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.
49 The Quest for Teaching Excellence Kenneth A. Weaver Emporia State University pp. 332-340

I am currently Roe R. Cross Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychology and Special Education at Emporia State University (ESU) in Emporia, KS. I have a Bachelor of Science in Biology and a Master of Education in Secondary Science Education degrees from the University of South Carolina, and a Master of Arts and a Doctor of Philosophy in Educational Psychology degrees from Columbia University.

I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in rural public health education in the Philippines for two years and a 7th and 8th grade science teacher in South Carolina for five years. After five years in graduate school in New York City, I have been at ESU for 19 years.

I received an American Psychological Association (APA) Presidential citation in 2000 for "outstanding leadership in support of teaching and learning in psychology," was 2000-2001 Midwestern Psi Chi Faculty Advisor of the Year, and received the Robert S. Daniel Teaching Excellence Award from APA's Society for the Teaching of Psychology (STP) in 2002. I am a Fellow of APA and Past President of the Southwestern Psychological Association and have been named to Who's Who Among America's Teachers in 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, and 2006.

I was 1995-1997 President of the Council of Teachers of Undergraduate Psychology (CTUP) and edited CTUP's Significant Difference newsletter from 1993 to 1997. I attended the 1999 National Forum on Psychology Partnerships at James Madison University, was a proud Assessment All-Star, and served on the Program Committee for the Measuring Up: Best Practices in Assessment in Psychology Education national conference in Atlanta in 2002. I represented the Council of Graduate Departments of Psychology at APA's Education Leadership Conference in 2003.

I founded the Kansas High School Psychology Teachers Workshop in 1995, which will celebrate its 10th anniversary in October, 2005, and I chaired the Kansas State Department of Education Psychology Standards Committee. I have been national workshop co-leader for Teachers of Psychology in Secondary Schools, judged the American Psychological Foundation/Teachers of Psychology in Secondary Schools Intel Talent Search for High School Student Research Competition, and served on APA's Task Force on High School Standards. I was a member of STP's Task Force on Defining Scholarship in Psychology, currently serve on STP's G. Stanley Hall Lecture Selection Committee, and chair STP's Fellows Committee and the Robert S. Daniel Teaching Award Selection Committee.

My Early Development as a Teacher

In a classic example of identify foreclosure, I decided to become a dentist in the seventh grade. Accordingly, I took the college preparatory curriculum for pre-dentistry in high school and, entering college, declared biology with a pre-dental emphasis as my major. The fall of my senior year at the University of South Carolina, I finally asked myself if I would be happy spending the rest of my life looking into peoples' mouths. The memory of my emotional panic is still vivid.

I shortly thereafter applied to the Peace Corps for a posting in public health in Southeast Asia to gain some insight into the Vietnam War, for which my draft number was high and my high school buddy lost his life, and to figure out my vocational interest. After three months of training with 24 fine young men and women from throughout the nation, I spent 21 months as a Peace Corps Volunteer, living among the good people of Santa Catalina, Negros Oriental, Philippines. However, a lifelong passion was kindled. Drinking water in the town was contaminated; yet, it looked clear. In trying to explain this paradox to folks whose families had been drinking this water for generations, no word in the Cebuano language, which I minimally learned, existed for microorganism other than the Hispanicized version of the term. How does one communicate an idea? How does one teach about microorganisms when they cannot be seen, touched, or heard? How does a teacher promote learning? Thirty-one years later, I continue to ponder these and many other teaching-related questions, whether for people living in Third World communities or students sitting in my classroom.

Returning to South Carolina in 1976, I was hired for a junior high school science teaching position and obtained an emergency teaching certificate that obligated me to complete 6 hours of university teacher-preparation coursework for several years to upgrade to a regular teaching certificate. My principal, who paddled me in the 7th grade, advised taking graduate courses so that I could move up the pay scale by earning a master's degree. After four mediocre undergraduate years, I was ready for serious study, and graduate courses such as Methods for Teaching Science, Resources for Teaching and Learning, Introduction to Research in Education, and Principles of Curriculum Construction captivated me. The Human Growth and Development course especially resonated and planted the seed of advanced study.

After five years teaching adolescents and coaching some of them in football, my wife of one year and I moved to New York for 5 years of graduate school in educational psychology where I immersed myself in the study of learning, which soon narrowed to memory. Although the focus was theoretical, my natural tendency was and still is to apply the ideas in a classroom context. This tendency has provided the fuel for my quest to be an effective teacher.

I have been fortunate in many ways, especially having outstanding mentors. My parents Bob and Jan Weaver continue to model work ethic, long-term love, respect, and emotional support. My wife Kathy and our children Merriam, Andy, Katie, and Janet are constant sources of joy, strength, and inspiration. My own elementary, high school, college, and Sunday School teachers and Boy Scout leaders provided consistently wonderful instructional models. One I channel almost daily is Idella Bodie, my ninth grade English teacher, who often said "many drops in a bucket make an ocean," which I now often say.

Harold Cook, my advisor and dissertation sponsor, brought an aesthetic to teaching, learning, and research that made all three deeply personal. Another member of my dissertation committee, Joel Davitz, had the uncanny knack of asking the right question. I strive to emulate their qualities with my students.

Steve Davis, who hired me at Emporia State University, demonstrated the importance of putting research in the center of student professional development and then collaborated with other psychology educators in the state to establish the Association of Psychological and Educational Research in Kansas, which celebrates its 25th anniversary next November, and the Great Plains Students' Psychology Convention, which celebrated its 25th anniversary in March.

I am proud to be a teacher, and Charles Brewer embodies that pride. Brewer's 10 Commandments, his tireless mentoring and support of faculty, and dedication to the teaching of psychology model commitment, devotion, love of learning, and love of teaching. Many others have mentored me, knowingly or unknowingly-Halonen, Ware, Hill, Smith, Hester, Mathie, Beins, Blair-Broeker, Ernst, Appleby, Lutsky, Maitland, Buskist, Halpern, Landrum, Goodwin, Keith, Lloyd, Davidson, McEntarffer, Dunn, McCarthy, Mehrotra, Whitlock, Miller, and Stuber-McEwen-and inspire me with their humor, grace, intellect, work ethic, beauty of accomplishment, and unwavering commitment to their students and to excellence in teaching.

One other mentor is the State of Kansas, whose motto ad astra per aspera means "to the stars with difficulty." Building responsible citizens requires considerable investment of time, effort, and energy. This difficult task is an important goal for us in higher education.

Working at Defining Myself as a Teacher

I started my doctoral program in 1981 with the sole goal of becoming a better teacher. Studying educational psychology with a specialization in cognition at Teachers College, Columbia University, I was primed to examine the research literature from a teaching perspective and soon encountered a cornucopia of pedagogical delights such as Lindsay and Norman's (1972) human information processing; Slamecka and Graf's (1978) generation effect; Eich's (1980) state dependent retention; Craik and Lockhart's (1972) levels of processing; Smith, Glenberg, and Bjork's (1978) context dependent memory; Loftus and Palmer's (1974) reconstructed memories; Tulving and Thomson's (1973) encoding specificity, Baddely and Hitch's (1974) working memory; Tversky and Kahneman's (1973) availability heuristic; Tulving's (1972) episodic and semantic memory; Paivio's (1971) imagery; and Bower's (1981) mood and memory. Applying theories from the cognitive psychology literature to the classroom continues as a strong element of my approach to teaching and learning. This approach was best captured by the analogy of a participant at the 2003 APA's Education Leadership Conference: psychology is to education as biology is to medicine.

Another step toward defining myself as a teacher occurred when I joined ESU. The department chair, Steve Davis, encouraged faculty across the nation to promote student research at both the undergraduate and the graduate level. In this environment, I incorporated research expectations into my courses and partnered with students doing research (e.g., Goodrich & Weaver, 1998; Huffman & Weaver, 1996; Huss & Weaver, 1996; Walters & Weaver, 2003; Wann & Weaver, 1993; Weaver & MacNeil, 1992). Student research remains as a central aspect of my teaching.

Another step occurred with the realization that "there is nothing that is not psychological." This liberating observation imbues literally everything with the potential for teaching and learning if one is astute enough to recognize it as such. I am now more attentive to the environment in search of teaching ideas.

The emotional aspects of facilitating and inhibiting learning are well documented. The first semester of my second year at ESU, many students in several courses commented on their evaluations that I was too serious and never smiled. In response, I developed the Mary Poppins' approach to teaching. Playing off of her "just a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down," I smiled more, spoke more with students both in and out of class, and asked about their well-being. Course expectations and rigor remained the same. The students' course experiences, as judged by their comments on the course evaluations, improved. Fostering a positive emotional tone is now another piece to the pursuit of teaching excellence.

In 1999, I taught my first Internet-only course. Getting the course ready was effortful, as I learned new software and rethought content presentation and assessment. My frustration level increased as I struggled with the software and as the time to begin the course quickly approached. Finally, I sought out a mentor who provided good guidance. Now having taught online several semesters, I regard Internet-only learning favorably because the instructor can require involvement from everyone and that involvement, mediated by e-mail, is quantifiable. Also, with e-mail, the writing makes public one's understanding, making my assessment of student understanding much more thorough in the distance format than face-to-face.

I view research and service as complementing rather than competing with my teaching. Research and service experiences provide more content in support of my efforts to promote student learning.

The Examined Life of a Teacher

My personal philosophy of teaching has at its core "repeated contact with the content over time." The student engages content through elaboration and production for the duration of the course as well as across courses to connect with knowledge and develop insights. Bloom's (1956) taxonomy defines the degree, or the depth, of processing to which students think critically about the content. Teaching for comprehension, for example, requires a different skill set than teaching for analysis or synthesis.

The course objectives define the outcomes, which are designed for students to realize their potential. I view outcomes through two lenses. First is Piaget's (1930) accommodation and assimilation; outcomes requiring accommodation are more demanding for the students and myself. Second is Vygotsky's (1978) zone of proximal development, which defines the degree of support students need to meet outcomes successfully. Presenting the content and its essence in a clear and well-organized manner using a variety of approaches (e.g., lecture, guided questioning, demonstration, discussion, activity) with a variety of sources and supports (e.g., course outlines, guides to writing and studying, related readings) promotes student learning. All examinations are cumulative. All assessments are tied to the course objectives. I like for students to write because writing expands the scope of the assessment, clear writing clarifies thinking, and I know my students better. Detailed rubrics for assessments provide the "compass" for students in preparing their assignments and for me in critiquing their work.

Besides rubric development, assessment has broadened the scope of competencies included in my courses. For example, for years, I assumed that students could critique the results section of an article after completing my introductory statistics course. Finally, I assessed whether they could and found that they could not. I now have added this task as an assignment. Students struggle with the assignment but frequently comment that it was one of the most valuable elements of the course.

When I am learning material, I am attuned to my own struggles and use them to inform my planning of instruction. I vary instructional approaches within a class period to sustain and maintain attention. When I present complicated material, I parse (chunk) the material carefully, organize it clearly, and present it slowly when teaching it.

Arrogance is a teacher's enemy. It insulates teachers from the evaluation of others and blinds them to the good teaching ideas of others. In 1993, the ESU student government began encouraging faculty to implement student input teams (SIT) of three randomly selected students in a course. In the absence of the professor but during class, SIT members ask the class once a semester to answer anonymously three questions on a piece of paper: what are your concerns about the course, what do you like about the course, and what are your suggestions for improving the course. SIT members organize the answers into themes and then meet with the professor to discuss them. The goal is to improve the course during the semester, which is not possible with traditional end-of-semester course evaluations. With considerable trepidation, I tried this approach12 years ago, expecting a considerable amount of griping, moaning, and complaining. Instead, I received one good suggestion after another for improving the course. Accessing my students' perspectives this way has dramatically increased the quality of all of my courses. For over a decade now, I have not taught a course without using a SIT.

My department now has implemented peer review of teaching, in which faculty observe each other teaching in the classroom and prepare a brief report for the faculty member. I now welcome the feedback from fellow teachers observing my teaching, where two decades ago I would not have so responded.

I am appreciative of Teaching of Psychology and the many teaching activities handbooks for their articles on improving my teaching and my students' learning. Through PsychTeacher, Psych-News, and teaching and other professional conferences, I have met many teachers who generously share their ideas.

I derive much satisfaction from teaching. To teach well, I must learn well, a wonderful reward for teaching. Seeing students prosper is equally rewarding. Sharing teaching ideas with excellent teachers and savoring being taught by an excellent teacher advance the quest for teaching excellence.

Advice for New Teachers

It is not a given that one's levels of enthusiasm, passion, commitment, energy, and curiosity will remain high over the course of a career. What does one need to do now in order to sustain the zest for teaching 25 years from now? Here are my top five recommendations:

1. Consider the classroom as a laboratory and try new strategies, techniques, and interventions. You change and so do your students. This approach will keep your teaching fresh and innovative. Two themes I am now working to infuse into all of my courses are inspiring students and promoting leadership.
   
2. Take good care of yourself. Sustained quality teaching and learning requires energy, motivation, and self-discipline. Exercising and eating properly maintain energy and health. Doing fun things and enjoying family and friends sustain emotional health. Do not shy away from spiritual issues.
   
3. Establish high expectations for your students and then provide them the support to meet those expectations.
   
4. Find a peer with whom you can talk teaching and do so regularly.
   
5. Read books and journals and attend conferences and workshops to stay abreast of advances in the knowledge of the field and in teaching that knowledge.

If a teacher expects students to be intellectually curious, then the teacher must model such curiosity. How does one convey to students a sense of wonderment? Here is what I have found works well for me: reading widely and sharing aspects of the readings with students, having a variety of interests and incorporating them with the instruction, traveling to different cultures and enlarging one's world view, and suggesting to students opportunities for personal growth.

Final Thoughts

The status of the quest for teaching excellence is determined by what students know and do and how they conduct themselves professionally. I can spend hours carefully crafting a lecture and deliver it with style and fervor, but if the students are not learning, then my efforts are not appropriate for meeting the course outcomes. On the other hand, if the course outcomes are easily met, where is the rigor? Good teaching articulates rigorous outcomes, presents content in a variety of ways, engages students to work with the content, and assesses them carefully to ensure that the outcomes have been met.

The quest for teaching excellence never ends. At any time or place along the journey, students bring new challenges, knowledge continues to expand, society changes, the teacher matures. Teaching excellence must be achieved student by student, course by course, semester by semester. Even the best assessments provide teachers with only a glimpse of the scope of the effect they have had on their students. Thus, good teachers work diligently to have confidence in their instructional competence.

References

Baddeley, A. D., & Hitch, G. (1974). Working memory. In G. Bower (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation (Vol. 8, pp. 47-90). New York: Academic Press.

Bloom, B.S. (Ed.). (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals: Handbook I, Cognitive domain. New York: Longmans, Green

Bower, G. H. (1981). Mood and memory. American Psychologist, 36, 129-148.

Craik, F. I. M., & Lockhart, R. S. (1972). Levels of processing: A framework for memory research. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 11, 671-684.

Eich, J. E. (1980). The cue-dependent nature of state-dependent retention. Memory and Cognition, 8, 157-173.

Goodrich, S., & Weaver, K. A. (1998). A comparison of depressive symptoms between traditional and shift workers. Psychological Reports, 83, 571-576.

Huffman, C. M., & Weaver, K. A. (1996). Autobiographical recall and visual imagery. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 82, 1027-1034.

Huss, M. T., & Weaver, K. A. (1996). Effect of modality in earwitness identification: Memory for verbal and nonverbal auditory stimuli in two contexts. Journal of General Psychology, 123, 277-287.

Lindsay, P. H., & Norman, D. A. (1972). Human information processing: An introduction to psychology. New York: Academic Press.

Loftus, E. F., & Palmer, J. C. (1974). Reconstruction of automobile destruction: An example of the interaction between language and memory. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 13, 585-589.

Paivio, A. (1971). Imagery and verbal processes. New York: Holt.

Piaget, J. (1930). The child's conception of physical causality. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Slamecka, N. J., & Graf, P. (1978). The generation effect: Delineation of a phenomenon. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory, 4, 592-604.

Smith, S. M., Glenberg, A., & Bjork, R. A. (1978). Environmental context and human memory. Memory & Cognition, 6, 342-353.

Tulving, E. (1972). Episodic and semantic memory. In E. Tulving & W. Donaldson (Eds.), Organization of memory. (pp. 381-403). New York: Academic Press.

Tulving, E., & Thomson, D. M. (1973). Encoding specificity and retrieval processes in episodic memory. Psychological Review, 80, 352-272.

Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1973). Availability: A heuristic for judging frequency and probability. Cognitive Psychology, 5, 207-232.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind and society: The development of higher mental processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Walters, S. O., & Weaver, K. A. (2003). Relationships between the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Third Edition. Psychological Reports, 92, 1111-1115.

Wann, D. L., & Weaver, K. A. (1993). The relationship between interaction levels and impression formation. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 31, 548-550.

Weaver, K. A., & McNeill, A. N. (1992). Null effect of mood as a semantic prime. Journal of General Psychology, 119, 295-301.

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

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