying the science of learning to the university and beyond. Change, 37-41.

Hutchings, P., & Shulman, D. (1999, September/October). The scholarship of teaching: New Elaborations, new developments. Change, 11-15.

Weimer, M. (2003, September/October). Focus on learning, Transform teaching. Change, 49-54.

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

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